A24’s Backrooms has fundamentally rewritten the rules of contemporary horror cinema. With a staggering $100 million domestic haul in just under a week, it stands as A24’s most commercially successful domestic debut, vaulting 20-year-old filmmaker Kane Parsons into the history books as the youngest director to helm a No. 1 North American opening.
The triumph of Backrooms—following the momentum of genre-bending hits like Obsession, Iron Lung, and Bring Her Back—signals a seismic shift in Hollywood’s risk tolerance. The industry is finally embracing digital-native creators and unconventional IP. It is no longer a question of whether internet-born stories can rival legacy studio franchises; it is a reality. As indie digital culture continues to dominate the box office, the pressing question for major studios is: which viral urban legend is next in line for the silver screen treatment?
Originating as cryptic forum fodder in the mid-2000s, “creepypastas” function as the digital age’s campfire stories. They were pushed into the cultural consciousness by the Slender Man phenomenon in 2009. These collaborative, decentralized myths often sprout from a singular unsettling image or a fragmented short story, morphing through relentless iterations across wikis, forums, and algorithmic rabbit holes. While this brand of folklore has been bubbling under the surface since the late 90s, Hollywood has only recently begun to recognize its massive cinematic potential.
If Backrooms proved that internet mythos possesses legitimate box-office muscle, these are the legendary tales that demand a major studio adaptation.
10
Ted the Caver
Long before the term “creepypasta” permeated our vocabulary, “Ted the Caver” gripped the early internet with its claustrophobic, granular accounts of spelunking disaster. Presented as a raw, diary-style blog by an explorer named Ted Hegemann, it chronicles his doomed descent into the uncharted “Floyd’s Tomb.”
What begins as a standard trek quickly devolves into auditory hallucinations and inexplicable supernatural dread. The genius of the story lies in its finality; after an abrupt, terrifying update regarding a return trip to the cave, the blog simply went dark. While films like The Descent have explored subterranean terror, the meta-narrative format of Ted the Caver—a modern protagonist discovering the digital remnants of a tragedy and unwittingly retracing the steps—offers a uniquely terrifying entry point for a feature film.
9
BEN Drowned
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is already a surreal, melancholic masterpiece. However, when you warp that nostalgia with early-internet horror, you arrive at “BEN Drowned.” Created by Alex Hall, this story follows a student who acquires a corrupted game cartridge that seems haunted by the spirit of a drowned child.
With its corrupted NPCs, reversed audio, and relentless in-game anomalies, the story perfectly captures the “cursed media” subgenre. While licensing hurdles with Nintendo make a feature film unlikely, the premise remains a chilling blueprint for how video game horror can spill over into the real world.
8
The Russian Sleep Experiment
This tale of five political prisoners in the late 1940s subjected to a sleep-deprivation experiment involving stimulant gas is legendary for how disturbingly authentic it feels. Despite being a work of fiction penned by a user named “OrangeSoda,” the story’s clinical, documentary-style prose convinced thousands it was a genuine declassified military file.
It taps into the primal fear of government overreach and human experimentation. Even the iconic, terrifying image of the test subject—a prop sold for Halloween in 2005—has become an indelible piece of internet iconography that would translate perfectly to a gritty, high-tension psychological thriller.
7
Caledon Local 21 (1999)
There is something inherently unsettling about the low-budget, static-filled broadcasts of public access television. Caledon Local 21 centers on an obscure channel featuring a program called “Mr. Bear’s Cellar,” hosted by a man in a tattered, amateur bear costume who lures children to his home.
The reveal—that the broadcast served as a recruitment tool for a ritualistic cult—is deeply chilling. Given the current appetite for found-footage and analog horror, this story, despite the creator’s protective stance, is a prime candidate for a cult-horror masterpiece.
6
The Holders
Predating the SCP Foundation’s massive catalog, The Holders is a sprawling cosmology of over 2,500 cursed objects. In this mythos, “Seekers” must endure grueling psychological and physical trials to face a “Holder”—an entity guarding an object of immense power.
The sheer volume of lore within the series makes it less of a single film prospect and more of a perfect candidate for an episodic anthology or a long-form television series, offering a deep, twisted mythology that could run for seasons.
5
Psychosis
In Psychosis, a programmer living in isolation begins to suspect that his digital reality is being manipulated. The lines between his friends’ voices and synthetic AI mimicry blur, forcing him to barricade himself away and document his descent into paranoia.
It is a stark, relatable reflection of our current anxiety regarding technology and artificial intelligence. By stripping away external monsters and focusing on the terror of being unable to trust one’s own senses, it creates a claustrophobic masterclass in psychological tension.
4
The Dionaea House
Long before he was an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, Eric Heisserer captivated the web with The Dionaea House. Told through a series of desperate, frantic emails, the story revolves around a mysterious, sentient property that exerts a predatory influence on those who stay within its walls.
It remains one of the most effective examples of digital epistolary storytelling, using the limitations of email and web communication to slowly ratchet up the dread until the inevitable, violent conclusion.
3
The Left/Right Game
The simplicity of the premise—driving a vehicle while alternating turns to enter a parallel dimension—is what makes The Left/Right Game so compelling. What starts as an urban legend amongst ghost hunters becomes a descent into a nightmare landscape.
As the travelers vanish into a world where the laws of physics and morality break down, the story taps into the terrifying idea that we are only ever a few turns away from a world that wasn’t meant for us. It is a high-concept sci-fi horror that feels tailor-made for the screen.
2
Anansi’s Goatman Story
The Goatman Story is a masterclass in slow-burn paranoia. A camping trip in rural Alabama takes a dark turn when a group of teenagers discovers that a creature in their midst is not what it seems. It masterfully iterates on the folklore of shapeshifters while grounding the horror in a very modern, claustrophobic reality.
Like the best A24 films, it relies on the audience’s growing discomfort. Watching the characters count their ranks, desperate to ensure they haven’t brought a monster home with them, would make for an agonizingly tense cinematic experience.
1
Penpal
Widely considered the gold standard of internet horror, Dathan Auerbach’s Penpal is a deeply personal, haunting reconstruction of a childhood shadowed by a stalker. What starts as seemingly disjointed memories evolves into a singular, crushing reality.
The story balances the bittersweet nostalgia of youth with a pervasive, sickening dread. By focusing on the fragility of memory and the horrors lurking in plain sight, Penpal has all the ingredients of a definitive psychological thriller, destined to haunt audiences long after the credits roll.
Source: Polygon
