Backrooms has officially landed on PVOD platforms like Apple TV and Prime Video. The liminal horror hit, which currently stands as A24’s highest-grossing movie of all time, received just over 45 days of theater exclusivity.
In her 8/10 review for IGN, writer Lex Briscuso praised the film as “a terrifying and thrilling big-screen debut” for director Kane Parsons. If you didn’t happen to catch the creepypasta-inspired movie in theaters, here’s how you can watch it online as well as everything we know about its streaming and DVD release.
Backrooms Lands on Digital, Streaming Release Date TBA
Backrooms is available to rent for $19.99 or purchase digitally for $24.99. Purchasing the movie does not appear to net you any digital extras, suggesting that bonus features like the extended cut that was recently shown in theaters will be reserved for the film’s DVD release.
Backrooms
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A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom, leading to an endless network of interconnected rooms where time bends and the only thing scarier than getting lost is the sense that something is laying in wait.
Speaking of, we still haven’t gotten any official announcement about a Blu-ray release for Backrooms. A24 will almost certainly provide the horror movie the physical media love it deserves, but the distributor also takes its time with DVD releases. Some standard 4K UHD listings have appeared on the Canadian version of Gruv, and in the meantime, there’s still plenty of merch available through the A24 Shop.
What About Streaming?
Backrooms will eventually land on HBO Max, courtesy of an ongoing deal between A24 and the Warner Bros.-owned service. While we haven’t gotten word of an official release date, recent A24 releases like Marty Supreme and How to Make a Killing have taken about four months to come to the streaming service. Assuming Backrooms follows a similar timeline, it should be available to HBO Max subscribers starting in late September or early October.
Backrooms is the directorial debut for Kane Parsons, who had previously built up his own audience through the development of the Backrooms-inspired ‘Found Footage’ series on YouTube. The movie shared the bulk of its theatrical run with the breakout indie hit Obsession, leading to a summer box office dominated by young directors in horror.
It’s not at all surprising then that we’ve already gotten confirmation about a sequel. Meanwhile Parsons, who admitted to adding a Half-Life reference into his directorial debut, has been putting his foot in the ring for a potential adaptation of Portal.
The film’s success has also seemingly inspired a wave of ‘internet horror’ movies getting the green light. For example, Zach Cregger, the director of Weapons and the upcoming Resident Evil movie, has already been tapped to produce a movie based on the Siren Head creepypasta.
Blythe (she/her) is an Audience Development Coordinator at IGN who, when she isn’t following streaming news, spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.