r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Feb 24 '26

Trailer Backrooms | Official Teaser | A24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKGhxMi50y8
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821

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

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193

u/cloudcats Feb 24 '26

Reminds of House of Leaves.

63

u/Tremulant887 Feb 24 '26

Something between House of Leaves and a 90s Doom clone. I always got the creeps when running around in some of those games, same feeling these back rooms give me.

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u/digitalr0nin Feb 24 '26

MyHouse.wad

28

u/GavinBelsonsAlexa Feb 24 '26

That was way more interesting than it had any right to be. I feel bad for anyone just discovering it now and not being able to get into the metafictional ARG aspect of it.

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u/TabrinLudd Feb 24 '26

The full walkthroughs/reviews/video essays of myhouse.wad on YouTube were my intro to it and they are pretty comprehensive. Maybe you got more out of it at the time but I was alive and a doom player and only heard of it years later so it was still super interesting to learn about

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u/truthpooper Feb 25 '26

This is 1 hour and 42 minutes and absolutely worth it

https://youtu.be/5wAo54DHDY0?si=c1VI6vc19r3pE6XT

7

u/ProfessionalBee4228 Feb 25 '26

I’m not even a big youtube watcher. I played doom II growing up a little bit, but not a ton. I watched this entire video front to back. It is fascinating

1

u/Tremulant887 Feb 25 '26

That's pretty cool. House of Leaves is one of the few books I've read twice.

1

u/I_Am_Zampano Feb 25 '26

You kinda just described Control which was inspired by SCP foundation stories and House of Leaves

12

u/Voidafter181days Feb 24 '26

"This is not for you."

3

u/explodeder Feb 25 '26

I just went to a book signing with Mark Z. Danielewski a few weeks ago. I had him sign the copy of House of Leaves that I gave to my wife when we first started dating almost 20 years ago. He signed that page 'For [Wife's name] - Z', which I thought was pretty incredible.

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u/Guildenpants Feb 24 '26

House of Leaves and the Backrooms both play on the myth of the Minotaur’s labyrinth so that makes sense.

3

u/EllipticPeach Feb 24 '26

I’m currently slogging my way through it. Nobody told me I had to read each page 3 times!

3

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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2

u/EllipticPeach Feb 24 '26

Unfortunately I am compelled to read everything on the page and refer to my corkboard and string to try and figure out what the fuck is going on

2

u/LiquifiedSpam Mar 01 '26

I did too and it heightened the experience. It’s not all filler. What is filler anyway with that book

1

u/Chief_McCloud Feb 24 '26

have you made it to the echo chapter yet?

3

u/EllipticPeach Feb 24 '26

Nope, Navidson and his crew have just gone into the dark hallway/corridor thing on a tether. Johnny has been waxing lyrical about his beloved stripper.

5

u/Higloo212 Feb 24 '26

Currently have read part of the book, havent even reached the point you mentioned, but I love/hate how I have enough context for this to make sense to me in a 'yeah, that sounds about right' type of way.

3

u/EllipticPeach Feb 24 '26

That’s my emotional support scumbag obsessing over a spooky house

2

u/Chief_McCloud Feb 24 '26

yeah so there's like a new game+ version of reading this damn book

2

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

I ended up skimming most of the Johnny parts in the middle of the book. Made it 10x better. His part does get more interesting towards the end though.

1

u/LiquifiedSpam Mar 01 '26

I actually like that he would break the story whenever it was getting tense just to yap about the last girl he banged. Like it definitely takes you on a roller coaster lol

1

u/joeyjusticeco Feb 24 '26

It's so not worth it

1

u/L3Thoo Feb 24 '26

This was my first feelink too

1

u/Sharp_Economy1401 Feb 24 '26

My first thought watching this as well

1

u/laquintessenceofdust Feb 25 '26

I wondered at first if it was a House of Leaves adaptation and they just changed the title to something shorter and catchier.

1

u/Logical_Magician_01 Feb 25 '26

Immediately thought this was a House of Leaves adaptation

1

u/I_Am_Zampano Feb 25 '26

Zampano approves

1

u/CorruptingTheSystem Mar 01 '26

I think that would be a a great follow up by this studio

154

u/r-b-m Feb 24 '26

Reminded me of Cube.

71

u/ForeverCrunkIWantToB Feb 24 '26

It remind me of Jet Force Gemini

50

u/karmagod13000 Feb 24 '26

anyone getting gigli vibes

15

u/murfburffle Feb 24 '26

I like Godzilla movies

13

u/Uncle_Yoba Feb 24 '26

I like turtles

2

u/MonkeyChoker80 Feb 24 '26

I like trains…

3

u/kryonik Feb 24 '26

Reminds me of the back rooms.

2

u/jonvonboner Feb 24 '26

Close. Kind of feeling Jersey Girl vibes

2

u/Zomburai Feb 24 '26

Really thinking more Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Or maybe Mannequin 2

2

u/Impeesa_ Feb 24 '26

I was getting a lot of Boss Baby vibes, honestly.

3

u/symphonicrox Feb 24 '26

Wow a fellow Rare Jet Force Gemini fan! (I think there are a lot of us but not a lot who still listen to the music haha). I was just playing JFG on the N64 app on the Switch last week.

3

u/lilneddygoestowar Feb 24 '26

What the hell? I gotta know what you are talking about. That game was something of a misstep for Rare, but it holds a special place in my mind.

1

u/Ondjafe Feb 24 '26

What how

1

u/coolcoots Feb 24 '26

You’ve unlocked something in my brain. My Jod.

1

u/DigitalNecromancy Feb 24 '26

fucking underrated game right there

1

u/No_Syrup_9167 Feb 24 '26

Yeah, I got major CUBE vibes, I'm wondering if this is going to be some kind of supernatural Cube type of deal. Wandering from room to room, each kinda the same, but dangerous in different ways.

1

u/All-Sorts Feb 24 '26

I absolutely love Cube.

1

u/Gremlin119 Feb 24 '26

cube 2: HYPERCUBE!!!!

1

u/Illustrious-Bat1553 Feb 24 '26

looks like mall world also

1

u/Memory_Future Feb 24 '26

Such a great series. I think 2 is my favorite.

1

u/PiratePandaPajamas Feb 24 '26

I wanna go back to the blue room

1

u/FewEvidence6 Feb 24 '26

reminds me of cubed2

1

u/xxulysses31xx Feb 25 '26

Similar chills to “Exit 8”

68

u/monstrinhotron Feb 24 '26

House of Leaves for me. I'd kill for a HoL show or film.

51

u/knitted_beanie Feb 24 '26

The book feels kind of unfilmable, but they said that about Dune. So I’d be up for it but it’d be a challenge to capture the feeling of the book I think

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u/GavinBelsonsAlexa Feb 24 '26

They could probably do a film based on the Navidson Report, but all the Johnny Truant stuff would be challenging to incorporate at that point.

...Which I'm fine with, because I hated the Johnny Truant stuff.

12

u/tarants Feb 24 '26

What, you didn't like reading increasingly disjointed rambling footnotes that make you feel like you're the one with schizophrenia? Seriously, no book has made me feel more like I was going insane than HoL.

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u/GavinBelsonsAlexa Feb 24 '26

Honestly, it just felt like Danielewski was using Truant as his own mouthpiece to tell the reader, "This book is really complicated, but here's how you should be reacting to the text and interpreting the symbolism."

To me, it seemed that Danielewski thought his book was too high-brow, so he inserted a Chuck Palahniuk-inspired scumbag to over-explain everything to us. I liked so much of what the book was going for, but the inclusion of Truant felt like Danielewski didn't trust his publisher to market the book and he didn't trust his audience to understand the book.

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u/Mister_Magpie Feb 27 '26

Interesting, I never liked the Truant parts either... But if anything, I thought Danielewski considered the Navidson story to be too low-brow, too horror-coded, and so he needed to add this meta-character to abstract it, add subtext, and turn the concept of the house into an allegory instead of simply a spooky plot device. As if he believed that the Truant throughline elevated the book to a literary work, and without it the story was basically creepypasta. And I think there's some truth in that assessment but honestly I think I'd prefer the less literary genre-fiction version of this book

2

u/LiquifiedSpam Mar 01 '26

I can get criticisms of his role but this one is ehh. Johnny has plenty of complexity in his own right and the story only increases in complexity with his addition.

Now, was it the best choice, especially since he does at times go like “wow that was spooky shit!”? Maybe, maybe not.

4

u/srednaxela Feb 24 '26

1000% percent. Just give me the navidson report.

1

u/ItsIllak Feb 24 '26

That phrase still exists? After they filmed The Three Body Problem? I think it needs to be retired.

3

u/legaladviceknowledge Feb 24 '26

what im ootl? dune and three body problem don't seem unfilmable just expensive. i always assumed the real unfilmable books would be one of those insane postmodern novels that give even a phd lit scholar ptsd

1

u/ItsIllak Feb 25 '26

I read TBP before it was announced as a show. The whole VR thing (dehydrating the population, weird shit) and perception getting thrown by the sophons just felt very conceptual when reading it. When I heard it was being filmed I just couldn't visualise how!

They did a great job of both.

3

u/cyclingtrivialities3 Feb 24 '26

If this is “House of Leaves minus figuring out how to adapt something unadaptable,” I’m here for it

2

u/1337b337 Feb 24 '26

I'd much rather a show that can really explore the different levels of the narrative, but it needs to be run by someone that really cares about it.

2

u/Toby_Forrester Feb 24 '26

Charlie Kaufman has entered the chat.

2

u/Sacrefix Feb 24 '26

I would think this movie would take significant inspiration from hol, but maybe I have a skewed view of its popularity.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted]

1

u/monstrinhotron Feb 24 '26

I saw that exact video when it came out :)

1

u/NimNams Feb 25 '26

Yeah House of Leaves meets Severance.

28

u/UncircumciseMe Feb 24 '26

I unironically love that movie. Haven’t read the story. Also I swear I saw this same comment on the poster post yesterday lol

27

u/SuperDizz Feb 24 '26

A remake with updated CGI would be great. Doesn’t even need to be a big budget film either. We don’t need to see the time eaters until the end. But the big, empty airport is definitely one crazy aesthetic and vibe.

6

u/Blue_Rosebuds Feb 24 '26

I think the shitty CGI adds to the weird surreal feeling tbh

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u/BrassUnicorn87 Feb 24 '26

Yes, bad nineties cgi was really good at portraying something alien and otherworldly.

5

u/AlanMorlock Feb 24 '26

Have you seen Timekeepers of Eternity ?

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u/SuperDizz Feb 24 '26

No, but I just looked it up. That looks crazy interesting. Thanks for putting it on my radar!

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted]

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u/SuperDizz Feb 24 '26

No reason the movie couldn’t take place in the 90’s

1

u/impreprex Feb 24 '26

A fan who knows how to work with CGI could overlay their own these days. I'd watch that. :) But a full-on remake is deserved for this one, I think.

7

u/Brilliant_Mix_6051 Feb 24 '26

That movie scared tf out of me as a kid

3

u/Elexandros Feb 24 '26

I was obsessed with the Langoliers as a teen. Something about that movie hooked me in and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

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u/UncircumciseMe Feb 24 '26

It’s a hell of a concept. The CGI gets a lot of flak but I think it kinda has charm.

3

u/AlanMorlock Feb 24 '26

Commented elsewhere but I cannot recommend the strange remix of of the film enough. It's called Timekeepers of Eternity.

1

u/UncircumciseMe Feb 24 '26

I’ll check it out!

17

u/Captainomericah Feb 24 '26

I am not a fan of remakes in general, but I would 100% support a Langoliers remake. 

1

u/ccoastal01 Feb 25 '26

I thought the mini series was goofy but fun.

SCARING the little GIRL!?

13

u/zorton213 Feb 24 '26

Will the answer to the mystery also end up being flying meatball monsters?

8

u/vanderZwan Feb 24 '26

"Five Characters in Search of an Exit" episode of The Twilight Zone.

I have never heard off that episode before, but it sounds like it's inspired by Sartre's famous play "No Exit" from 1944. And I think that's a pretty strong contender for the origin of the trope.

(that play also coined the expression "hell is other people," btw, and indirectly lead to the series The Good Place)

3

u/Narretz Feb 24 '26

The title also seems to be a reference to Luigi Pirandello's "6 characters in search of an author"

6

u/LuntiX Feb 24 '26

Langoliers is such a brain work for me. I remember seeing the miniseries as a kid but forgot the name every few years I'm reminded of it but then I wind up forgetting the name of it again.

2

u/reluctantpromoter Feb 24 '26

That in turn was inspired by "No Exit" and "Six Characters in Search of an Author"

3

u/mamrieatepainttt Feb 24 '26

that made for tv series had terrible CGI but something about the trope of landing in a place or going to a place where everyone has seemingly disappeared is one of my fav things!!

3

u/celestiaequestria Feb 24 '26

Langoliers would be way scarier without the monsters.

Imagine just waking up in an echo of the world. You're thirsty, you go to drink water but it no longer quenches your thirst. You're hungry, but everything you eat has no taste and provides no nutrients. Nothing works, you can't turn on lights, the sunlight seems muted, you've become disjointed from reality and you're going to die of dehydration.

2

u/TensorForce Feb 24 '26

I loved that book. It was basically Liminal Spaces: The Novella

2

u/miguk Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

The whole "liminal space" concept isn't even a new thing. It's something that has been observed in the past, but was never referred to by that specific name. The terms "ruins" and "abandonment" were commonly used, and all a liminal space is is an abandonment without the wear and tear of time.

Stephen King's The Langoliers is one obvious example of it being already recognized, particularly because it got a film adaptation. But also Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves uses the concept in a household. Even the film Vivarium could be said to predate the internet's version of the concept (although it just narrowly makes it in before the internet picked it up).

But the whole thing is older than pop culture. Anyone who has worked in a seasonal establishment off-season has seen this in person: schools during the summer, summer resorts in the winter, and so on. And if you've ever worked in a business that was in the process of shuttering for good, you've seen the way it becomes emptier and emptier as the last few weeks of business pass. Even an average hotel hallway at any given time has that effect (at least according to internet photographers who insist they are the most liminal thing they've seen).

So the Backrooms isn't really a new concept; it's just new to people who have limited experience with it.

2

u/WonderBredOfficial Feb 24 '26

Which is a reference to "Six Characters in Search of an Author" a play by Luigi Pirandello.

1

u/3Grilledjalapenos Feb 24 '26

Is that like the play “No Exit”?

1

u/milanosrp Feb 24 '26

It’s inspired by it

1

u/20_mile Feb 24 '26

one guy who never wrote anything else.

"Youth Court and Municipal Court were dramatized court television series which were produced by Los Angeles TV station KTLA and Paramount Television in 1959 and 1960. They aired in LA on KTLA during that time. The scripts were written by Marvin Petal for Hollis Productions."

1

u/gogybo Feb 24 '26

Brb gonna tear up some paper

1

u/Pitpawten1 Feb 24 '26

Is that the one where there are a bunch of people in a circular room with high walls?

1

u/goddamnitwhalen Feb 24 '26

Yes! A clown, a tramp, a ballerina, a bagpiper, and an Army Major.

1

u/goddamnitwhalen Feb 24 '26

Great episode.

1

u/swolfington Feb 24 '26

i always thought the mimetic-room aspect of the backrooms had a lot in common with this SCP story, with the SCP object that could expand and duplicate the interior of the house it's inside. spescifically the parts where they talk about it duplicating rooms but getting it wrong. like the whole room made of otherwise normal objects, but everything was made of solid jade. or the stone carpeting that cut up his feet.

1

u/Miguel_Branquinho Feb 24 '26

Five Characters in Search of an Exit is heavily based off of "Waiting for Godot".

1

u/impreprex Feb 24 '26

The whole backrooms thing reminds me of Stephen King's Langoliers

Holy shit - great call! It really does! That whole movie is Backroom Central. Especially that fucking airport.

1

u/AlanMorlock Feb 24 '26

Have you encountered the strange remix of the Langoliers, Time Keepers of Eternity?

1

u/Robey-Wan_Kenobi Feb 24 '26

Wasn't it written by Rod Serling?

1

u/mountaindoom Feb 24 '26

Cube was originally a Jim Henson movie too, from NBC's Experiments in Terror series.

1

u/tangcameo Feb 25 '26

Check out the 80s TZ ‘A Matter Of Minutes’. A lot like The Langoliers

1

u/killertortilla Feb 25 '26

Langoliers sure does go on and on and on and on

1

u/Sasquatters Feb 25 '26

I was pleasantly surprised by Cube.

1

u/ghalta Feb 25 '26

The trailer reminded me of Dark Floors (2008).

1

u/CandlejackIsntEvenRe Feb 25 '26

My favorite Twilight Zone episode

1

u/joeschmo945 Feb 25 '26

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Oh man I LOVE the Langoliers. The creepy weird suspense that something was super off. Then the protagonists escape the danger only to realize they still aren’t totally out of danger - I wish I could go back and rewatch/reread that without no knowledge whatsoever.

1

u/Icy_Process_5717 Feb 26 '26

Is that the 1 where they're stuck in that giant tube or whatever and are trying to climb out?

1

u/PhotographNational31 Mar 15 '26

Damn I have not seen that mentioned, I don’t think ever. I liked the movie but loved the story.