Beyond the Liminal Void: 5 Must-Watch Films for Fans of A24’s ‘Backrooms’

A24 has done it again. With Backrooms, the studio has transformed a viral internet creepypasta into a summer sensation that’s haunting audiences and redefining the boundaries of psychological horror. Directed by Kane Parsons—the same visionary who first uploaded the chilling YouTube short in 2022—and written by Will Soodik, the film plunges viewers into a disorienting labyrinth of beige corridors and existential dread. Starring Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, a furniture store owner who stumbles into a basement that defies logic, the movie has quickly become a conversation starter for horror aficionados and casual moviegoers alike.

But what happens when the credits roll and you’re left craving more of that same unnerving, spatial horror? We’ve curated a list of five films that toy with time, space, and reality just as deftly as Backrooms. From indie micro-budget experiments to Stanley Kubrick’s masterpieces, these selections will keep your skin crawling long after the lights come up.

1. Skinamarink (2022) – The Nightmare You Never Outgrew

Kyle Edward Ball’s debut feature Skinamarink is the closest you’ll get to crawling inside a shared childhood nightmare. Shot on a shoestring budget in his parents’ house, the film follows two young siblings, Kevin and Kaylee, as their home begins to warp around them. Doors vanish, windows appear on ceilings, and a Fisher-Price toy phone becomes a harbinger of unspeakable terror.

Like Backrooms, Skinamarink exploits the fear of liminal spaces—places that feel familiar yet wrong. Both films originated on YouTube, with Ball previously creating nightmare simulations that resonated with millions. The result is a raw, grainy, deeply unsettling experience that proves you don’t need a massive budget to make an audience’s blood run cold. For fans of the shifting corridors in Parsons’s world, this is an essential double feature.

2. Vivarium (2019) – Suburban Hell on Repeat

Lorcan Finnegan’s Vivarium takes the concept of being trapped in an inescapable space and cranks it to a suffocating degree. Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots star as Tom and Gemma, a young couple who visit a housing development called Yonder—only to discover they cannot leave their identically cloned suburban home. To make matters worse, an unseen force delivers a baby and demands they raise it.

The film’s sterile, cookie-cutter environment echoes the monotonous dread of the Backrooms. Every house is the same, every street a dead end. Finnegan, who also directed episodes of Black Mirror, understands how to turn the mundane into a prison. Vivarium is a sharp critique of consumerism and domesticity wrapped in a skin-crawling sci-fi thriller. If you loved the way Backrooms made empty hallways feel alive, this one will stick with you.

3. Lost Highway (1997) – Lynch’s Fractured Reality

David Lynch’s Lost Highway remains one of his most underappreciated works—a disorienting noir that shatters linear narrative like a cracked mirror. Bill Pullman plays Fred Madison, a saxophonist who begins receiving cryptic VHS tapes of his own home, before descending into a psychosexual nightmare featuring a mysterious figure known only as the Mystery Man (a chilling Robert Blake).

Lynch’s fingerprints are all over the tonal DNA of Backrooms. Both films revel in spaces that feel both familiar and hostile, where the walls themselves seem to conspire against the protagonist. Lost Highway refuses to offer easy answers, demanding multiple viewings to piece together its fragmented puzzle. For those who appreciate the existential dread of Parsons’s work, Lynch’s masterpiece is a foundational text of liminal horror.

4. The Shining (1980) – The Gold Standard of Haunted Architecture

No list of spatial horror would be complete without Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Jack Nicholson’s iconic descent into madness as Jack Torrance, the winter caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel, is a masterclass in tension. The hotel itself becomes a character—its vast, empty ballrooms, winding corridors, and impossible geography (hello, Room 237) mirror the unsettling non-Euclidean design of the Backrooms.

While Stephen King famously disliked Kubrick’s adaptation, fans have spent decades dissecting every frame, from the impossible window in the office to the hedge maze’s symbolic trap. Backrooms owes a clear debt to Kubrick’s ability to make static architecture feel malevolent. If you haven’t revisited The Shining recently, now is the perfect time—especially with a fresh perspective shaped by Parsons’s labyrinthine vision.

5. As Above, So Below (2014) – Descent into the Paris Catacombs

John Erick Dowdle’s As Above, So Below blends found-footage horror with Dante’s Inferno, following archaeologist Scarlett Marlowe (Perdita Weeks) into the catacombs beneath Paris. What begins as a search for the philosopher’s stone turns into a claustrophobic nightmare as tunnels shift, collapse, and seem to possess a will of their own.

The catacombs are a real-life liminal space—a dark, endless maze littered with human bones. The film’s use of ever-changing corridors and psychological torment directly parallels the Backrooms’ shifting geometry. Add in homages to The Dirty Dozen and you’ve got a thrilling, if underrated, gem that deserves a second look. For anyone who watched Backrooms and thought, “I want to see more underground hellscapes,” this is your ticket.

Why ‘Backrooms’ Matters – And What Comes Next

Kane Parsons’s journey from YouTube creator to A24 filmmaker is a modern fairy tale. The Backrooms phenomenon tapped into a collective unease about space, emptiness, and the unknown—a fear that has fueled internet folklore for years. With an A-list cast including Renate Reinsve, Lukita Maxwell, and Mark Duplass, the movie is poised to become a cultural touchstone for a generation raised on creepypasta.

As audiences continue to flock to theaters, these five films offer deeper dives into the same unsettling territory. Whether it’s the grainy home-horror of Skinamarink, the suburban nightmare of Vivarium, or the psychological labyrinths of Lynch and Kubrick, each movie expands the conversation about what makes a space feel haunted. The future of horror lies in the spaces between—and we’re only just beginning to explore them.

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