A24 finally venturing into The Backrooms this summer

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve will now lead the internet-adjacent horror film.

By Emma Keates | June 11, 2025 | 12:38pm

Screenshot: Kane Pixels/YouTube

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A24 finally venturing into The Backrooms this summer

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For a while, A24’s Backrooms movie was stuck in a liminal space of its own. Announced back in 2023, the creepypasta-inspired film lingered in development hell for years, with only a mild update last month that Chiwetel Ejiofor and Cristin Milioti might get stuck in its internet-favorite drab yellow spaces. Part of the delay may have been due to the fact that the film’s director, Kane Parsons, was a literal child when it was announced. Parsons dreamed up the latest iteration of the Backrooms phenomenon—originally posted as a grainy image on 4chan in 2019—as a YouTube series titled “The Backrooms (Found Footage)” in 2022. In it, he used a number of clever VFX tricks (we think… maybe he actually did discover an alternate dimension) to capture the monster-infested world of the urban legend.

This week, the studio officially greenlit the film. Parsons, now 19, is still on board. It may not be his “summer vacation” project anymore—which is a real, actual note included in the film’s original press release—but he’ll still become the youngest director in A24’s history. Ejiofor (The Life of Chuck) will now officially lead the film, while Milioti has managed to narrowly escape an eternity in the liminal universe. She’ll be replaced by Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) as Ejiofor’s co-lead. The film is set to go into production this summer.

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Parsons may be young, but he’ll be supported by some real titans of the genre. James Wan and Michael Clear are on board as producers for Atomic Monster, as well as Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen and Dan Levine for 21 Laps Entertainment, Chris Ferguson for Oddfellows Pictures, and Chris White for Chernin Entertainment (part of The North Road Company), with A24 co-financing. Malls and parking garages may want to start padlocking their creepy tunnels now, because everyone’s going to want in whenever this comes out.