The Entire Backrooms Timeline Explained

Before Kane Parsons' "Backrooms" took movie theaters by storm and became the first A24 film to cross the $100 million benchmark at the domestic box office, the director was already a seasoned Backrooms veteran. It's probably safe to say that his web series based on the popular liminal space creepypasta has become the definitive take on Backrooms lore, and watching Looper's video above will get you up to speed with its entire timeline.

The surreal Backrooms, you see, is far more than just a creepy complex with endless sickly yellow corridors and other eerily nondescript utilitarian spaces. While much of this strange location remains deliberately mysterious, its exploration and the people affiliated with attempts to make sense of it actually go back decades in Parsons' mythology. Since the "Backrooms" movie is also his work and it quite explicitly teases ties into his grander lore, being aware of the entire timeline is a good way to make the most of the film.

While it largely focuses on troubled furniture store owner Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his brave and committed therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve), the "Backrooms" movie also features plenty of small details that reference other works — including one that's a direct connection to the YouTube lore. We're talking about the storyline that features researcher Phil (Mark Duplass) and his company, Async, which is an important nod to the grander Backrooms mythology.

Just like the movie, the web series features Async as a corporation that stumbled into the Backrooms and has reshaped itself into a research institute that focuses on exploring this extradimensional location. The ending of "Backrooms" effectively confirms that Async will be a major presence in the inevitable sequel, and since the movie is explicitly based on a creepypasta, it will likely be increasingly important to know just how the events in the grander Backrooms mythology have unfolded.

Looper's video above is a great way to learn the entire timeline of the web series and how the "Backrooms" movie ties into it, so be sure to check it out if you enjoyed the film as much as we did.