Culture news and discussion on TalkFuse.
Glitched into empty space: why video games are obsessed with the Backrooms
The success of the 2026 horror film Backrooms, an A24 release that has become a box office sensation, has drawn renewed attention to its origins in video game culture, specifically the practice of "noclipping" – exploiting glitches to pass through walls and floors into areas never meant to be seen by players. This phenomenon, which began circulating widely in a May 2019 4chan thread, matters because it illustrates how a piece of internet folklore born from gaming bugs has crossed into mainstream cinema, with developers and players alike recognising the film's unsettling liminal spaces as echoes of experiences they've had exploring the hidden architecture of games like Batman: Arkham City and Skyrim.
Developers such as Studio Chyr's William Chyr describe noclipping as a "Wizard of Oz moment", revealing the artificial scaffolding behind a game's world, such as flat textures standing in for distant cars or bookcases embedded in the ground disguised as tables. The Backrooms mythos itself remains open-source in spirit, having grown across 4chan, Reddit and fan wikis, which has allowed numerous unofficial games to adopt its yellow-walled, hazmat-suited aesthetic, most notably Escape the Backrooms, released in early access in August 2022, just months after Kane Parsons' original videos popularised the concept.
In short
- Backrooms film's horror stems from gaming's "noclip" glitch culture.
- Idea originated in a May 2019 4chan thread on unsettling images.
- Fan-made games like Escape the Backrooms (2022) built on the trend.
Explained simply
Video game players sometimes exploit glitches to move through walls and floors into unfinished areas, a practice called noclipping. This phenomenon gave rise to the Backrooms, an internet folklore concept that originated on 4chan in May 2019, describing vast empty spaces filled with yellow corridors and humming fluorescent lights. The concept tapped into something familiar to gamers: the eerie experience of discovering the hidden, unfinished scaffolding that exists behind a game's polished world.
The Backrooms developed as collaborative storytelling, with creators across 4chan, Reddit and fan wikis adding their own versions and variations to the shared mythology. This open-source approach allowed the concept to cross into mainstream culture, most visibly through a recent horror film adaptation that has achieved significant box office success. The story's appeal lies in how it transforms a piece of gaming culture rooted in technical flaws into something artistically compelling.
Video game developers have created numerous titles that deliberately recreate the Backrooms aesthetic, treating it as shared creative property rather than a closed franchise. Kane Parsons' original videos popularised the concept, and subsequent creators have built elaborate games and stories expanding the mythology. This represents a broader cultural shift where gaming glitches and hidden spaces have become subjects worthy of serious artistic exploration.
Art Celebrity Culture Entertainment Film Gaming Horror Research Science Software Space Technology