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In the world of modern horror, few ideas have captured the imagination of online communities like The Backrooms. What began as a simple image and short story posted on an internet forum has grown into a vast shared universe of mystery, fear, and creativity. The Backrooms is not just a setting — it’s a feeling. It represents the eeriness of being lost somewhere that feels both familiar and wrong, where time, logic, and reality start to fall apart. Through online storytelling, videos, and games, The Backrooms has become one of the most famous examples of “creepypasta” culture and collaborative world-building on the internet.
The Origin of The Backrooms
The story of The Backrooms began on 4chan, an anonymous imageboard, in 2019. A user posted a yellow-tinted photo of an empty, fluorescent-lit office space with dirty carpet and no furniture. The caption read:
“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.”
This post combined humor, horror, and internet slang (“noclip” refers to passing through walls or boundaries in video games) — but something about it struck a nerve. Thousands of users immediately began expanding the idea: What exactly are the Backrooms? How deep do they go? What creatures might live there? Within days, the post had inspired countless stories, images, and theories. The simple image had become the foundation for an entire mythos.
What Are The Backrooms?
At its core, The Backrooms is a liminal space — a place that exists between places. The word “liminal” comes from the Latin word limen, meaning “threshold.” Liminal spaces are those strange, in-between areas that feel oddly unsettling — like empty school hallways at night, silent airports at 3 AM, or abandoned shopping malls. These spaces look normal, but something about them feels off.
The Backrooms is the ultimate liminal space. It’s an endless maze of rooms, corridors, and hallways that seem to stretch forever. The walls are yellow and stained, the carpet is damp, and the lights buzz endlessly overhead. There’s no natural light, no doors to the outside world, and no sense of time. Some areas look like offices, others like industrial warehouses or empty playgrounds — but all share that same unsettling atmosphere.
Different creators have imagined levels within the Backrooms. Level 0, the most famous, is the original yellow maze. Later levels might include dark maintenance tunnels, flooded basements, vast hotels, and even surreal landscapes. Each level has its own rules, dangers, and “entities” — mysterious creatures that roam the halls.
Themes and Symbolism
The Backrooms works as horror not because of monsters or gore, but because of its psychological realism. It taps into a deep, shared feeling: the fear of being lost, forgotten, or trapped somewhere where no one can find you. The endless yellow rooms symbolize monotony and alienation — the kind of dull, artificial spaces that modern life often forces us into.
There’s also a sense of nostalgia mixed with unease. Many people associate the Backrooms’ appearance with the interiors of old schools, office buildings, or malls from their childhood. It looks familiar, but just unfamiliar enough to feel wrong. This blend of nostalgia and discomfort creates what psychologists call “uncanny familiarity” — the eerie feeling that something is almost, but not quite, normal.
In a deeper sense, The Backrooms can be seen as a metaphor for modern existence. It represents routine, isolation, and the overwhelming size of man-made spaces. Just like an endless maze of rooms, many people feel trapped in repetitive cycles of work, technology, and loneliness. The Backrooms is terrifying not because it’s impossible, but because it feels so possible.
Expansion Through the Internet
After its creation, the Backrooms quickly grew into a massive online phenomenon. Writers began creating detailed lore, classifying the levels, and describing entities. Artists produced eerie digital renderings of new rooms and environments. Soon, entire wikis were dedicated to cataloging the Backrooms’ structure — turning it into a collaborative storytelling project that anyone could contribute to.
In 2022, filmmaker Kane Parsons, also known as Kane Pixels, released a short film on YouTube titled The Backrooms (Found Footage). The video showed a person accidentally “noclipping” into the Backrooms while filming a movie, then desperately trying to escape. Its realistic found-footage style, complete with VHS effects and haunting sound design, made it feel terrifyingly real. The short went viral and now has millions of views, widely credited with reigniting the Backrooms trend. Kane Pixels later expanded it into a series with its own story and lore, further deepening the mythology.
Game developers also joined in. Several indie horror games — such as The Backrooms Game, Escape the Backrooms, and The Complex: Found Footage — allow players to explore the eerie environment firsthand. These games rely on atmosphere and tension rather than jump scares, staying true to the original concept.
Why The Backrooms Is So Effective
The power of The Backrooms lies in imagination. Unlike traditional horror, it doesn’t show everything. Instead, it invites players and viewers to imagine what might be around the next corner. The emptiness of the space becomes its own form of terror — you start to fill it with your own fears.
The Backrooms also connects with the growing popularity of analog horror and internet folklore — genres that use retro technology, found footage, and realistic storytelling to make the impossible seem plausible. It blurs the line between fiction and reality, making the horror feel personal and immersive.
In addition, it demonstrates how the internet can create collaborative art. Millions of people have added to the Backrooms mythos — not for money, but for the shared joy of world-building. It’s a digital campfire story for the 21st century.
Conclusion
The Backrooms began as a single unsettling Backrooms Game image, yet it has evolved into one of the most iconic internet horror creations of all time. Its power lies in simplicity — a yellow room, an endless maze, and the question: What if you could fall out of reality? It combines nostalgia, fear, and imagination into something that feels both personal and universal.
In many ways, The Backrooms is more than just a horror story — it’s a reflection of modern life. It reminds us how easy it is to feel lost in familiar spaces, to question what’s real, and to find mystery even in the ordinary. Whether experienced through videos, games, or stories, The Backrooms continues to haunt the imagination of anyone who dares to wander too far beyond the edge of reality.
