This week on Friday Night Frightfest, we are logging on and diving deep into the dark corners of internet-born folklore! Online urban legends—lovingly dubbed “creepypastas”—have officially conquered the silver screen, moving from text-based forums to major cinematic blockbusters. We are pairing Kane Parsons’ massive, record-breaking summer box office smash Backrooms (2026) with the indie lo-fi horror anthology, Creepypasta (2023). Dust off your old CRT monitors and mind the static—you never know what’s lurking in the digital void.
Backrooms (2026)
Talk about a viral phenomenon making history. Directed by 21-year-old Kane Parsons in his feature-length directorial debut (expanding on his legendary YouTube found-footage universe) and distributed by A24, Backrooms is an absolute triumph of psychological and liminal space horror. The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, a struggling furniture store owner who discovers a terrifying, glitchy dimensional gateway in his basement that leads into an endless, yellow-wallpapered labyrinth. Alongside his therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve), they are hunted through the chaotic, disordered halls by a deeply unsettling entity known as “Pirate Clark” (played by the 7-foot-8 Robert Bobroczkyi). It is a gorgeous, suffocating masterpiece that proves internet lore can carry a massive theatrical narrative.
Creepypasta (2023)
To understand how we got to the big-budget heights of Backrooms, you have to look back at the indie anthology roots of the genre. Released on Screambox, Creepypasta utilizes a gritty, low-fi wrap-around story where an unnamed young man finds himself trapped inside an abandoned house. To figure out how he arrived, he is forced by a menacing presence to sift through a series of viral, dark-web videos. Comprising multiple short segments directed by various indie filmmakers, the movie evokes the early days of internet chain-letters, hidden analog signals, and creepy folklore. It’s a DIY tribute to the era of staying up way too late reading scary stories on message boards.
Join us as we analyze the evolution of cyber urban legends. We’ll discuss how Backrooms successfully traded the typical “jump scare” formula for deep, existential dread and surrealist set designs, versus how Creepypasta serves as a raw, analog time capsule of online horror culture.
Spoilers start around 7:07.