Kane Parsons's 'Backrooms' and the Death of Liminal Space

Kane Parsons's directorial debut 'Backrooms' (2026) has grossed $118 million, but critic Lewis Gordon questions whether it represents 'prestige slop'. The film adapts an internet-born urban myth that began with a 2010s photo of a yellow-walled room, later posted on 4chan in 2019 with a caption about 'noclipping out of reality'. Parsons, a 20-year-old YouTube wunderkind, streamlined the collectively authored lore into a single vision, creating 24 found-footage short films using Blender and Adobe After Effects. The aesthetic—easily replicated with digital tools—spawned numerous games like 'Escape the Backrooms' (2022), 'Pools' (2024), 'Dreamcore' (2025), and 'Subliminal' (2026). Gordon argues the liminal space trope, once resonant during COVID-19, now feels dated amid layoffs, gig work, and AI threats. The film's protagonist Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) embodies avoidance, preferring the Backrooms to real-world problems. Gordon contrasts this with 'Exit 8' (2026), where a protagonist trapped in a Tokyo subway wears noise-cancelling earbuds, blocking out reality. Both works, he suggests, are delaying tactics against change.