A24 is making a movie based on The Backrooms, the 2019 creepypasta that now forms the basis for every other game on Steam

If it wasn’t already clear, we’ve formally arrived in the age of the meme movie. The Minecraft Movie was basically a sequence of memes strung together, and Michael Bay is making a Skibidi Toilet film. Now, omnipresent creepypasta The Backrooms is also getting an adaptation for the silver screen.

The film, which is based specifically on the viral YouTube series created by Kane Parsons (as opposed to the more general Backrooms concept, which originated on 4chan) has been in the works at least since 2023. but according to Deadline the project now has actual actors attached to it. Those are Chiwetel Ejiofor, best known for his leading role in 2013’s 12 Years a Slave, and Cristin Milioti. Seen in TV shows like How I Met Your Mother, Fargo, and Black Mirror, Milioti most recently played Sofia Falcone in HBO’s Batman spinoff The Penguin.

So far, both actors are merely “in talks” to star in the film, with no word on what roles they would be playing. The film is to be directed by Parsons himself, with a script penned by Roberto Patino, best known for writing the screenplay for the 2014 film Cut Bank.

The history of the Backrooms more broadly stretches back to 2019. It’s a crowdsourced Internet worldbuilding venture about a spooky liminal space that you arrive in by essentially noclipping out of reality, a bit like the SCP Foundation, but more organic and improvisational (and a lot more viral). It all originates from a single photo posted on 4chan of a sequence of rooms with yellow carpets and walls. Despite its massive impact, the location in the photo was only pinned down last year, revealed to be part of a Hobbytown store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Personally, I know the Backrooms mainly from the preposterous number of games based on it that have appeared on Steam over the last few years. There are dozens that directly reference The Backrooms in their title, and plenty more that are based on the creepypasta without mentioning it directly. Most of these games are naff rush-job affairs, but there are a few Early Access projects that are well-regarded, such as Backrooms: Escape Together, Escape the Backrooms, and Backrooms: Apprehension.