The Reel Rejects - BACKROOMS (2026) MOVIE REVIEW – THIS IS NOT THE HORROR FILM WE EXPECTED! - FIRST TIME WATCHING

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

The Entities Are Terrifying! Greg Alba & Jackie Bonsignore react to Backrooms - first time watching / giving their breakdown & analysis into the terrifying adaptation of Kane Pixels' viral internet phenomenon. From its unnerving liminal spaces, disturbing creature encounters, and psychological horror to its mind-bending ending, this Backrooms movie reaction explores one of 2026's most anticipated horror films. Backrooms (2026) Reaction (Full Length Watch Along):   / thereelrejects   Taking care of your health just got easier – start here with Zocdoc: https://zocdoc.com/REJECTS #sponsored In this Backrooms reaction, The Backrooms A24 reaction, horror movie reaction, and review, Greg & Jackie descend into Kane Parsons (Kane Pixels') feature-film debut, produced by Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine, Stranger Things) and James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw). The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark (12 Years a Slave, Doctor Strange), Renate Reinsve as Mary (The Worst Person in the World, A Different Man), Mark Duplass (The Morning Show, Creep 2), Finn Bennett (True Detective: Night Country, Warfare), and Cristin Milioti (The Penguin, Palm Springs), as they navigate an ever-shifting labyrinth where reality begins to unravel. Featuring unforgettable sequences through endless yellow hallways, impossible architecture, terrifying entity encounters, unsettling found-footage imagery, psychological breakdowns, and an ending packed with mystery and symbolism, Backrooms transforms one of the internet's most iconic creepypastas into a haunting cinematic experience. Whether you're here for the Backrooms ending explained, Backrooms lore breakdown, or simply to experience A24's latest horror sensation, Greg & Jackie break down every terrifying reveal, theory, and haunting moment. Follow Greg Alba:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ Twitter:  https://x.com/thegregalba Follow Jackie Bonsignore: https://www.instagram.com/jackiebonsignore/ Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This video is brought to you by Zoc Doc. More on them in just a bit. Booms. Well, Chad GBT told me this is a great movie. So I'm excited to watch this. Let's go. So, um, guys, it's late as in the fuck right now. Jesus is correct.

So late. My brain stopped working. I was like a pirate wheel. What is that called? Uh, a mass, mast. Mah. M. I don't know, I give up.

No, we're going to find out. So we can't Google Skinnamarink, but we can Google what a pirate wheel is. Well, it's something I'm as equally interested in knowing. What is a pirate wheel called? Pirate, what the fuck? Why are you doing emojis? What is a pirate wheel call? Pirate wheel.

Ship's wheel. No. What the fuck was I thinking of? Helm. But that's like the place. Skinnamar rink. I don't have ever heard of this. You've never heard of this?

Shut her. Oh, the bitches were talking about it. No. What bitches? All of them. I don't know any bitches. You don't talk to no bitch. I don't talk to no bitches.

Don't talk to no bitches. Married cat, man. I don't have time to talk to old bitches. Greg, what did you think? I think that our Patreon is great. Like, you know, why? Because you get people like Jackie, who gets to be in videos that have

250,000 views on YouTube, but they're not monetized at all. So with that, that's why the Patreon is fucking awesome. So thank you guys for supporting us. Still hitting a little hard. It's going to be fresh for like a couple of years. Oh my God. Full reaction watch along over there for this movie.

Thank you guys for supporting. And this is a great way to support the channel. You also get some apparel. we think we ordered your shirt finally since it's been a month and a half in the making yeah where's my shirt click um no man

I feel like we got this movie down for I think we got like 45 I get I would give us like a 60 to 70% I think we like got it I think I got it I think I think I think we did I think you know what I will say I think that this is one of those films that is kind of intentionally left ambiguous

which you mentioned earlier kind of like a Donnie Darko Like, does it, you know, you pick, you pick what you think it means, girl. Well, from everything we were gathering while we were watching. I watched. It would seem that it is a mirror of the brain of the, because they have two ways of doing it. The brain on the scientific level of like what an actual brain is. And then, of course, the layers to that on the psychological level.

And this in some way is like a manifestation of all those things. And it's like the layers upon layers upon layers and the deeper you get a. memory stored back there, the more thwarted your memories can become. It also seems to prey on like, like so it preys under your trauma. It's also like praying on, I feel like a fear of being meaningless in some way. I guess. Yeah, but I'm like, did it really pray? Like, yeah, it preys on your trauma as in like, I think that the most traumatic memories that you have are often the ones that like can

to impact us much more than like the happier memories which is why that is what kind of gets a scan created of it. Yeah. But I think that Clark I think that he just broke in there because he broke in there. Like you know like Mary seemed like

she was fine. Like he had a lot of fucking Clark, I'm really, I was really rooting for him and he lost me and he lost me. I was lost. I'm lost. He didn't want to change which is a big thing. He literally said I didn't want to change. Yeah. That's like a crazy character arc because normally when you have someone, especially in a horror movie like this, normally they are

arcing to become like a better human being or they realize the error of their ways. Yeah. And instead, he realizes the truth about himself and realizes he's not even capable of change. Like he just wants to just accept who he is and you know, like, fuck it. I blame. I do all these things and it's like I respect that more than not doing. Yeah. And he's selfish. Like I hate. He took his fucking chat like. she's in her 20s, but took his, like, young employee with him

into, like, the haunted space where he knew that something was chasing him. There's an irony to that because she's on a show and Lakita Maxwell about therapy and shrink.

It's called shrinking. He's on a therapy show and then they put her in this movie, which is kind of about therapy in a way. Yeah, in a way, yeah. I mean, were he scared? I got scared, but they were good jump scares. I think whenever they were like in the DVs,

like the actual... The CCTV, or not the... You know what I mean. The friggin. I think the word is DV cameras. Handheld. Am I wrong about that? DV camera.

Yeah, these old school ones, digital video. I have one of those. I just call it a camcorder. Yeah, but like the old school 90s ones. Whenever they were there and it was like embracing found footage, what did you think of like the style of the movie overall? I really liked the use of found footage. I really liked it.

Those moments were the absolute scariest out of the entire film for me. Yeah. The film was really freaky. I will say at some points, the pirate was making me laugh a little bit. The pirate? Just a little. But then he did, like, take a huge bite out of him.

But I think it was just the shot where he took a huge bite out of him. And then Clark is kind of like this. Yeah. That made me giggle a little bit. But I just think that, God, I mean, there is a reason why things, like, uncanny valley and liminal spaces, like, hurt our brains so much. I mean, I think there's, like, studies on it. and it's just like the survival complex

and how it looks so close. It's such a genius thing, I think, to capitalize off of, when making a horror film. And it just really freaked me out. I'm not scared. Like, I'm going to be fine. I'll sleep fine tonight. But it was a freaky watch.

It was a freaky watch. It was a freaky, freaky, freaky watch. Freaker than I expected, honestly, because I thought the, I thought this was going to be more of, and it kind of is, mainly just, like, dread and conjuring up thoughts in your mind of what it could be. And for the most part it is, until they start to actually show you, like, scary Clark pirate guy and then weird fucking thwarted face people and stuff. Yeah.

Well, I thought what really did, I don't know what I expected the movie to be, but something that I thought was unexpected during my watch was as Mary started getting deeper and going into the parts of the world that resembled her life. I think that feeling of dread really crept inside. like I started getting, feeling very overwhelmed with that same feeling of dread because I was kind of inserting what mine,

what my version would be. Yeah. You know? Yeah, definitely. And then that's interesting because then every person can kind of self-insert and have that same experience.

I mean, the whole, you just have talked about the mirroring and this whole thing kind of causes a bit of a reflection to happen. The arc with them was cool. Like, with, because her, I, as a therapist, her job she feels is like she has to change this guy and he doesn't want to change but she's also realizing in that moment that it's she can't change people who don't want to change it was like I imagine that a lot from what the movie's saying is that she got into therapy trying to help people change and a big part of this is because she couldn't help her mom change she couldn't save her mom and I feel like she's coming to terms with that by the end of this like oh I cannot change you and it's not my job to try to change people what was interesting is that before he even finds the back room.

there was that one of those initial therapy scenes and you said how is she not scared of him and i was like gregg come on like she's a professional and then the end happened and now i'm yeah now i'm wrong um always be afraid yeah he's got a he's got a temper that's a scary guy right there yeah i know what it's like to have to deal with anger and raging uh that was this fucking that was like oh you could just i just feel all the hurt and the blame coming off of him it's just all these things of grief and then she's just stuck in like depression and hollow and the whole time. Yeah.

But I thought the, I thought the shot, I thought this movie like cinematography-wise, yeah. The shots were fucking incredible. I love the mood and the atmosphere of it.

I feel like our interpretations are probably right for the most part. Some stuff I did not get. Why do you think they were eating? Like, I didn't understand that. Why do you think that you could eat them? That he was eating himself?

Yeah, I didn't like fully get like everything. Oh, wait, the pirate eating or like, why you could eat the fake memories. Eat the fake memories. Reject nature for anything like me, you know what it's like when you just struggle to book that doctor's appointment. I am the worst at that time. Genuinely, booking a doctor stresses me out,

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Assume it'll work out for itself, which has done me wonders. I'm being sarcastic. It's obviously a terrible, terrible plan. And that's why this video is sponsored by Zoc Docs. Zocdoc I've actually used. They let you search and compare local in-network doctors. So you're not just blindly guessing or calling around forever. Their sites have tons of reviews from real patients.

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Did they realize what they were doing when they said that? Anyway, they're great. Okay. Is there the phrases like swallow, I don't know. I think that the hymn pirate, pirate him could eat him. Because I think it's kind of like if you, like there, people say it all the time. You can't let your depression and your grief eat, eat you up. You know, like swallow you whole.

That I understood now about the, he can eat the memories of the other people. Best part is you can eat them. girl I don't know I have no idea girl I don't know me I have no clue what the hell that was all about honestly I don't know I didn't get that

I didn't get that what I did like was um um I studied um I studied psych in college as one of the things that I studied but um I remember one of the most shocking facts that I learned that I think about all the time is that every time you think

you recall a memory it alters a little bit your brain. So the more you recall a certain memory or time in your life, the farther and farther and farther away you get from how it actually happened. And that's true. Really? That's how memory works. Google it, Greg. Greg doesn't believe me. No, it's not that I don't believe you. It's that it's, I didn't imagine. I felt like the more you try to hold onto a memory, the clearer it can become, especially like when it comes to trauma. It gets further away. Really? Google it. I believe you. The movie said it. You're saying it. You said you learned in a class. I have no choice but to do it. It's a

not do my own research and believe you did i did damn you're smart are you making joke no i didn't know that oh i don't think i ever asked you specifically where you went this tired time i've known you i don't think i've ever been like what college you go to oh god that's funny anyway yeah the music was also really great i thought she would tell ev jafar was a fucking phenomenal performance in this movie oh he was great damn it would be the ability to have you like kind of rude and be concerned for this guy. And then I love the movie that can flip it in that last half. I'm like, oh, now he's like the villain of the story.

Yeah. I mean, he was so likable. And it was just like, it made me so upset. Also, I think the lead actress's performance, when we saw her in her day-to-day life, she seemed so detached. And then it was so interesting when she went into the state of like, literal fight or flight. Like, am I going to fucking die? Like, having her the light kind of turn on behind her eyes.

Yeah. I appreciate a movie that is willing to end. in a way that makes you kind of go huh you know like you get just enough because the movie's kind of layering a lot out and setting it in the 90s was such a great call you know to have all the limitations of the thing like

if this took place in today you know you'd be like well get your cell phone out record call someone all these things that you strip your cell like go on FaceTime record what's happening would even work yeah probably it didn't seem like a cutoff service or something he was able to make a phone call to her and leave a message right

if that was real I mean, he He summoned her. Yeah, but was that him or was that? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. In some way. It seems like it works in some way. Either way.

Like, at the center in the 90s, does Kevin give it like a good eerieness to it. Also, wait, what happened to the boyfriend's body? And also, like, when did she get to cat? Because I'm just a little bit confused because the last time we see Clark before we go into like her timeline, the big pirate guy comes up behind him

and she's like trapped behind a glass wall. Like, where did she go? what happened when did her head get cut off if big why did big pirate bite him later but then like why did he wait until the therapist was there for him to like eat himself is it because he finally admitted like i don't want to change yeah anyways well yeah i mean those many questions i think he was just allowing himself well at least the way i took it is that that pirate thing is the ultimate manifestation of his loneliness and his darkness and by him surrendering to all that and when the that's not to change, he's just going to be embodied and swallowed whole by his darkness. Is the whole thing a metaphor for how therapists and psychiatrists and clinical social workers need to not take the pain from their practice home with them or it could eat them whole? Very well. I mean, it didn't really soon do you. No, I don't think that. Maybe. Maybe that's a layer to it.

You know, what do we just type in? What the fuck? What was backrooms really about? That is one of the top Google searches for this movie, apparently. I do have to say, does it really have, like, an ending? Or are they just, like, because I think sometimes, like, filmmakers will make movies and just go, like, you figure it out. Trauma and the subconscious. Yeah, I know.

We got that. Liminal and reality, isolated, depressed, or anchor by childhood trauma. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Okay. Why do they eat? Why can you eat the other people? Why do you eat the other people? Google AI. I don't believe in the use of AI. I'm using it right now because it's on my Google account.

Is that they are not actual human. I don't condone this. Physical replica stone is still lives. The reason you can't eat. Okay, what's the doctor metaphor? Well, eating a still life is technically cannibalism. They are human. This isn't helping me.

It's saying that because there's no food there and Clark will eat the, eat them like livestock, that the backrooms itself absorbs this behavior, learns it from Clark doing it, and then creates the pirate entity and just kind of like mirrors him again. Okay. Does that make sense to you? Yeah. Yeah. That's why you can eat them.

No, you can eat them because they don't, like, because they're the only, option in there to eat. Okay. And it's like the cannibalism. Cain Parsons wants you to figure out. See, he wants you to figure out the ending for yourself. That's what I mean. Sure.

Sure. Sure. He doesn't have an ending. Sure. He doesn't even know what it's about. Sure. I don't know. And that's okay.

And you know what? That is a very, very valid form of art. There's nothing wrong with that. I want to be so clear. We're not saying that there's anything wrong with that. But we are objectively right in our interpretation of everything. All the time. All right.

I'm right all the time. I don't care about this. Subjective to interpretation. This is an objective fact. Everything we have laid down. Is correct. So do you think that at the very end, I don't think. Do you know at the very end is, do you believe that she's trapped?

That she was actually talking to someone, that scientist guy, and that interaction was real and was happening in our earth? Or was that happening in the back rooms? I think that there, even that place where she came. out of. I think even the lab is maybe in the back rooms. No, actually, it could be outside. No, I think that that was real. It's just I think that when we saw her at the end,

I don't know what they did with Mary. I don't know if they let her go. I don't know if they killed her. But I don't think that that version of Mary that we saw at the end was her. That's like a replica of her in the back room. Yeah, it's like a replica of memories, right? Because I don't think like, fucking I don't think that, you know, Clark's

wife was really down there. No, yeah, yeah. replicated. At least it's just what it seemed like. Yeah. I don't know. It's cool, though. It's a good thing. I think she was talking to scientists. I believe that. It's a good visual feast. And I think the production design of the makeup and the way the sets were built was awesome. I thought this was a really cool movie.

It was really fun. I thought it was a really cool, fun movie and disorienting and a good time. And Jackie's so smart. So fucking smart, man. You're genius. I am genius. I'm a genius. I'm a genius. But what does Pots mean? Pots. Pots. What did the pots?

What could the pots mean? I don't know. Why was there a stop sign? I don't understand. It meant stop. Why was there a stop sign? Stop. I don't know.

Girl, you better stop. All right. All right. I think we've vamped enough, guys. Thank you so much for being here. Follow Jack in social media. I shall never come back. That's true.

Thank you to everyone to support our Patreon. Thanks to Kane Parsons for putting together a cool movie. We'll see you guys later. Later's. Bye.