Alternate Spaces

The Backrooms are 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 concept began with an anonymous interpretation of a photo showing a large, empty room with an uncomfortable yellow atmosphere. The photo was taken in 2002 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, at a former furniture store while the new tenant was renovating the site, and had been posted on the store's blog. The photo's origin had been widely unknown until it was discovered in 2024. Internet writers have expanded on the concept, introducing "levels" with distinct characteristics and hostile "entities" which roam these spaces. Fans have adapted both the classic and expanded settings into video games and short films. In early 2022, American YouTuber Kane Parsons published a Backrooms short film on YouTube, which ultimately grew into a 25-episode web series disconnected from the Internet lore. These 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.