What are the Backrooms?

Have you ever felt yourself lost in an endless corridor in your dreams, familiar yet utterly foreign? Can you imagine being trapped alone in a never-ending labyrinth filled with yellow wallpaper, damp carpets, and humming fluorescent lights? The answer to “what are the Backrooms” will introduce you to the internet’s most unsettling liminal nightmare. This creepypasta phenomenon has become one of modern horror’s most captivating legends.

The Backrooms story, which began on 4chan in 2019 and rapidly spread across the internet, has embedded itself in the minds of millions. This parallel dimension you fall into by “no-clipping” out of reality offers an escape room of terror filled with infinite corridors, mysterious levels, and deadly entities. In this article, we’ll explore the depths of the Backrooms universe, examine its levels, and understand why this internet legend has become so compelling.

The Backrooms: Birth of an Internet Legend

How Did It All Begin? (4chan and the “No-Clip” Concept)

The Backrooms phenomenon started with a mysterious photograph shared on 4chan’s /x/ (paranormal) board in 2019. The image of an endlessly stretching empty corridor with yellow wallpaper and fluorescent lighting sparked users’ imaginations. The “no-clip” concept introduced alongside this image was a term borrowed from video games.

In gaming, no-clipping refers to a glitch that allows characters to pass through walls. In the Backrooms universe, it describes stepping “outside” of reality through a wrong move and finding yourself in this liminal space. It’s as if you’ve fallen through a system error in our world, transitioning into this alternate dimension that feels familiar yet profoundly alien.

Common ways people enter the Backrooms from reality include:

• Suddenly losing direction while walking through long corridors and emerging in an unfamiliar area
• Opening the wrong door or climbing stairs in empty buildings
• Getting lost during the transition between dreaming and waking
• Reality perception failing during periods of intense stress or fatigue

Liminal Spaces and Their Effect on Us

“Liminal space” refers to transitional places with unclear purposes. Empty corridors, abandoned offices, dark parking garages, airport terminals at midnight… These kinds of spaces create deep unease in people because while they seem familiar, they simultaneously signal that something is wrong. The Backrooms is precisely this feeling transformed into a liminal nightmare. That’s what I find compelling, the uncanniness of places that look familiar but somehow off. If you’re someone who constantly dreams about places from your past, your elementary school, old homes, etc. but they appear different from how they actually were, you’ll likely appreciate this internet phenomenon.

Endless Corridors and Mysterious Rooms: The Backrooms Levels

Level 0: “The Lobby” — A Familiar Yet Foreign Beginning

Level 0, the most well-known of the Backrooms levels, is also called “The Lobby.” This is the first area you encounter when you no-clip out of reality. Infinitely stretching yellow wallpaper, damp and stained carpets, constantly buzzing fluorescent lights… Level 0’s atmosphere resembles a school hallway from your childhood, but as if it never ends.

Wandering this level, you feel yourself getting lost among monotonous yellow walls. Wet carpets, the flickering and inconsistent light of fluorescent bulbs, identical corridors extending in every direction. Simultaneously geometrically inconsistent, this space distorts your sense of reality and time even when walking straight, giving you a response completely different from the real world. The answer to how to enter the Backrooms begins at this level, but the answer to how to escape the Backrooms is far more complex.

Examples of Other Known Levels

Level 1 is described as an industrial area surrounded by dark, narrow corridors. Concrete walls, metal pipes, and the constant sound of dripping water are this level’s most characteristic features. While navigating Level 1, mysterious sounds and shadows from dark corners remind you that danger is always near.

Level 2 resembles maintenance tunnels and similar technical areas. Here, complex pipe systems and the continuous sounds of machinery create an especially claustrophobic atmosphere, making it much easier to get lost than in other levels.

Level 3, known as “Electrical Station,” is filled with metal platforms and stairs resembling a massive power plant. The constant electrical crackling and high-voltage danger make this level extremely hazardous. Deep chasms visible beneath the platforms remind you that one wrong step could have fatal consequences.

Level 4, called “The Office,” consists of endless office cubicles. Gray walls, old computers, desk chairs, and constantly ringing phones are this level’s basic elements.

Each level has its own unique dangers, rules, and exit routes. While some levels are considered relatively safe, others are filled with deadly entities.

“The End” and the Limits of Despair

The Backrooms’ final level, known as “The End,” maintains its mystery about whether it’s truly the ultimate destination of this labyrinth system. According to some theories, this level offers a real exit. However, most believe The End is just another deception—that there’s no true escape from this eternal nightmare.

Inhabitants of the Loneliness Labyrinth: Backrooms Entities

The most significant entities you might encounter in the Backrooms include:

• Smilers
• Hounds
• Skin-Stealers
• Partygoers

The Grinning Threat: Smilers

Appearance: Humanoid entities visible only by their eyes and smile in darkness
Behavior: Generally passive, but aggressive when provoked
Habitat: Dark areas, common in Levels 2 and 3
Protection: Use of light, avoiding eye contact

Smilers are among the most iconic threats you can face in this universe. White teeth and eyes glowing in dark corners, perpetually grinning faces… Smilers are extremely sensitive to light sources. If you encounter a Smiler, never make direct eye contact and move away as quietly as possible. Flashlights and strong lights are the most effective methods for keeping these entities at bay.

Hunters of the Corridors: Hounds

Entities known as Hounds are humanoid in form but extremely fast and aggressive hunters. These creatures with long, bare arms and legs move on all fours while tracking their prey through corridors. Escaping Hounds depends on your speed and agility. If you sense a Hound nearby, start running and never look back.

The Skin-Stealing Mimics: Skin-Stealers

The Skin-Stealer is perhaps the most insidious Backrooms creature. These beings wear human skin to mimic their victims. To identify a Skin-Stealer, pay attention to their movement patterns and speech. They typically move very slowly, and their speech has a mechanical, repetitive quality. If someone familiar seems to be acting strangely around you, keep your distance and observe.

The Friendly Nightmare: Partygoers

Partygoers are the most deceptive entities with their seemingly friendly behavior. Yellow balloons, party hats, and constantly smiling faces promise you a fun party. However, the true purpose of these “parties” is to transform you into one of them. If you see yellow balloons and hear party sounds from a distance, never approach. Partygoers physically transform their victims into their own kind.

Other Known Entities and Ways to Avoid Them

Entities like Facelings, Dullers, and Scratchers also make the Backrooms universe dangerous. General survival rules include:

• Stay quiet and avoid making unnecessary noise
• Use safe rooms for rest when you find them
• Preserve water and food sources
• Never stay alone; if you encounter other people (after confirming they’re real), move as a group
• Use your light sources wisely

The Backrooms Phenomenon’s Impact on Popular Culture

A phenomenon that spread so rapidly online and continues to grow obviously didn’t remain limited to a few videos and Reddit stories. It has manifested across popular culture from cinema to gaming.

Kane Pixels’ YouTube Series: A Visual Masterpiece

Kane Pixels’ Backrooms series is one of the most successful projects bringing this internet legend to visual life. This young content creator transformed the Backrooms universe into short horror films I genuinely appreciate through his YouTube releases. These found-footage style videos make viewers feel as if they’re actually navigating the Backrooms.

Kane’s work stands out particularly for its success in sound design and atmosphere creation. The hum of fluorescent lights, distant mysterious sounds, and corridor echoes perfectly reflect the universe’s eerie atmosphere.

Games, Films, and Other Adaptations

The Backrooms phenomenon has inspired various video games and independent film projects. Countless Backrooms games exist on Roblox, and many independent Backrooms-themed games are being developed. Additionally, major production studios like A24 are working on projects inspired by this universe.

Roblox is one of the platforms with the most extensive game adaptations of the Backrooms. Thanks to Roblox’s creative freedom, users can design and share their own Backrooms experiences. Popular games on Roblox like “Apeirophobia” and “The True Backrooms” successfully deliver an authentic Backrooms atmosphere to players. In these games, players navigate their characters through labyrinthine corridors, encounter mysterious entities, and search for escape routes from these infinite liminal spaces.

Alongside Roblox adaptations, many Backrooms-themed games exist on major gaming platforms like Steam. Games like “Inside the Backrooms” and “Enter The Backrooms” stand out with their co-op gameplay modes, where players work together to overcome this unsettling universe’s dangers. Multiplayer modes especially require strategic movement and constant vigilance with friends.

Among games developed around the Backrooms theme, you’ll also find story-driven and atmospheric experiences. These games focus on creating psychological tension and maintaining a continuous atmosphere of dread. For example, games like “The Complex: Found Footage” aim to pull players into deep uncertainty by emphasizing visual and audio details.

Mobile platforms have also caught the Backrooms craze. Simple yet effective games available on iOS and Android offer players short but intense horror experiences they can enjoy during their free time. These games are typically built around limited spaces and quick escape scenarios, continuing to attract mobile gaming enthusiasts.

The Backrooms phenomenon’s game adaptations are notable for successfully conveying the liminal horror at the phenomenon’s core to players. With each new game adaptation, the Backrooms universe expands, giving players the opportunity to create their own stories within these mysterious, fear-filled corridors.

Why Is It So Captivating and Terrifying?

While the answer to “are the Backrooms real” is “no,” there are psychological reasons this phenomenon has become so popular. People’s curiosity about the unknown, feelings of loneliness, fear of being lost, and the unease created by liminal spaces make the Backrooms a perfect horror metaphor for our modern age.

The empty corridors, abandoned buildings, and transitional spaces we encounter in daily life already evoke similar feelings in our minds. The Backrooms takes these sensations and transforms them into an infinite nightmare. As I mentioned earlier, places, and even people, that appear familiar yet somehow different are, in my opinion, the most terrifying of all horror phenomena. We see this phenomenon in folk  horror narratives from around the world. Few things are as chilling as entities that mimic parents, siblings, spouses, or other acquaintances, beings you can’t quite pinpoint what’s wrong about them, but carry an undeniable strangeness. The Backrooms builds on this popular theme with remarkable success.

Is Escape from the Backrooms Possible?

One of the most frequently asked questions about this enchanting, seemingly endless liminal space horror is whether escape from the Backrooms exists, and if so, how.

Exit Routes and Safe Zones

In the Backrooms universe, there are said to be certain transition points between levels and rare exit routes. According to some theories, returning to the real world is possible under specific conditions. However, most believe that once you’ve fallen into the Backrooms, there is no true escape.

Safe zones are typically well-lit areas far from terrifying creatures. In these zones, you can rest, gather your resources, and plan your next move.

Mental Collapse and the Psychology of Despair

The greatest danger of prolonged stay in the Backrooms isn’t physical entities but mental collapse. Endless corridors, repeating patterns, and constant loneliness seriously affect one’s mental health. Loss of time perception, increasing hopelessness, and disconnection from reality are the most challenging aspects of survival in this universe.

Real or Imaginary? The Backrooms’ Shadow Over the Internet

The Backrooms, as one of the internet age’s most creative horror legends, demonstrates the power of our collective imagination. Its transformation from a simple post on 4chan into a vast universe with contributions from millions shows how modern mythology creation works.

I see this phenomenon not just as a horror story but as a metaphor reflecting our age’s anxieties. Infinite corridors and inescapable labyrinths remind us of life’s monotony and the existential confinement many people feel.

In this regard, the Backrooms is one of the best examples of internet culture’s collaborative creativity and collective horror production. Like expansion packs and new versions released for games, it continues to grow daily with new levels, entities, and stories being added. Getting lost in this universe offers perhaps the most modern nightmare of our age—a universal horror experience that anyone living in the digital age can understand.

So, have you ever felt yourself in a “back room” that was familiar yet utterly alien? Perhaps this feeling is what makes the Backrooms so effective—because deep down, we all know we’ve walked these yellow corridors.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Are the Backrooms a real place?

No, the Backrooms is entirely a fictional internet legend. This creepypasta, which began on 4chan in 2019, developed as a product of collective imagination. However, the feeling it creates about liminal spaces reflects a real psychological phenomenon.

How do you enter the Backrooms?

According to Backrooms mythology, you must “no-clip” out of reality. This could happen by losing direction while walking through long corridors, opening wrong doors in empty buildings, or having your reality perception fail during extreme stress.

Is it possible to escape the Backrooms?

While some exit routes are said to exist in the universe, most theories suggest there’s no true escape. Although transitions between some levels are possible, returning to the real world is extremely difficult.