Backrooms actor Chiwetel Ejiofor was surprised to find out the 30,000 square foot set is the first of its kind: 'I thought that somewhere it had been built before'

Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor walking through the backrooms. — (Image credit: A24)

We're just over a week away from the release of A24's Backrooms film, and while horror fans have been eating particularly well so far this year, this one's really for the horror game players as director Kane Parsons seeks to adapt a long running and much loved creepypasta.

The bar's pretty high considering just how much unique and interesting Backrooms media already exists online, but—without getting my hopes up too high—it seems as if Parsons has stepped up to the task, not least by creating a gigantic set that surprised even the actors.

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Chiwetel Ejiofor says he got excited to be on the ‘BACKROOMS’ set after seeing how joyful Kane Parsons was to work on them.“I was very late to understand that this was the first physical set for the Backrooms, I thought seeing the shorts that somewhere it had been built before” pic.twitter.com/BACr3t09SoMay 19, 2026

I don't blame Ejiofor, the various Backrooms shorts and even some games you come across look eerily real. So much so that it can be easy to believe the liminal space and endless tunnels could be located somewhere. It all probably stems from the fact that the inspiration behind it all is, in fact, a real place, located in a Wisconsin Hobbytown Oshkosh.

But the set for the Backrooms film is much larger than its real life counterpart. Parsons ended up creating a set that spanned 30,000 square feet. It was so expansive that "some people were getting lost" Parsons explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"Once I got hip to that I was really excited," Ejiofor added. "Also because [Kane Parsons] was so excited. Kane was buzzing being in the space. So it was great. Yes it was vast and trying to find your way through it was complicated, but to have a visceral tactile set like that was great."

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.