The Backrooms Movie’s Age Rating Is a Departure From the Original 4Chan Lore

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In February 2023, A24, along with production companies Atomic Monster, Chernin Entertainment, and 21 Laps, announced they would be turning the web series Backrooms into a film. The series itself was inspired by a popular creepy story originally shared on the website 4chan. Over three years later, the first trailer for the movie The Backrooms was released, and its rating has surprised many fans of the original internet story.

The upcoming film, The Backrooms, stars Renate Reinsve (known for A Different Man) as Dr. Kline, a worried therapist, and Chiwetel Ejiofor (previously in Doctor Strange) as her patient, Clark. Clark becomes fixated on a mysterious place with countless rooms and eventually gets lost within it. Determined to help him, Dr. Kline bravely follows Clark into this strange world, risking everything to bring him home.

The Backrooms Age Rating Revealed

Okay, so here’s the deal with The Backrooms. AMC and A24 are already advertising it with an R rating, which definitely suggests it’s not for the faint of heart. However, as of today, we haven’t gotten the official word from the MPA. That means the reasons for the R rating are still a bit of a mystery – it could be anything from a lot of blood and guts to some strong language. We’ll have to wait for the official rating to know for sure, but consider yourself warned – this one’s likely to be intense!

Many fans on the Backrooms subreddit, like user /u/KehreAzerith, were happy the movie was rated R. However, some people less familiar with the director’s previous work were surprised or worried about the mature rating.

On the box office subreddit, one user, /u/SirCarlosSpicyweiner, expressed hope that the movie wouldn’t be overly gory and felt that The Backrooms should effectively create a sense of unsettling, transitional horror.

As a film buff, I really envision this as something atmospheric and unsettling, rather than relying on shock value. I’m thinking more eerie and intriguing, with moments that are genuinely dreadful but also make you think long after the credits roll. It’s about creating a mood and a lasting impression, not just jump scares.

I really hope they capture the liminal horror properly.”

Another user on the subreddit, /u/PhilyJFry, worried that many of the fans – especially younger ones – were being alienated.

You know, it’s really up in the air whether they’ll stick with the current rating. Considering a lot of the fans are younger and will be watching with their parents, I’m guessing it’ll probably end up as a PG-13. But we’ll just have to wait and see, I suppose!

The film is based on Kane Parsons’ Backrooms web series, which started the trend independently of the video games, online wiki, and TikTok videos that followed the original idea from a 4chan post.

There Have Always Been Monsters in the Backrooms (And Swearing)

Those familiar with Kane Parsons and his Backrooms series will notice frequent use of strong language. Characters often shout expletives while fleeing danger, or quietly curse in shock at the bizarre and unsettling environment. Even in his original video, The Backrooms (Found Footage), the main character used profanity multiple times.

As a film buff, I’ve been following the buzz around this movie, and it seems A24 probably wouldn’t limit who could see it just because of some strong language. That leads me to believe the director, Parsons, really leaned into the gore and violence to ensure it got an R rating. He even hinted at this last year on his Discord, telling a fan he wanted an R. It’s interesting because unlike Five Nights at Freddy’s, he actually succeeded in avoiding a PG-13 – he clearly had a vision for a more mature horror experience.

Although the Parson’s series doesn’t contain enough violence to earn an R rating – aside from some swearing – it does have a few unsettling moments. Two videos briefly show a decaying corpse, and one depicts a man being shot with a shotgun, though the grainy, dark footage obscures much of the scene. Even the trailer for The Backrooms includes a shot of Dr. Kline covered in dried blood while fleeing from an unseen threat.

The Backrooms originated with a 2019 post on 4chan, where an anonymous user described it as a place you could accidentally glitch into—a vast, endless space of roughly six hundred million square miles filled with randomly arranged, empty rooms.

If you accidentally glitch outside of normal reality in certain places, you might find yourself in the Backrooms. It’s a disturbing place filled with the smell of damp carpet, unsettling yellow tones, the constant drone of buzzing lights, and a seemingly infinite maze of empty rooms – a truly inescapable labyrinth.

Often overlooked is the final part of the original 4chan post, which described a mysterious presence – “something wandering around nearby” – and warned that if you detected it, it definitely knew you were there.

If you hear something moving close by, you’d better hope it doesn’t hear you too.

It’s certain that the upcoming Backrooms movie will feature creatures, which fans often call ‘entities,’ just like Kane Parsons’ original web series. However, Parsons didn’t overuse these creatures in his series, and the movie should follow suit, preserving the unsettling, dreamlike atmosphere that first drew people to the story.

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2026-04-01 19:36