Get ready to noclip into the Backrooms in May 2026

Ever been somewhere that just feels…off? Not a creepy cabin or deep in the dark woods, but a store that seems to have too many twists and turns, or a hallway that goes on too long. Maybe it feels like you’ve been zapped back to the early 2000s, and the colors don’t look the same as they do today. Wherever you are, it just isn’t quite right.

You may have entered…the Backrooms.

Humanity’s, and thus the internet’s fascination with liminal spaces (Merriam-Webster defines liminal as “of, relating to, or situated at a sensory threshold, barely perceptible or capable of eliciting a response…an intermediate state, phase, or condition”) goes way back. But the idea of a dimension made out of these places was first theorized on 4chan’s /x/ in 2019. An anonymous user posted an image of an empty HobbyTown store under renovation captioned:

“If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in

God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.”

(Noclipping is the act of moving in seemingly impossible ways in a videogame space – through floors and walls, for instance. It typically happens due to a glitch in the game. Much like the idea of “glitches in the matrix” or unexplainable events, it necessitates an artificial reality.)

The internet went nuts. What Slenderman was to the 2010s, the Backrooms became to the 2020s. Tiktok videos “set” in the backrooms abound, both from real locations and AI generated material. The fandom grew much as the Backrooms are believed to: procedurally generated with theoretically infinite reach.

In-universe, the Backrooms don’t follow Euclidean geometry, and the laws of physics may vary. The space is divided into “levels,” each with their own characteristics. Levels are homogenous, and they tend to extend infinitely. They from safe and comfortable to deadly. The settings tend to be artificial like the insides of buildings, but some oceans and forests do exist. Typically, a “wanderer” can move from level to level with relative ease, but there are also shortcuts for those that know about them. Many rules for travel and survival are extremely specific, likely taking inspiration from the “instructions” genre of creepypasta.

Some levels are said to be populated with various entities, but the only humans in the Backrooms are those who have come from our world (known as the Frontrooms). Communities of wanderers exist, and there are fictional organizations dedicated to researching and cataloguing the space. Whether someone can exit the Backrooms and return to the Frontrooms is a matter of some debate.

Currently, the best source for intel on the Backrooms is the wiki. The subreddit r/backrooms is great too! Have a look around (from the safety of the Frontrooms).

Finally, A24 is releasing a full-length film set in the Backrooms. It releases May 29^th, 2026, and while we don’t learn much from the eerie, minute-long trailer, it’s sure to be weird as hell. The film is the big screen debut for director Kane Parsons, who produced a successful youtube series about the Backrooms in the early 2020s. It’s written by Will Soodik and stars The Martian’s Chiwetel Ejiofor and Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve.

While you’re waiting, you can listen to a myriad of podcasts about the Backrooms (Tapes From the Backrooms is a great one that pulls from the Backrooms wiki) or play one of the many videogames set there (Escape From the Backrooms is popular). There’s also the original webseries!

You could also try to noclip into the Backrooms themselves. Don’t worry, there’s supposed to be a cinema on Level 307, so you can still catch the film!