The other most popular horror movie 2026 is a surprisingly effective piece of horror cinema that manages to create tension and suspense with empty rooms.

This film began its life as an online trend in which large unsettling empty spaces were depicted and horror stories rose up about them created by the community. From there, YouTuber Kane Parsons created a web series based on the concept. That web series grew in such popularity that Parsons was eventually able to adapt it into this film.

I only know any of this because I did a lot of research after watching the film. This trend was completely unknown to me. I had heard of liminal spaces which is an aesthetic that depicts large empty spaces. The fact they are devoid of people creates an uncanny of eerie feeling. I had no idea that idea had been expanded to such an extent that it could carry an entire ten million dollar budget film. Yet here we are.

I was very skeptical of this walking into it. How could an empty room be frightening? How could a series of large spaces elicit a fear response? I was so skeptical that I didn’t make it a priority to go see it in the theater. I wish I had seen it in a theater. I wish I had made the effort to check it out, because the film is very well made and very effect.

The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, as Clark a furniture store owner who is struggling with his life. An ugly divorce, a drinking problem, and major anger issues, Clark is on the verge of collapse when he stumbles onto an invisible door in his furniture showroom. The alternate reality that he steps into is an impossibly large space that seems to be a funhouse reflection of his store showroom. It is vast and devoid of people, yet sinister and something seems to be stalking the endless halls of the space.

The production design is the real star of this film. Ejiofor is truly brilliant, but the film is all about the eerie and unsettling spaces that seem to stretch for all eternity. It reminded me of the endless hallway screen saver from the nineties, (just to show how old I am) made real. No matter how far Clark travels down these halls there are always more rooms and spaces to see. The spaces are dotted with random objects that also all feel wrong. Two chairs fused together, a sofa half sunken into the floor, a stop sign but the words are reversed, everything is just wrong enough to create the uncanny feeling that the world is wrong. So much credit for the films success hinges not he design teams ability to make these rooms feel weird and off kilter. You don’t have a movie if that isn’t nailed perfectly, and this team nailed it.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is a brilliant actor. He has been turning in A+ work for decades, and here he perfectly conveys a man who is boiling just under the surface. His face is a thin veil between politeness and uncontrollable violent anger. He does a great job of making this character engaging and not someone I reject out of hand. As he spends more time in the backrooms his psychology slips in the most unsettling way. It’s a great performance.

I was genuinely disturbed and tense and frightened at many moments in this movie. The film even made found footage style shooting work for me, and I hate found footage. (for the most part. I don’t hate it as a rule, but I can only think of two movies made in that style that I liked.) Clark explores the backrooms with his two store employees and a video camera to document the backrooms. This sequence worked incredibly well for me. The point of view style served to put me in the characters POV instead of feeling like a gimmick to hide the poor production values of the movie. It made sense that they were recording and would be recording. Too often in found footage, at the twenty minute mark I start asking “why are you still filming this?” This one made it work very well.

I will say the ending left me disappointed. The film gets too much into its own mythology. It has too many long moments of explaining the backrooms in metaphysical terms that do nothing to actually explain anything. It just felt that the film got a little too high on its own mythology. I thought the film had too much reverence for the world they created. It’s not a major problem, but it bumped me out of the ending. I also felt that the journeys the characters were going on did not neatly wrap up in a meaningful way. The story telling just left a lot up to interpretation and didn’t hit a strong ending to the story. The film ended more with a whimper than a bang for me.

All that said, this was a very strong film. It was creepy and eerie. It had incredible production design and great actors. I would definitely recommend this to fans of the genre and non fans a like. It is my cup of tea. A-