Endless Thread - Back to the Backrooms!

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

Once upon a dimly lit hallway, Ben and Amory stumbled onto a beloved brainchild of the internet: Backrooms. It began as a "creepypasta"— a horror story or concept that originates online and often becomes a meme — based on the idea of glitching into an inescapable prison of empty rooms. Back in 2020, Endless Thread discussed how this chilling kernel of internet lore migrated from 4chan to Reddit. Now, "Backrooms" is a major motion picture from A24. Amory and Ben take a little field trip to the theater to see the film and discuss how the concept holds up in the hands of Hollywood.

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podcast from the Marotra Institute at BU Questrum School of Business. A recent episode explores the challenges and opportunities in decarbonizing one of the world's most carbon-intensive industries, ocean freight shipping. Stick around until the end of this podcast to preview the episode. WBUR Podcasts, Boston. One truly gorgeous summer day earlier this month, Ben and I decided to opt in to a maze of corporate-ish empty rooms, also known as a movie theater. To see a movie on a topic, some of you threadheads may remember, backrooms. Backrooms is this kind of horror, creepy pasta, or meme about a video game glitch where you can slip

or as it's called no clip into a video game prison of empty rooms. This all started on 4chan, which then moved to Reddit and YouTube and then endless thread. Yeah, we did an episode on the Backroom Subreddit back in 20s. And a time jump skipping a hop later, there's a major motion picture coming out on this topic. It's directed by a young guy named Kane Parsons, who actually did a YouTube series based on the subreddit and the 4chan creepypasta before making this film. So we headed over to the movie theater just off the Boston Com in downtown. But there was a gaggle of noisy but joyful children who had no respect for our ambitions to record a little movie pre-year. game conversation. So we ducked into a quiet, fancy residential building with a very nice doorman

that just so happened to have a little nook set up with a lamp, a table, and two chairs, almost like it was waiting just for us. Well, well, well. If it isn't my old backroom's friends, we're kind of in a backroom right now. Is that weird to say? This is not what I would call a backroom, but I do feel like we happened, we lucked into something. Or maybe unlucked into something. It's kind of the opposite of the backroom situation. Instead of no clipping into a place we can't escape, we were trying to escape something. And we no clipped into a beautiful oasis of air-conditioned quiet.

Silence, yes. We were on the Boston Common. It's just like the most gorgeous day. It's a crime that we're about to go spend two hours plus. I like a hot day matinee. That's me. Would I like a hot day matinee summer? Yes.

Set us up. Set us up. What are we doing here? Five years ago. Oh, my God. In the midst of COVID, you and I sat down to record a endless dread snack time. For people who don't know the term snack time, that's just when we like tell each other's stories. It's a snackier style episode as opposed to our full.

meal deep dive episodes. That's right. And we were throwing stories at each other, and I brought you the backrooms subreddit. How would you describe the backroom's subreddit? Picture like yellowish, beigeish walls, endless hallways and fluorescent lighting and just the buzz of the fluorescent lights. And what makes it so creepy is like the end. endlessness of the labyrinth, but also the absence of anything else, seemingly.

Like, are there people behind the walls? Everywhere you turn, it's just more endless hallways. There might be a creature in there. There might be a creature. Yes. To me, it's like a fascinating sort of horror concept because it's very video game related. And it was five years ago that the 20-year-old director. Kane Parsons.

Kane Parsons, he was supposedly, you know, in all the press where they sort of talk about this like young director who was making a YouTube horror series and is like maybe one of the youngest major motion picture directors of recent memory to release a wide release film. He was 16 years old when he got his start quotes. And that was like basically the exact time that you and I were talking about this. Oh, my God. Isn't that crazy to think about? Oh my God. Did we make this happen? Did we make the backrooms?

We should find out. He might be an endless thread listener as a teenager. Man, if there was an endless thread to A24 film pipeline, I'd be so down. Same. Same. He said something interesting. I was watching an interview about the movie, which we're about to go see, made $81 million in its first week. Yeah.

The biggest A24 box office debut. But he also talked about this kind of modern feeling of unfettered urbanization, industrialization, and information overload that people have no connection to. We should test the theory as we go into watch it. Part of the sort of horror aspect of this movie is kind of like a what hath we wrought. peace of this kind of, again, sort of like feeling that we just don't have enough humans and humanity and soul to inhabit these like empty spaces and these buildings that we've constructed everywhere all over the place. So that's like a thing that I'm interested in thinking about and seeing if the movie explores. Yeah. And also to me what's exciting

about it is that Kane Parsons is the director of this film, but he didn't write the script. And so the fact that there was acknowledgement from someone in the industry to say, hey, here's this thing that went from 4chan to

a subreddit, to YouTube, to YouTube, to actually maybe we could make a whole movie out of this. You just never would have seen this coming. You would never You would never guess that that particular, it's not even like IP, it's an open source idea of creepiness, that it would become a movie that, who knows, we could walk in and come out and be like, well, that sucks. That was a piece of trash.

But I have a good feeling about it. Yeah, me too. Hopefully we don't get too scared. Yeah. We'll talk to you guys on the other side. If we make it out. Which we probably won't, to be honest. See, this is back

This is, I mean, this is too colorful to be back, groomsy, but yeah, hallway, no people, lots of doors. Sounds like it's still previews. Okay, I need you guys to get me, please. Can you guys come out and get it?

Can you talk please, standard? Standard. He put down the game, film everything, and then something picked it up, something picked up the camera. We made it out of the back rooms. After the break, we'll talk to some fellow escapees. Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken?

A podcast from the Marotra Institute at BU Questrum School of Business. Ships move the vast majority of the world's goods, and it's cheaper and safer compared to trucks or planes. So the shipping was there centuries, and it will remain there in the future. So how does an industry this essential think about sustainable, think about sustainability. Follow, is business broken, wherever you get your podcasts, and stick around until the end of this podcast

for a preview of a recent episode about what it will take for ocean freight shipping to reach net zero emissions. Dean Russell here, senior producer for WBUR podcasts. Scientist Carl Sagan once said Finding Truth demands the rigor of science and the freedom of imagination. WBUR's New Kids podcast has both.

The Midnight Rebellion uses the science, of climate change to imagine a future gone wrong. And you need to set it right. All episodes are out now, the Midnight Rebellion. Listen at WBUR.org slash midnight, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we are now back outside the theater on the Boston Common, where we find three women who are just at the same screening of the backroom's movie with us, two friends, men and Olivia, who just decided to catch a movie on a summary

Friday morning, and a woman named Indigo. who went by herself. We started with Indigo. Okay, so what made you come see this movie today? I came because I was really into the web series beforehand. I love analog horror. I love that type of thing, and it started off as an analog horror. That's why, like, you see in the movie,

it's kind of, like, it has that same thing, where it's kind of like a found footage type thing. Analog horror, just meaning there's no, like, like, CGI monsters or... No. Analog horror basically is kind of like telling like a horror story through like VHSs and and you know old cameras and things like that you know analog media. Okay, fair enough. Right. What made you to come see it?

Min and Olivia. I mean, for me, Olivia was like this morning, she was like, hey, like, do want to watch this movie? And I was like, oh yeah, sure, because I had nothing else to do. And I like horror movies. Yeah, I didn't think it would be this terrifying, actually. I thought it would be more like psychological thriller, but there's a lot of junk scares in there. Yeah, I think, yeah, I'm also drawn to the concept of like liminal space kind of,

so I was really interested. But yeah, I think we were just bored, so you came to the movie? Were you familiar with the concept of backrooms before this? No, not at all. No, you'd heard nothing about it. No. Whereas Indigo here, you knew a lot about back rooms. Yeah, I did.

Okay. What do you think, Olivia and Min, what do you think makes it feel so scary? I think, like, the fact that, like, it's, like, all open space, and then, like, you don't know when something's going to come out of, like, nowhere. Yeah, same. I think, like, the horrors that you cannot see, but could only hear and fail are, like, the worst ever. Yeah, how do you interpret the ending of the movie? It feels like whatever is in the mind of, you know, something. somebody that has, I don't know, something happened to them or something like that, or just

memories in general, it can become so warped within somebody else's mind. Any other theories about what the movie means or if there is like, not that every movie needs a lesson or a takeaway, but do you think that there's like a deeper meaning or something that you will take away as you go about doing whatever you're going to do on this beautiful day? For sure not. I don't want to take any of that with me. Seriously. I want to leave that in there. It has got nothing to do with me. I think my main kind of takeaway, though, is kind of like you can let something that is a flaw within you fester up

until it literally eats you alive. Well, Indigo men, Olivia, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us. Would you recommend the movie? I was. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. You heard it here.

Three empty rooms out of five empty rooms. That's my overview. Just kidding. Really? No, I thought it was good. I enjoyed it. I thought it was good tension. Good tension buildup throughout the movie.

Didn't care too much about the characters. Didn't feel like deeply other than the, psychiatrist. Yeah. But also her story didn't get super developed. It was sort of like impressionistic. I know. I feel like both of the main characters.

There's Clark, who is in this case like the patient. He owns the furniture store. He's the patient of Mary, the therapist. And neither of their characters feel that developed. Which is why in trying to come up with a theory about what do the backrooms mean, what do they represent for each of them? How do they end up there? It's tricky.

Yeah. But it's sort of like not a deeply character-driven storyline, right? When you, or like when you think about the lore that it came from, it's like an idea, not a story. Right. And so there's something interesting about trying to build a like a pretty substantial movie around that. And I'd heard that they, like, there's a 30.

thousand square foot stage or you know set that they built so that it would be an actual labyrinth that they were going through oh and so they weren't like it's not all cg i it's not all i they use some they use some cg i think but it's there it is like a 30 000 square foot actual labyrinth that they that the cast and crew claimed to have gotten lost in themselves well working on it yeah uh i I was thinking about some of the themes. Like, I think they really explored the colostrophobia of wide open space in an interesting way. You know?

He just said colostrophobia. Yeah. Instead of claustrophobia. Colostrophobia sounds like... Colostrophobia bag. Like, when you're afraid of your, of your, of your, um, colostomy situation. I am also Colostrophobic

Same I'm also claustrophobic But like I feel like that You know Exploring the claustrophobia Of wide open space is interesting Well there's yeah There's like physical claustrophobia

That they have to like wriggle their way Through tight spaces But the irony of that is that it's nothing but wide open space It's like being lost in the desert Yeah And also I thought a theme that I was thinking about was, and maybe this is what comes up for me

and it's not relevant, but like, it reminded me a lot of this idea because so much of it is like, it's based in the 90s, right? And like there's this like huge nostalgia thing that's happening right now. And so much of that nostalgia is basically based around yearning for a time before the internet. effectively, or when the internet was brand new and you were still in much more in the real world,

much more than the internet. And there are also these like interesting conspiracy theories. I don't even know what they're described. It's not like a Mandela effect, but it's sort of like alternate timeline conspiracy theories. Like some of them around like 9-11, for instance, like somehow like we switched realities in 2001 and now we're like on this like different path that we can't get out of. And so it reminded me in some ways of that. You have these two different worlds.

You have this like world from the 1990s that is the real world that the characters are in. And it's like broken and messed up in certain ways. But it's still like real and navigable. And then you have this world that some would compare more to the world we live in now, which is this like endless. You have this like, you know, it's like the prison of, infinite choice, right? And like the backrooms sort of like connect to that when you're like thinking about the

internet or the internet that we've lived in for the past 20 to 30 years or 20 years or something like that. Does that make any sense? I don't know. It does. Well, what I'm the sense that I am making of it is that oftentimes on the internet you start in one place, you end up in a totally different place through a series of like, you know, figurative.

turns and then you're like, wait, how did I get here? How do I get back out? How do I... How do I get here and how do I get out? How do I... Of this internet rabbit wall. Yes, yes, totally. One thing that I'm gathering from just the little bit of Reddit feedback that I've seen,

people in the backroom subreddit so far, a very good point that was made is that at least our understanding of backrooms is that you're not supposed to be able to get out. You're in, it's a labyrinth, you can't find your way out, but this idea of someone like tying a rope to you and being able to pull you out feels like not true to the nightmare that is backrooms. Yeah, that's a good point. And I feel like it's also, it's also this like challenge that you have with a movie like this, which again, it's sort of like most horror movies that I've seen and with at least one person getting out. So I think it sort of makes sense in a way that some people have to escape. Okay, well, what do you take away from this experience? I'm going to go back

to the thing that Kane Parsons like talked about or Kane Pixels if you follow them on YouTube, which is this like, there's an aspect of horror that we all feel from this sort of endless construction of humanity and the fact that we are in a world where a lot of the things that we are making ultimately are not you know they're they are uninhabited. And there's something very soulless about that. And so to me, there's, yeah, that's what I take away from it. It's this kind of like something, something capitalism, modern society, lots of homeless

people with nowhere to live, but we've got lots of empty buildings. I don't know. That's the part of it that sort of resonates with me. What about you? Well, you know, mental illness is a theme throughout the movie, and the characters, at least the two main characters have some connection to either personal experience or connection to mental illness. And therapy too, right? Like, and do you feel like therapy is treated, how do you think the movie views therapy? I don't know how it views it, but it's definitely.

the idea of like a path for your life. I thought the real... A new path. A new path. Opening a window. Yes. Opening a window and a new path to life. I was thinking, oh, these are people who want to escape their actual life.

And that's what pulls them to the back room is this idea that there's something better on the other side of that wall. A false hope. Yeah. I don't know what to make of it. But it's certainly, it's very depressing to see those walls. Yes. For an hour and 45 minutes. Those yellow walls, no good.

You definitely feel so, maybe that's, maybe this is my takeaway. It's like you just feel so much better being outside that everything about like, just like piles of stuff and walls and fluorescent lights. stepping outside was the the takeaway is just get out get out here get out your get out of the trash heap get out of the grass yes yeah touch grass as they say yeah yeah and maybe

there's some hope in being able to actually leave the back room in this scenario because it's like it's not too late it's not too late to get out of that room get out of whatever Like, whatever it is that you feel stuck in, it's not too late to get out of it. I like that. This is my, that's the takeaway I've chosen. Yeah, all right. That's good.

Great. I'll take it. Great. And it's all because of some creepy pasta on the internet, however long ago that people ran with. Thank God for creepy pasta on the internet. I don't know about that, but yes, sure. Endless Threat is a production of WBUR in Boston. This episode was produced by Kalyani Saxana and me, Amory Severson.

And me, Ben Brock Johnson. It was edited by Dave Shaw, Mix and sound design by a production manager, Paul Vikis. The rest of our team is Dean Russell, Emily Jankowski, Grace Tatter, and managing producer, Summit to Joshi. Joshi, Joshie, Josh, Josh. Endless Threat is a show about the blurred lines between an actual backroom and just your grandma's dingy wallpaper.

Go, Grandma. If you have an untold history, an unsolved mystery, or some other wild story from the internet, a backroom, if you will. Hit us up, endless thread at wbUR.org. Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken? A podcast about the Morotra Institute at BU Questrum School of Business. Follow Is Business Broken wherever you get your podcasts. And listen on for a preview of a recent episode featuring Valerie Thomas,

Professor of Industrial Engineering at Georgia Tech on whether the ocean freight shipping industry can reach net zero emissions by 2050. It's technically feasible. That's a very simple question. Will we get there? Will it all be deployed? We're going to see. I just want to add in there that, yeah, we've talked a lot about the difficulties for shipping in getting to net zero. This is not the only thing that's going to be going on. Aviation is seeking to do the same thing, maybe even fast. and the other uses of petroleum are all transitioning. You may think, and in some ways that makes the problem even bigger, there are other ways that it makes it easier. Some of the fuels that are used for shipping are very similar to those used for aviation.

So as infrastructure gets built out, shipping can benefit. Find the full episode by searching for Is Business Broken, wherever you get your podcasts. And learn more about the Morotra Institute for Business, markets and society at iBMS.b u.edu.