‘Backrooms’ Rated R for Violent Content and Bloody Images

If you know, you know. Kane Parsons‘ liminal horror Backrooms has quietly evolved from niche internet horror into something much bigger, and general audiences are only just catching up. Built on the unsettling logic of liminal spaces and endless, empty rooms, the concept has spread like a modern myth, shaped by creators and viewers in real time. Now, with a feature film on the way, what started as a simple idea is poised to break into the mainstream in a major way.

When it comes to horror, accessibility often starts with the MPA rating. Studios not aiming squarely for an R will usually try to strike a balance between a director’s vision and box office reach, with PG-13 often seen as the sweet spot to bring in a wider audience. That’s what makes Backrooms such a question mark. On paper, it feels like it could go either way, and it’s typically easy to predict where a horror film will land. In this case, it wasn’t. That’s why it comes as a bit of a surprise that the film has officially been rated R for “language and some violent content/bloody images.”

In Backrooms, Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a furniture store owner who discovers a portal to a strange, empty office space hidden in the back of his shop.

The trailer revealed that, at first, he approaches it with a kind of Poltergeist-style curiosity, testing it, trying to understand what it is. But as the trailer goes on, it becomes clear this place is way bigger – and way worse – than he thought. He starts experimenting, pushing deeper, and the whole thing takes on a strong V/H/S meets As Above, So Below vibe. And then his wife (Renate Reinsve) finds it… and from there, you can already tell things are about to spiral into something seriously disturbing.

Lukita Maxwell and Finn Bennett also star in the A24 horror movie set to be one of the biggest of the year.

Enter the liminal space on May 29, 2026.