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Backrooms has grown from an unsettling piece of internet folklore into one of modern horror’s most unlikely success stories. The concept originated with an anonymous 2019 post depicting an eerie, yellow-tinted space seemingly disconnected from reality, before filmmaker Kane Parsons dramatically expanded its mythology with his viral Backrooms found-footage series on YouTube.
Parsons ultimately brought that vision to theaters with A24’s Backrooms, transforming the familiar maze of empty rooms and fluorescent lights into a feature-length exploration of liminal, surreal, and atmospheric horror. The movie became a major box office success, proving that the internet-born concept had legs far beyond its original online virality, and it’s inspired several spinoff projects utilizing the same concept.
The franchise already appears poised to keep expanding, with Parsons reportedly returning to direct Backrooms 2. Before that next movie arrives, however, fans will have another anxiety-fueled adventure with Shadow of Backrooms, releasing in 2027, taking its uniquely unsettling world in a very different direction.
Shadow of Backrooms will give fans another way to descend into the franchise’s unsettling world in 2027, this time through a first-person horror game built around survival/exploration and puzzle-solving. Developed and published by solo developer Panuzi (via Steam), the game sends players through a collection of abandoned rooms, seemingly endless corridors, and surreal environments designed to capture the liminal horror that made the Backrooms phenomenon so effective in the first place.
The basic objective is relatively simple: explore, find a way forward, and avoid whatever might be lurking around every corner. Players will have puzzles to solve and secrets to uncover while attempting to escape hostile entities scattered throughout the Backrooms. The game will support both single-player and online co-op, with multiplayer allowing groups of up to four people to explore together through Steam lobbies.
That combination should make Shadow of Backrooms particularly appealing to fans of the concept’s liminal atmospheric horror. Instead of simply watching someone become trapped in these impossible spaces, players will have to navigate them themselves, determining where to go while dealing with puzzles and whatever entities they encounter along the way. Panuzi also plans to develop the game’s story further through updates, potentially giving its version of the Backrooms a more substantial narrative as development continues.
Importantly, Panuzi plans to release Shadow of Backrooms in Early Access soon, which is obviously not the finished version of the game. According to the Steam page, Panuzi intends to use Early Access to regularly add content and mechanics while incorporating player feedback, which has become pretty standard practice for solo and indie studios.
The initial version is expected to contain several explorable levels, puzzles, and entity encounters, although level design, enemy AI, performance, and other elements will continue to be refined. New liminal environments, improved puzzles, additional narrative material, and further optimization are among the features planned as development progresses.
The current goal is to reach a full release “by the end of 2027,” although Panuzi stresses that the schedule remains uncertain. Development could take longer, particularly if plans for a more developed story expand the project’s scope. The game is also expected to be free initially, with its price potentially increasing gradually as additional content and story elements are introduced.
For now, no specific 2027 Early Access date has been announced, but Shadow of Backrooms is available to wishlist on Steam.
- Brand
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Valve
- Original Release Date
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September 12, 2003