The Backrooms (original short story) Add a review

The Backrooms is a fictional location invented in a 2019 thread on the imageboard website 4chan. The Backrooms are usually portrayed as an impossibly large extradimensional complex of empty rooms, accessed by exiting reality. They are one of the best-known examples of the liminal space aesthetic and the creepypasta genre.

The idea started with an anonymous interpretation of a photo showing a large, empty room with an uncomfortable yellow atmosphere. The photo was taken in 2002 at the former site of an Oshkosh, Wisconsin, furniture store while the new tenant was renovating, and had been posted on the store's blog. The photo's origin had been lost until it was investigated in 2024.

Internet writers have expanded on the concept, introducing concepts such as "levels" – interconnected layers of Backrooms with different appearances – and "entities", the hostile creatures that roam these spaces. Fans have adapted both the classical and expanded settings into indie video games and short films. In early 2022, American YouTuber Kane Parsons published the first installment of his series of Backrooms short films on YouTube, ultimately amounting to a web series of 25 episodes. The viral videos have been credited with igniting a surge in Backrooms content and taking the concept into the mainstream. Parsons directed a film adaptation of his series produced by A24, which was released in May 2026.