Retro Vancouver motel featured in upcoming hyped horror flick 'Backrooms'
A horror film from A24 that has a lot of people excited is releasing later this month, and it was primarily filmed in Vancouver, including at a notable motel.
Backrooms, from director Kane Parsons, releases on May 29, and the marketing for the film has generated quite the buzz around it.
The film originally started as a YouTube anthology web series. The IMDB synopsis reads, “After a therapist’s patient disappears into a dimension beyond reality, she must venture into the unknown to save him.”
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) and Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) are the film’s primary stars. Horror icon James Wan is also listed as one of the producers.
A recent promo trailer reveals a notable Vancouver filming location, the 2400 Motel in East Vancouver.
The codename used for the film was Effigy, and the UBCP/ACTRA production list shows that production was scheduled in Vancouver between July and August of last year.
The 2400 Motel has been used in many other productions, including X-Files, Smallville, and Yellowjackets.
One of the main reasons for all the hype behind the film is its roots in the creepypasta community online, several years ago. The movie primarily focuses on liminal spaces.
The film doesn’t rely on CGI to produce some of its wild spaces, but on practical sets.
According to online reports, the maze-like set caused some people to get lost.
Kane Parsons on how #Backrooms will maintain the feel of his viral web series:
“In the film, it’s rare there are more than one or two people on screen at a time. It’s a pretty lonely film.”
Parsons also revealed that they built 30,000 square feet of Backrooms, causing some… pic.twitter.com/g9BqZuLstV
— ScreenRant (@screenrant) April 25, 2026
Horror film fans have been eating well this year, as 2026 has been packed full of critically-acclaimed releases, including the recent Adam Scott film Hokum, and Obsession, which releases this weekend, and is also getting great reviews.