Warning: Mild spoilers inside.

Great horror films often play upon our fears of venturing into the unknown. Whether it’s the trepidation of going back in the water after a shark attack in Jaws, the shadowy threats in the woods in The Blair Witch Project, or the unoccupied corridors of a hotel in The Shining.

Backrooms, 2026’s runaway summer horror hit, plays on a new type of fear: liminal spaces. The concept leapt into public consciousness in 2019 after a creepy 4Chan post about an empty room in a Wisconsin building that just felt “off.” The post perfectly exposed a fear many have but didn’t know how to express.

Backrooms follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a failed architect turned furniture-store owner, who drinks too much and was kicked out of his home by his wife. Clark seeks help coping with his failed relationship by seeing Mary (Renate Reinsve), a therapist struggling with her traumatic upbringing. Clark eventually discovers his furniture store is a gateway to an extradimensional........

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