This image released by A24 shows Chiwetel Ejiofor in a scene from "Backrooms." (A24 via AP)

Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” began as a series of YouTube short films, creating a striking world of vast, empty hallways and vacant rooms that have no end.

The film expands on the idea without trivializing or over-explaining it, adds a gripping narrative and is anchored by two powerhouse performances to center it. What results is unlike anything else out there, let alone a summer movie.

Set in 1990, it stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Charles, the owner of a poorly attended furniture store. Charles has weekly visits with Mary (played by Renate Reinsve), his psychiatrist, which reveals him to be an alcoholic with a short temper.

When Charles discovers the downstairs of his store leads to an alternate universe, he immediately hires his staff of two to explore it with him. In little time, they find that this new world, literally on the other side of a wall, not only has no end but has monsters awaiting them.

The third act embraces the horror movie genre, but most of “Backrooms” plays like a gripping, surreal mystery. Because the audience is constantly placed into the unknown and knows as much as the characters do, the suspense is thick.

Some long scenes of dialogue could have been tighter, and I don’t recall 90s fashion being so dull (growing up on Maui made for more floral prints than what one sees here). However, those are my only issues with “Backrooms.”

Here’s what I love about the film. On a thematic level, it lays out the universal truth that our homes are full of collected and gifted items that define who we are. Removing those treasured artifacts and the furniture creates the kind of lifeless shell we see here.

I’ve had recurring nightmares for most of my life pertaining to never-ending landscapes, such as a rusted, dusty, winding staircase that takes me to a room many floors down, leading into a vast room of empty beds. Upon reflection, the culprit for those images are the stairs leading to the bell tower of Makawao Union Church and the massive cabin that once existed at Camp Maluhia, places I frequently revisit in my dreams.

Parsons’ film comments on how remembered imagery eventually becomes a remix, as we misremember things that tumble in our subconsciousness until it becomes whatever we want it to be, versus what it originally was.

There’s a scene that is clearly based on the infamous family dinner from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974) and imagery that reminded me of “Us” (2019) and “Keeper” (2025). Some scenes were filmed with a handheld VHS camcorder, evoking “The Blair Witch Project” (1999), but thankfully, only a few portions of the film take that approach.

Nevertheless, in terms of longevity, “Backrooms” feels as radical a shift for horror movies as “The Blair Witch Project.” Considering how some scenes are shot like first-person perspectives, this could very well be what the future of video game-inspired movies resembles. For the horror genre, there is a rich surrealism and break from mainstream expectations, giving audiences a refreshing jolt of the unpredictable.

Ejiofor is a fantastic actor, and his intense performance is always persuasive, but the master stroke was casting Reinsve, whose performance in “Sentimental Value” was the best of 2025. Neither actor hits a wrong note, even when the material gets increasingly wilder.

As an example of a production that clearly wasn’t lavish but conveys so much through its sets, uncanny visual effects and sound effects, the filmmakers have pulled off a tour de force. Despite going as far as the film does in exploring the possibilities of this narrative, the best questions have been left unanswered; inevitably, a sequel will spill more of the lore, but less is more.

Like the best episodes of my favorite television series, “The Twilight Zone,” it gives you compelling characters to care about, thrusts them into the unknown and leaves the viewer in a state of shock and awe.

I felt changed by “Backrooms” as I left the theater, noting how weird the hallways looked. Most movies don’t really get under my skin, but this one did.

(4 out of 4 stars)

Barry Wurst II is the founder of the Hawaii Film Critics Society and teaches film classes at University of Hawaii Maui College.