The original photo that inspired the Backrooms creepypasta and memes
4chan
A24’s upcoming horror film, Backrooms, is inspired by an urban legend, sparked by a creepy image posted online.
The first teaser promises an unsettling descent into the nightmare brought to life by the internet—but what exactly are the Backrooms?
What Are The Backrooms, Exactly?
The Backrooms are an endless maze of empty rooms that resemble an office or storage space, illuminated by harsh, fluorescent light and decorated from floor to ceiling in sickly yellow.
There is no location for the Backrooms—it’s a kind of purgatory that exists outside of space and time, accessed by “no-clipping” through the floor or wall, as though reality contains glitchy, unstable corners, like a video game.
Anyone can fall in, and find themselves trapped, unable to escape.
The space is devoid of human life, but inhabited by unseen entities that give the unfortunate visitor the feeling that they are being watched, or followed.
The Backrooms contains familiar echoes, such as the impossible labyrinth of Greek myth which imprisoned the Minotaur, or the otherworldly, infinite spaces found in fairy tales.
The fact that the Backrooms resemble the most glaringly artificial, soulless locations of the modern world seems significant—we’ve all encountered mundane spaces that resemble the Backrooms.
Where Did The Backrooms Come From?
Like many of the most popular memes, the concept first emerged from 4chan. The original photo was taken during the renovation of a HobbyTown store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and posted on a blog in 2003.
In 2011, the image made its way to 4chan, viewed as an oddly unsettling image and nothing more.
In 2019, an unknown 4chan user wrote an eerie description for the Backrooms image, unknowingly creating one of the internet’s most enduring urban legends.
The Backrooms unlocked something in the collective imagination the moment it was first posted, sparking a community storytelling effort by extremely online horror fans.
The original Backrooms community fleshed out lore descriptions in short posts (creepypastas), the concept slowly becoming more widely known, with writers adding layers of complexity and an ecosystem of monsters.
Some fans view the additions as somewhat detrimental to the impact of the original idea, in which isolation was integral to the horror (although, the idea of entities inhabiting the Backrooms was there from the beginning).
Online, the Backrooms is practically a genre, the foundation of multiple horror stories, YouTube and TikTok videos, video games (particularly on Roblox)—its influence can even be seen in popular TV series, such as Severance and The Amazing Digital Circus.
The Backrooms also appears to have branched off, seemingly inspiring the Liminal Spaces trend and TikTok’s Mall World phenomenon.
A24 Takes On The Backrooms
With the incoming A24 feature film, the Backrooms is about to enter mainstream pop culture.
This isn’t the first time that digital folklore has made its way to the big screen (Slender Man inspired a horror film in 2018), but A24’s Backrooms adaptation might prove more impactful.
Backrooms is directed by Kane Parsons, known as “Kane Pixels” on YouTube.
Parsons’ involvement is significant—he’s the creator of an immensely popular and well-crafted YouTube series which explores the Backrooms via atmospheric, first-person videos, helping to popularize the concept.
If Parson’s feature debut is a success, we’re likely to see more ideas and talent plucked from the digital landscape, making their way to the big screen.
A24’s Backrooms is set to be released on May 29th, 2026.
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2026/02/26/heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-backrooms/
