# The Backrooms > The Backrooms is a 2019 creepypasta originating from a 4chan photograph of a yellow-carpeted liminal room, where users noclip into a collaborative fiction universe of infinite interconnected levels. The Backrooms is a creepypasta and collaborative horror concept born from a single photograph of a yellow-carpeted room posted on 4chan in 2019. An anonymous user's short reply describing an infinite maze of empty rooms you could "noclip" into launched one of the internet's most expansive collaborative fiction projects, spawning thousands of fan-created "levels," multiple video games, a viral YouTube series by Kane Parsons, and a forthcoming A24 feature film. ## Origin The image that started everything was taken on June 12, 2002, with a Sony Cyber-shot camera during the renovation of a former furniture store at 807-811 Oregon Street in Oshkosh, Wisconsin[4]. The building, once home to Rohner's Home Furnishings, was being converted into a HobbyTown hobby shop with an RC car racing track called Revolution Racing[5]. One photograph from the renovation showed a large carpeted room with yellow wallpaper and fluorescent lighting, shot at a Dutch angle. The image was uploaded to the HobbyTown Oshkosh website on March 2, 2003, with the file name "Dsc00161.jpg" and captioned as "the original view of the East (Oval) room"[5]. This photograph circulated on various message boards between 2011 and 2018 before landing on 4chan. On April 21, 2018, an anonymous user posted the image on /x/ (4chan's paranormal board) in a cursed images thread[3]. Then on May 12, 2019, a different anonymous user started a new /x/ thread asking people to "post disquieting images that just feel 'off'" and included the same photograph[4]. Another user replied with the text that would define the entire concept: > "If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you."[2] That single paragraph, just 75 words, launched an entire genre. - **Platform:** 4chan /x/ board (original post), Reddit (community expansion) - **Creator:** Anonymous 4chan user (original image poster, 2018), Anonymous 4chan user (creepypasta text, 2019), Kane Parsons (YouTube found footage series) - **Date:** 2019 ## Overview The Backrooms describe a fictional extradimensional space made up of seemingly endless empty rooms with yellow wallpaper, damp carpet, and buzzing fluorescent lights[4]. The core premise is simple: if you accidentally "noclip" out of reality (a term borrowed from video game glitches where players clip through solid geometry), you end up trapped in this monotonous labyrinth[2]. The horror comes not from monsters or gore but from the uncanny familiarity of the space. It looks like somewhere you've been before, a forgotten office or a dead mall corridor, but stretched into infinity with no exit[1]. What makes The Backrooms unique among creepypastas is its open-ended, community-driven nature. There is no single author or canonical storyline. Thousands of internet users have contributed their own "levels" beyond the original yellow rooms, each with distinct architecture, rules, and creatures[4]. The concept taps into liminal space aesthetics, that eerie feeling you get from seeing normally crowded places completely empty, and turned it into a full-blown fictional universe[1]. ## How It Spread Things moved fast after the 4chan post. On May 14, 2019, another thread combining the image and the creepypasta text appeared on /x/[3]. Two days later it hit Reddit's r/greentext with the caption "Worse than any creepypasta out there," pulling over 32,000 upvotes[3]. On May 18, a Reddit user named yourdndguy posted an expanded creepypasta version to r/creepypasta[3]. The very next day, Twitter user @GearboxGunman uploaded a computer-animated walkthrough of "infinite" backrooms, racking up over 950 retweets and 4,400 likes[3]. The concept quickly outgrew its original single-room premise. Fans on Reddit began constructing an elaborate mythology with additional "levels" beyond the original (retroactively named Level 0). Level 1 featured industrial architecture, Level 2 consisted of dark service tunnels, and the numbering kept climbing[4]. Dedicated wikis on Fandom and Wikidot cataloged the expanding lore[4]. A faction of fans who preferred the minimalist original splintered off, with a Reddit user named Litbeep creating r/TrueBackrooms to focus on the pure concept[4]. By March 2020, The Backrooms had spread to TikTok, where users shared the images alongside other liminal space content[3]. The r/backrooms subreddit hit 157,000 members by March 2022[4]. The #liminalspaces hashtag, closely tied to The Backrooms, amassed nearly 100 million views on TikTok[4]. ## How to Use The Backrooms work in several ways depending on the platform: **As a reference or joke:** People typically caption an image of an empty, fluorescent-lit space with something like "POV: you noclipped out of reality" or "me when I accidentally enter The Backrooms." Any weirdly familiar, empty indoor space can get the treatment. **As collaborative fiction:** Writers contribute new "levels" to the Backrooms wiki, each with its own description, rules, entities, and survival tips. The format usually follows a template: level number, physical description, danger rating, and notes on what creatures inhabit the space. **As found footage video:** Creators film or animate first-person footage of wandering through empty, unsettling spaces. The Kane Pixels style uses VHS-era aesthetics, shaky camera work, and analog distortion effects. The key is showing vast empty spaces with minimal action, letting the emptiness do the heavy lifting. **As liminal space content:** Simply posting a photograph of an empty hallway, abandoned mall, or vacant office at an odd hour and tagging it with Backrooms references. The image should feel simultaneously familiar and wrong. ## Cultural Impact The Backrooms moved from 4chan in-joke to mainstream cultural touchstone faster than most creepypastas. The A24 film adaptation, directed by the teenager whose YouTube series popularized the concept, represents one of the clearest pipelines from internet folklore to Hollywood production in recent years[2]. Dan Erickson naming The Backrooms as an influence on Severance shows its reach into prestige television[4]. The concept's influence on the broader liminal space aesthetic is significant. While the question of whether The Backrooms invented or merely popularized liminal horror is debated, the creepypasta gave the movement its most recognizable visual language[4]. The #liminalspaces hashtag's nearly 100 million TikTok views are largely downstream of The Backrooms' cultural footprint[4]. Tama Leaver, professor of internet studies at Curtin University, noted that the "eerie feeling of familiarity" is what draws fans together[4]. The Backrooms proved that horror doesn't need explicit threats. Sometimes an empty room with bad carpet is enough. ## Fun Facts - The original photograph was taken with a Sony Cyber-shot on June 12, 2002, making the image 17 years old by the time it became a meme[4]. - The room in the photo needed renovation because of extensive water damage, which is why it looked so barren and unsettling[5]. - Kane Parsons was still in high school when A24 signed him to direct the feature film adaptation[2]. - The original creepypasta text is only about 75 words long, yet it spawned a mythology with hundreds of documented levels and entities[4]. - The building at 807-811 Oregon Street in Oshkosh was converted into an RC car racing track called Revolution Racing, and the original room layout no longer exists[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is The Backrooms? The Backrooms is a creepypasta and collaborative horror fiction about an infinite maze of empty, yellow-wallpapered rooms with fluorescent lighting that you can supposedly enter by "noclipping" out of reality[4]. ### Where did The Backrooms come from? The concept originated on 4chan's /x/ board on May 12, 2019, when an anonymous user replied to a photograph of a yellow room with a short horror narrative about being trapped in endless empty rooms[3]. ### What does The Backrooms mean? The name refers to the kind of behind-the-scenes, utilitarian spaces found in offices and malls. The horror comes from the idea of being trapped in an infinite version of these mundane, liminal spaces with no way out[1]. ### How do you use The Backrooms? People share photos of empty, fluorescent-lit spaces with captions about noclipping out of reality, create found footage videos, or write collaborative fiction adding new "levels" to the Backrooms mythology[2]. ### Is The Backrooms still popular? Yes. An A24 feature film directed by Kane Parsons is in production, and the concept maintains active communities on Reddit, Discord, and TikTok[2]. ### What is the original Backrooms image? The photo was taken on June 12, 2002, during renovations of a former furniture store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, that was being converted into a HobbyTown hobby shop[4]. ### Who is Kane Parsons? Kane Parsons, formerly known online as Kane Pixels, is the YouTuber who created the viral Backrooms found footage series starting in January 2022 and was subsequently hired by A24 to direct a feature film adaptation[2]. ### What are Backrooms levels? Fans expanded the original single-room concept into hundreds of distinct "levels," each with unique environments, rules, and creatures. Level 0 is the original yellow rooms, Level 1 has industrial architecture, and Level 2 features dark service tunnels[4]. ### What is the connection between The Backrooms and liminal spaces? The Backrooms popularized the liminal space aesthetic online, giving a narrative framework to the unsettling feeling of seeing normally busy places empty. The #liminalspaces hashtag reached nearly 100 million views on TikTok[4]. ### Where was the original Backrooms photo taken? The photo was taken at 807-811 Oregon Street in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in a building that housed Rohner's Home Furnishings before being acquired by HobbyTown in 2003[5]. ### Is there a Backrooms movie? Yes. A24 announced in February 2023 that Kane Parsons would direct a feature film adaptation starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve[3]. ### What does "noclip" mean in The Backrooms? "Noclip" is a video game term for a cheat or glitch that lets players pass through solid walls. In Backrooms lore, it refers to accidentally falling through reality into the Backrooms[2]. ## References 1. [The Backrooms - Уровень 7.2 "Титанический Титаник" - смотреть видео онлайн от «Чистая энергия и уборка в гармонии» в хорошем качестве, бесплатно опубликованное 17 ноября 2023 года в 2:35:15 00:04:14.]() 2. [Architecture: The Cult Following Of Liminal Space — Musée Magazine]() 3. [What Are The Backrooms and Where Did They Come From?]() 4. [The Backrooms - Know Your Meme]() 5. [The Backrooms - Wikipedia]() 6. [/x/ - Paranormal » Thread #22672919 » The Backrooms]() 7. [THE NEW]() 8. [The McDonald's Backrooms: An Urban Legend Explained]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-backrooms Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library