Seven years before Backrooms brought the liminal space aesthetic to the masses, a 2019 psychological horror movie starring Deborah Ann Woll pulled it off incredibly well. Kane Parson’s Backrooms has taken the world by storm, becoming A24’s highest-grossing movie ever, and firmly establishing the young filmmaker as one of the best in the horror genre. Parsons is not the first to explore the idea of liminal space, however, and Backrooms is just the latest in a long line.
Movies including the likes of Vivarium, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Cube, Exit 8, The Shining, and more have all used the unsettling liminal space aesthetic to confuse, terrify, and captivate audiences. While Backrooms has perhaps become the most mainstream and recognizable example, 2019’s Escape Room, directed by Adam Robitel, is another excellent example, and its visual style, character development, high-stakes action, and thematic resonance make it the perfect follow-up to Backrooms.
Escape Room Is An Underrated Horror Gem
Despite its box office success, grossing a total of $156 million worldwide on a budget of only $9 million, Escape Room received a mixed critical response when it was released in January 2019. The movie holds only a 51% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it deserves far more positive recognition, especially in today’s horror landscape. Escape Room is the kind of grounded yet action-packed horror flick that would fit in among Backrooms, Obsession, Weapons, and more.
Escape Room features an ensemble cast including Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Tyler Labine, Nik Dodani, Jay Ellis, and Daredevil star Deborah Ann Woll as six people sent to navigate a series of deadly escape rooms by the enigmatic organization, Minos. The group makes their way through rooms, including a giant oven, a winter cabin leading to a snowy woodland and frozen lake, an upside-down bar, a hospital ward, and ultimately the entire Minos building itself.
This seemingly endless and impossibly large interior space defines the liminal space aesthetic, and, aside from the cleverly designed rooms, unexpected twists, deaths, and revelations, and strong visual effects and style, Escape Room’s characters make the movie glow. Russell and Logan, notably, are fantastic in their leading roles of college student Zoey and grocery store worker Ben, but Deborah Ann Woll steals the show as PTSD-struck Iraq War veteran Amanda Harper.
Escape Room delivers a fresh take on the deadly-arena horror subgenre without relying solely on grotesque bloodshed. Characters are fully formed, diverse, and complex, and the set pieces are phenomenal, and the focus on genuine suspense, clever clue-solving, and adrenaline-fueled action makes the movie even more compelling. Ignoring a questionable sequel, 2021’s Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, Escape Room deserves more attention, even seven years after its release.
Escape Room & Backrooms Share Many Thematic & Visual Elements
Just like how Escape Room follows characters exploring various rooms in an impossibly large liminal space, overseen by a major secretive organization, Backrooms does practically the same. The 2026 psychological horror movie follows furniture store owner Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who discovers an entrance to the Backrooms, an immense collection of interconnected architecturally uncanny rooms overseen by the Async Research Institute, in his store’s basement.
Clark informs his therapist, Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), and his employees, Bobby (Finn Bennett) and Kat (Lukita Maxwell), all of whom also explore the Backrooms, though this has tragic consequences for all but Mary, who ultimately survives Backrooms’ events. The unnatural space, as it does in Escape Room, tests the characters’ psychological limits and contains threats far beyond just getting lost or trapped, which makes Escape Room and Backrooms fantastic companion pieces.
While Escape Room led to a lackluster sequel, which brought Deborah Ann Woll back as Amanda Harper despite her character’s apparent death in the original movie, Backrooms’ future plans are looking far more hopeful. There has been talk of a possible Backrooms sequel, and Parsons has expressed interest in a TV series exploring the concept, which will continue to develop the liminal space far beyond what Escape Room could ever do, but the 2019 movie still deserves more praise as a standalone ride.