5 Essential Backrooms Videos to Watch on YouTube After the Movie

Image: A24/Everett Collection

While the YouTube shorts share a common universe, their connections are often subtle and non-linear. For example, a 30-second clip titled 9780415263573 shows nothing more than a highway camera capturing a vehicle vanishing. While this provides context for the wreckage seen in his 13-minute short Found Footage 2, the true reward lies in the act of discovery rather than a neat narrative payoff.

Parsons’ shorts feel less like traditional found-footage horror—which usually strives to provide a complete, albeit grim, story—and more like corrupted digital artifacts retrieved from a long-lost hard drive. As the series progresses, recurring characters begin to emerge, and the faint outline of a larger story starts to crystallize, even if it remains intentionally elusive.

If the film piqued your interest and you’re eager to see the genesis of the phenomenon that captured A24’s attention, these five essential videos represent the best entry points into Parsons’ uncanny digital world.

1. The Backrooms (Found Footage)

With over 82 million views, this nine-minute masterpiece is the catalyst for the entire fandom. It offers a rare, self-contained narrative arc, following a teenager who accidentally “noclips” into the liminal nightmare of the Backrooms while filming with friends. It serves as the gold standard for Parsons’ work—a perfect standalone experience that showcases his talent for claustrophobic dread.

2. The Third Test

Less a narrative and more a conceptual blueprint, this short depicts the initial, calculated efforts of the Async Research Institute (the organization behind the film’s scientific hubris) to breach the threshold. It offers a fascinating look at the technology used to bridge realities—a stark contrast to the accidental entries seen elsewhere in the series.

3. Pitfalls

For those looking to map the series’ evolving narrative, this 14-minute installment is pivotal. As Async operative Marvin Leigh explores a labyrinth of deep, square pits, we witness the beginning of a recurring character arc. Marvin’s subsequent appearances in Report, Reunion, and Static Dead End establish the closest thing the series has to a continuous, grounded storyline.

4. Informational Video

This eight-minute short functions as a bureaucratic orientation for Async personnel, blending corporate sterility with mounting dread. It provides a chilling look at the Institute’s perspective before the inevitable happens: researcher Peter Tench suffers a glitch, transforming the informative orientation into a desperate, solitary survival mission.

5. Presentation

Perhaps the most essential watch for moviegoers, Presentation pairs the series’ signature grim atmosphere with a unsettlingly dry, corporate humor. It details Async’s audacious—and hilariously shortsighted—plans to monetize the Backrooms as storage space and office real estate. It’s a mind-bending look at human arrogance and the dangers of playing with forces that remain entirely beyond our comprehension. If you only watch one video from the archive, make it this one.

Source: Polygon