Backrooms Movie Sends Fans Into a Frenzy — Between A24's Monster and Copyright Strikes

Kane Parsons' A24 adaptation of The Backrooms has landed, and the internet did what it does best: turned a single movie into a battlefield of opinions. One camp is deep in thematic analysis, pulling apart character arcs and the monster's symbolic weight. Another camp finds the whole thing a slog that missed the empty, liminal horror of the original creepypasta. And then there's the copyright firestorm that has fans feeling less like pioneers and more like collateral damage.

The Depth Dwellers Are Thriving

For a sizable chunk of the audience, this is a movie that rewards close reading. Fans are dissecting everything from lonely protagonist beats to clever foreshadowing. One viewer captured the emotional pull perfectly when they said "What a foreshadow of Clark falling off the chair, to which the chair legs end up broken, and Mary escapes by breaking the pirate monsters leg. FUCKING GENIUS OF A MOVIE!". The central character's isolation struck a chord, with another fan adding "btw the reason why Clark never got a missing poster is because he had no one in life 😢".

The monster — dubbed 'Cap'n Clark' — isn't a generic scare for this crowd. Defenders argue it represents the darkest part of Clark's mind. A theory circulating suggests the entity finally caught him when he wasn't being destructive for the first time, turning the horror inward.

The Pace Critics Aren't Budging

On the other side, the film's slow burn failed to ignite. For detractors, it's a departure from the entity-less dread that made the Backrooms iconic. One viewer summed it up as "Finally saw the Backrooms movie, and I didn't really enjoy it. The sets were amazing, but the overall story plus the entities being teased from the get go kinda instantly ruined the experience for me.". Another echoed the sentiment that impressive production values couldn't rescue a missing narrative, writing "Saw Backrooms. The rooms were really cool. The movie was okay.".

Some simply found it boring. A user quipped "A24 Drops a 1-Hour BACKROOMS Ambience Video That's Slightly More Boring Than the Movie,", while another delivered a backhanded compliment: "the backrooms isn't a good movie but it is maybe the first movie in history to have Level Design.". Even the monster sparked division, with one person admitting "the movie was distressing as hell for me i thought cap’n clark was pulling him in for a hug for some reason.".

The Copyright Backlash: Nobody Was Ready for This

But the most unified fury centers on A24's copyright enforcement. Shortly after release, reports surfaced that the studio was issuing takedowns for fan content — including social media posts and indie games — that had nothing to do with the film. The reaction was instant and loud. One angry fan declared "Ladies and gentlemen, meet this fuckass studio A24. - first, they were copyright striking BACKROOMS themed items and wallpaper designs - and now, they are copyright striking Indie Backrooms Games I SWEAR, A24 thinks they OWN Backrooms.". Another framed it as a broader fear: "A24 is issuing takedowns for all sorts of backrooms content on social media, as well as merch elsewhere right now, that have nothing to do with the movie. I feel like a lot of people were afraid this would happen. They just... own the backrooms.".

Director Kane Parsons quickly responded on social media, saying he was "looking into this." A24 itself posted on Instagram, trying to calm things down with the message "A24 makes no claim of ownership over the yellow wallpaper, the original post referencing it, or any of the community works that have since been built around it. We will continue to support the artists who, like Kane, were inspired by it.".

Why the Discourse Isn't Cooling Off Any Time Soon

This whole mess boils down to a clash of expectations. Parsons made a character-driven story about memory and loneliness that uses the Backrooms as a canvas. Fans who wanted pure liminal horror — slow, empty, monster-less — were always going to feel shortchanged. Meanwhile, the copyright actions touch a raw nerve: the fear that corporate hands are closing around internet-born folklore. The Backrooms thrived as an open, collaborative creepypasta. When A24's takedowns started, even if blamed on an error, it felt like a betrayal of that origin.

Right now, the conversation flows in two streams: deep-dive theories about the ending and the monster's true nature, and wary watch on A24's next move. The film itself might be a Rorschach test for horror fans, but the community's response to the strikes is far clearer — a loud demand to protect the creative commons they built.