The Biggest Debate About Backrooms Perfectly Explains Its Box Office Success

When psychological horror movie Backrooms hit theaters on May 29, 2026, it quickly became a smash hit. In fact, in addition to social media going wild with positive responses to the movie, Backrooms quickly proved itself to be a major box office success, raking in more than $250 million worldwide according to Box Office Mojo. Among the movie’s milestones was, impressively, becoming production company A24’s highest-grossing movie ever.

There is undoubtedly a range of reasons for these box office numbers and the positive reviews of the movie, including the stellar performances by the Backrooms cast. However, the story in and of itself is a compelling one—and it’s one that asks audiences to examine their own lives, mortality, and pasts in a very uncomfortable way. The movie primarily centers on Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a furniture store owner with a complicated history who discovers that something supernatural and horrifying lurks beneath the surface (sort of) of his store.

What ensues is an intense, anxiety-inducing exploration of that space that includes blood, some minor jump scares, and countless eerie, unsettling moments. It also ultimately ends with a plot twist that undoes the ‘final girl’ horror movie trope, even as that seemed to be where the movie was heading. While all of those details and the strengths of the movie remain true and largely undisputed, there is one ongoing debate about Backrooms that audiences still can’t agree on, and that discourse actually reflects precisely why the movie is such a successful one.

Audiences Can’t Agree On Whether Backrooms Is Scary

© A24 / courtesy Everett Collection

Just based on the premise of the movie alone, it’s obvious that Backrooms is a horror movie. However, that doesn’t automatically mean that the movie is truly scary, at least not in a conventional sense. There are many ways for a movie to fit the larger horror genre, from all-out terrifying stories packed with jump scares and gruesome, violent deaths to movies that rely heavily upon suspense. Arguably, these are simply different types of scary, but that hasn’t prevented one massive, ongoing debate among Backrooms fans regarding whether the movie—while brilliant—can really be considered scary.

In part, this comes down to the form of horror that Backrooms primarily taps into. As mentioned, there are a few jump scares in the film, and several scenes do have quite a bit of blood. One scene even shows one of the main characters’ heads in a refrigerator. Yet, the movie doesn’t mainly fit into the category of horror movies that are scary in that specific way. Rather, Backrooms is a deeply unsettling psychological thriller that gives audiences a sense of unease and anticipation. Underlining all of that is also a profound sense of existential dread.

For that reason, audiences have largely divided into two camps: Those who don’t consider the movie scary because it isn’t full of violence and gore, and those who find the movie absolutely terrifying because of its more cerebral, creepy approach to horror. Of course, neither side is wrong; thinking that something is scary is a subjective experience, and no one can be ‘wrong’ about finding something scary. What this debate does reflect, however, is why the movie works as well as it does.

This Debate Is Exactly Why The Movie Works So Well

The fact that some viewers find Backrooms scary and others don’t is undoubtedly part of why the movie has proven so popular. For one, it’s simply interesting that the film has opened up this debate; that alone is going to make audiences curious. However, in addition to that, this division means that the movie is a great, versatile horror flick, offering something unique for different audiences. Those who will be terrified by the psychological aspects of Backrooms and want to be scared by a horror movie will enjoy going and getting that classic terrifying big screen experience.

On the flip side, viewers who don’t like intensely gruesome horror movies that focus primarily on brutality and blood will be more willing to give this movie a chance, especially if it’s recommended to them as such. In that sense, Backrooms is actually a unique, adaptable film that can appeal to a much broader audience—and surely, that has played a role in the movie smashing box office records.

Release Date

May 27, 2026

Runtime

110 minutes

Director

Kane Parsons

Writers

Will Soodik

Producers

Chris Ferguson, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, James Wan, Jenno Topping, Kori Adelson, Michael Clear, Osgood Perkins, Peter Chernin, Roberto Patino, Shawn Levy