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| Where Was ‘Backrooms’ Filmed? Inside the Creepy Real-Life Shooting Locations Behind 2026’s Most Unsettling Sci-Fi Horror Film. (Credits: IMDb) |
The internet’s favourite nightmare maze has officially levelled up. Backrooms, the 2026 sci-fi horror film directed by Kane Parsons, has already pulled massive attention long before release, not just because of its eerie yellow corridors and panic-inducing atmosphere, but because viewers are now obsessed with where this unsettling film was actually shot. Turns out, the production didn’t rely purely on computer trickery and endless green screens. A huge chunk of the film was built and filmed for real in British Columbia, Canada, where entire maze-like corridors reportedly became so confusing that even crew members accidentally wandered around like NPCs trapped in a side quest.
The production mainly took over parts of Vancouver, British Columbia, which became the central filming base for the movie under the working title Effigy. Filming began in July 2025 and wrapped just over a month later in August, but the scale of the project immediately became industry gossip. Over 30,000 square feet of practical Backrooms sets were constructed for the film, complete with stained carpets, buzzing fluorescent lights, endless yellow walls, and rooms designed to feel slightly “off” in the exact way that makes people deeply uncomfortable at 2am.
Honestly, if someone offered free rent there, most people would still decline immediately. What makes Vancouver such a perfect fit is its flexibility. The city has long been a favourite filming destination for Hollywood productions thanks to its industrial buildings, hidden warehouses, moody weather, and ability to transform into almost anywhere on screen.
In Backrooms, several warehouse interiors and sound stages around the city were reportedly redesigned into the film’s endless maze structures, while exterior sequences used quieter commercial areas around Vancouver to create that uncanny feeling that reality itself had glitched slightly.
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| IMDb |
Fans online have already joked that half the city probably looked suspiciously yellow during production. One of the most talked-about filming spots connected to the movie is Bastion Square in Victoria, a historic area located on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
Known for its old architecture, restaurants, pubs, cafés, and stone pathways, the square usually attracts tourists looking for a relaxed afternoon. For Backrooms, however, parts of the area were reportedly transformed into fictional locations, adding strange signage and altered storefront details to fit the film’s uneasy atmosphere.
It’s slightly funny imagining casual tourists just trying to order coffee while a horror film crew quietly turns the neighbourhood into an existential crisis simulator in the background.
The atmosphere of Bastion Square works particularly well because the location already carries a slightly mysterious energy. The area is famous for its historic courthouse and old underground pathways, which naturally fit the film’s strange reality-bending aesthetic.
Some fans online have even said the square already “looks like somewhere you’d accidentally enter another dimension after taking a wrong turn”. Fair enough, honestly. Another major filming location is Deep Cove in North Vancouver, which adds a completely different visual mood to the film.
Unlike the claustrophobic indoor maze sections, Deep Cove offers coastal scenery, forested surroundings, quiet roads, and calm waterfront views that contrast heavily with the panic happening inside the Backrooms themselves.
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The area has become increasingly popular with filmmakers because it can appear cosy, isolated, or slightly eerie depending on lighting and camera work. In a film like this, that flexibility matters. One minute it looks like a peaceful getaway destination, and the next it feels like somewhere your phone signal disappears forever.
Deep Cove’s natural surroundings also helped create several transition scenes within the film, particularly sequences where characters appear to move between ordinary reality and the distorted Backrooms environment.
The contrast between calm nature and psychological chaos gives the movie a much bigger cinematic scale than fans originally expected from a project inspired by a viral internet creepypasta.
Kane Parsons clearly understood that endless yellow hallways alone would not carry an entire feature film, so these real-world environments help ground the horror before everything goes fully sideways again.
Production activity was also spotted around Gastown in Vancouver, where the district’s older brick buildings and narrow streets reportedly became part of several atmospheric exterior sequences.
Gastown’s mixture of vintage architecture and dim alleyways naturally suits the film’s unsettling tone. Even during daytime, some corners of the district already feel like the opening scene of a mystery thriller, so placing a Backrooms film crew there honestly feels less surprising than it should.
Meanwhile, parts of Burnaby’s industrial studio district were heavily used during indoor production. Several large warehouse spaces were reportedly converted into practical maze environments filled with looping corridors and artificially aged office spaces.
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According to production chatter, cast and crew occasionally struggled to navigate the set because many hallways were intentionally designed to look identical. Imagine showing up for work and accidentally spending twenty minutes trapped between fake wallpaper and flickering ceiling lights. Method filmmaking, apparently.
Fans and horror communities online have reacted strongly to the revealed filming locations. Many viewers praised the decision to build physical sets instead of relying entirely on digital effects, arguing that practical environments make the horror feel more believable and deeply uncomfortable.
Others became fascinated by how ordinary locations across British Columbia could suddenly look terrifying through careful cinematography and lighting. Some netizens even joked that watching the trailer now makes every random office corridor feel suspicious. Elevators have reportedly lost public trust this week.
There’s also growing praise for how Kane Parsons managed to preserve the eerie identity of the original YouTube series while expanding it into something much larger. Long-time fans of the original Backrooms videos were initially nervous that Hollywood might over-explain the mystery or turn it into generic blockbuster horror.
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Instead, the practical sets and grounded filming locations seem to have reassured many viewers that the film still understands the uncomfortable simplicity that made the concept viral in the first place.
Of course, not every filming location connected to Backrooms has been publicly revealed. Productions this size often keep several sites hidden during filming to avoid massive crowds interrupting scenes or turning locations into accidental tourist stampedes. The locations already revealed have given fans plenty to obsess over while waiting for the film’s release.
And honestly, some of these places do belong on a proper travel bucket list. From the coastal calm of Deep Cove to the historic atmosphere of Bastion Square and the cinematic streets of Gastown, the filming locations behind Backrooms prove that British Columbia can look both beautiful and deeply cursed at the exact same time. Quite an achievement, really.
So if you suddenly find yourself staring too long at fluorescent office lighting after watching the trailer, don’t worry. The film clearly did its job. Which filming location would you actually visit first — and more importantly, would you risk entering the Backrooms if someone offered you the chance?