20 Incredible Modern Horror Movies That Came Out Of NOWHERE

Hollywood is brimming with tales of remarkably young filmmakers knocking it out of the park and being skyrocketed to stardom with their debut efforts. The textbook case of that is probably still Orson Welles and 1941’s Citizen Kane.

Although Kane “Pixels” Parsons’ Backrooms isn’t exactly the Citizen Kane of the horror world, it’s nonetheless an astoundingly self-assured, contemplative, eerie, and multilayered accomplishment given that he made it when he was only 20 years old.

Adapted from Parson’s beloved sci-fi analog horror web series and the original creepypasta, it chronicles moody furniture store owner Clark and his therapist, Mary, as they and some side characters contend with the titular liminal space. There are also vague implications about the Backrooms’ function and purpose coinciding with the involvement of scientists from the Async Research Institute.

The central performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve as Clark and Mary – respectively – are predictably outstanding, and Parsons' camerawork, sets, creature design, and the like fully capitalize on the fascinatingly distressing and incomprehensible mythology viewers already adore.

The movie truly becomes special when it explores the relatable complicatedness of its characters, with everything from alcoholism and a broken marriage to failed ambitions and childhood trauma brewing beneath or on top of the dread and dangers of the Backrooms itself.

Backrooms didn’t have to use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as subtext for its otherworldly scarefest, but it does, and it’s all the better for it.