UMVA has learned that a 20‑year‑old visionary, Kane Parsons, has turned a viral YouTube experiment into a cinematic nightmare that now casts two Oscar‑nominated stars.
At just sixteen, Parsons uploaded a nine‑minute found‑footage horror, “The Backrooms,” that spiraled into a global obsession, amassing 78 million views and catching the eye of an indie studio that would later greenlight a feature adaptation.
Now, the film follows Clark, a failed architect who, after a painful divorce, stumbles into a glowing light that opens a door to an endless maze of yellow rooms. His descent into the labyrinth becomes an obsession that forces his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline, to confront her own doubts and follow him into the heart of the madness.
Parsons admits the concept was born from a 2019 internet image, but he twisted it into a haunting experience, layering the relentless hum of fluorescent lights with echoes of psychological drama and surreal horror that feel like a baptism of modern dread.
The production built more than 30,000 square feet of the Backrooms on set, creating a physical labyrinth that even the cast lost their way in. Half‑sunken office furniture, piles of forgotten clothes, a dead seagull, and miniature doors all lurk in the dim glow, turning every corner into a potential terror.
Parsons’ narrative is sparse, yet the film’s power lies in its ambiguity: are the rooms a metaphor for trapped trauma, a loop of habitual thinking, or a literal neural network gone awry? The lack of explicit answers heightens the film’s unsettling pull.
Jump scares and tense silence punctuate the experience, but the true horror emerges from the realization that what feels like a simple maze is actually a psychological trap that refuses to release its victims.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that the film premiered in UK cinemas on May 29, leaving audiences both bewildered and deeply unsettled, as if the story had seeped into their own subconscious.
