A24 Backrooms Movie

“Backrooms” is the first full-feature film to be based around the Backrooms concept,

Rating/Classification: R (USA)
Running Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Production Companies: A24, North Road Films/Chernin Entertainment, Atomic Monster, 21 Laps Entertainment, Phobos, Async Pictures (listed during filming only)
Budget: $9M – $15M CAD (approx $6.5M -$11M USD)

Announcement

On February 6, 2023, industry website Deadline Hollywood announced that A24 would be developing a film adaption of Kane Parson’s Backrooms series^[1]. The film would be a joint production between A24, Chernin Entertainment, Atomic Monster and 21 Laps Entertainment.. It would be directed by Kane Parsons and written by Robert Patino. James Wan and Shawn Levy would be the executive producers, while the film would be financed by A24.

According to the article, A24 was not the only company who was interested in a movie adaptation of The Backrooms after the initial video in the series had gone viral the year before.

Fans were beyond excited by this announcement. Kane’s series was beloved for its refreshing sci-fi take on the Backrooms concept, and to have that story come to the silver screen sounded like a dream come true. However, some fans were more skeptical of this announcement, believing that Kane’s Backrooms worked better as a series than a film, and expressed concern over Kane handing off his story to a major studio that could potentially change aspects of Kane’s beloved story to fit a general audience.

That same day, Kane would hold a Q&A in his Discord server where he spoke with fans about the movie announcement. He affirmed fans that A24 would provide Kane with lots of creative control over the project, and indicated that the initial plan for the film was for it to be an Async-centric feature set around a year after the events of the YouTube series.

Delays

As Kane was in his final year of high school at the time the movie was announced, the initial Deadline article joked that film production would not begin until Kane was on his Summer vacation. This was taken literally by other sources, when in fact, Kane stated that was merely just a joke and was not an actual concern with production. Despite that, however, the movie’s pre-production process would drag on for nearly two years.

In early May of 2023, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike began and would result in many major film productions halting production, including Backrooms. While this would give Kane more time to work on his ambitious third installment of his new series The Oldest View, it also meant the movie production wouldn’t advance any further for at least a good while. However, in August of 2023, Kane would report in his Discord server that “In other news, the Backrooms film is still in good health despite the strikes” and that “everyone is eager to enter production”, which was a great sign for the film despite the pause on production.

In late September, the WGA strike would officially conclude, allowing Backrooms to finally resume pre-production. As fans eagerly anticipated more news, Kane would share in late December that he was of the belief that production would officially begin in 2024. In the early months of 2024, a movie greenlight was brought up by Kane, reporting that the team was “fighting like hell to get Backrooms greenlit”. Yet, as fans eagerly awaited confirmation from Kane that the film had been greenlit, weeks would turn into months without any updates on the film, leaving fans concerned about the state of the project. Kane would eventually confirm that while the film was not greenlit, it was also not canceled.

In the Summer months, fans would get bits of information about the film. Kane would mention that over the months, the project had been shifting around, including suggesting that Roberto Patino would no longer be the lead writer for the film’s script but was still on as a producer. He also made it clear that the film would no longer be about Async, as it just “didn’t click” in their previous attempts. However, he also clarified that they could still be involved in some way. Some fans worried that a non-Async Backrooms film could make the movie feel like a walking simulator, to which Kane responded, “only if that’s the way its written.”

As more months passed, Backrooms fans began to wonder if the movie would ever see the light of day, with memes and comparisons being made to Grand Theft Auto 6. Fans would joke that Grand Theft Auto 6 would come out before the Backrooms movie (the release of GTA6 had for many years become a joke itself with the game undergoing many delays).

Greenlight and Actor Announcements

In March 2025, Kane would hint at the film finally having been quietly greenlit by A24, stating that “I”m not saying it’s greenlit. But I’m not saying it’s not greenlit…” This would be followed up a few days later with another message from Kane sharing that the crew was partially assembled and the team was looking to secure space for set construction, confirming the film’s first steps into the Production phase.

On May 20, 2025 the first media mention of the movie since the initial announcement was again by Deadline Hollywood – an article announced that Chiwetel Ejiofor and Cristin Milioti would be starring in the film^[2].

However, a couple of weeks later on June 11, Deadline Hollywood posted an article that Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve had made a deal with A24 to star in the film alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor^[3], taking the role of the female lead Milioti was initially expected to play . The same day, website IndieWire announced that the film had been Greenlit by A24 making Kane Parsons the youngest director to have worked with A24^[4].

Just after filming began, four more actor announcements were made – Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell and Avan Jogia^[5].

Production

Filming for Backrooms would begin on July 7, 2025 in Vancouver, Canada under the production-title of “Effigy”. Filming would eventually wrap on August 14, 2025, taking 40 days to complete.

Kane Parsons would continue to be involved directly with the post-production, providing occasional updates on his Discord server. In February 2026, he mentioned that he had been working 18 hour days^[6].