Backrooms premieres in Los Angeles

A24 just gave Backrooms its Los Angeles world premiere, and the interesting part is not just that the movie finally screened — it’s that the screening turned a very online horror object into a real-world theatrical event. The premiere happened May 7 at the Aero Theatre in Los Angeles, with director Kane Parsons and cast members Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Lukita Maxwell, and Finn Bennett there for a Q&A. (americancinematheque.com) The movie opens nationwide on May 29, so this was the first real test of whether the internet hype could survive contact with an audience in a room. So far, turns out, it can. ### What premiered in Los Angeles? (a24films.com) Backrooms screened as a one-night event at the Aero Theatre, co-presented with Beyond Fest, and American Cinematheque listed it as the film’s world premiere. That matters because this was not a quiet press show — it was staged like an arrival, complete with filmmaker-and-cast Q&A and a crowd primed to treat it like a horror happening. ### Why is this movie such a thing? Because Backrooms was already famous before it was a movie. Kane Parsons built the idea into a viral YouTube horror universe while still a teenager, and that series had piled up roughly 190 million views by the time the feature rollout kicked in. (americancinematheque.com) A24 is not launching an unknown original here — it’s betting that a creepypasta-native audience will actually buy tickets. ### Who is Kane Parsons in this story? He’s the whole hinge. Parsons is 20 now, and when Backrooms opens on May 29 he becomes A24’s youngest feature director. The studio appeal is obvious — he isn’t an outsider hired to imitate internet horror, he’s the person who made this version of internet horror feel cinematic in the first place. (americancinematheque.com) ### What is the movie actually about? The feature shifts the premise toward character-driven studio horror. A24’s synopsis says a strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom, and the broader setup centers on a therapist, played by Renate Reinsve, searching for a missing patient, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, inside that impossible dimension. (deadline.com) Basically, it keeps the liminal-space dread but gives the audience people to follow. ### What did people react to first? Not giant lore dumps or franchise teases. Early reactions focused on mood, tension, and how minimal the horror feels. One of the clearest notes out of the first wave was that Parsons treats the setup as “a hallway, a door” kind of horror — very spare, very controlled, very dependent on atmosphere instead of explanation. (hollywoodreporter.com) That’s a good sign for a property that could easily have collapsed into fan-service sludge. ### Why does the set matter so much? Because Backrooms lives or dies on space. Parsons said the team built 30,000 square feet of practical backrooms and even did 50 wallpaper tests to get the yellow just right. (a24films.com) That sounds obsessive, but that obsession is the product. The whole fear of Backrooms is that the place feels wrong in tiny ways — like a dream that got built by a facilities department. ### Is this just a premiere story, or a business story too? It’s both. Deadline’s early tracking has Backrooms heading toward a possible $20 million opening weekend, which would be huge for a movie reported to cost under $10 million. (slashfilm.com) So the LA premiere wasn’t just a red-carpet checkpoint — it was the front edge of a theatrical bet that viral horror can scale. ### Bottom line? The Los Angeles premiere did what A24 needed it to do. It turned Backrooms from a meme-born curiosity into a movie people are now talking about as a real summer horror release — and maybe Kane Parsons’ breakout. (americancinematheque.com) (deadline.com) (hollywoodreporter.com)