Renate Reinsve on Honoring the ‘Backrooms’ Fandom and the Dinner Scene That Left Her Speechless

Renate Reinsve has been one of the standout presences in the conversation around A24’s record-breaking horror phenomenon ‘Backrooms’, and now the Norwegian star is opening up about what it was actually like to step inside one of the internet’s most unsettling mythologies.

Reinsve revealed that the cast and crew were taught as much as possible about the ‘Backrooms’ universe specifically to honour the film’s passionate fanbase, and she singled out one particular scene as among the most surreal experiences of her career.

Reinsve, who stars in A24’s horror film, has spoken about her genuine fascination with the Backrooms as a concept, explaining that it related to the way she sees the world and the absurdity of the real world.

She connected its uncanny liminal aesthetic to a longstanding interest in surreal and absurd art that alter reality enough to expose life’s natural weirdness. For an actress whose filmography leans toward boundary-pushing European cinema, the appeal of the project was less a departure than a natural extension of her sensibilities.

The film, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons and distributed by A24, follows a therapist who enters a dimension of seemingly endless liminal spaces after her patient goes missing inside them. It was produced with a budget of roughly ten million dollars. That modest investment has since yielded extraordinary returns.

The horror film shattered expectations by launching to over 81 million dollars domestically and 118 million dollars worldwide in its opening weekend, shattering A24’s previous opening record.

It then crossed 100 million dollars domestically in just six days, becoming A24’s highest-grossing film ever at the domestic box office. Parsons simultaneously became the youngest filmmaker ever to claim the number one spot at the box office, beating the previous benchmark held by Josh Trank, who was 27 when ‘Chronicle’ debuted in first place.

Reviewers noted that Parsons and screenwriter Will Soodik were careful to strike a balance between satisfying longtime fans of the YouTube series and welcoming newcomers, with certain details like the furniture showroom setting functioning as deliberate easter eggs for devoted followers of the lore. That attention to the fanbase is clearly something the cast absorbed during production, as Reinsve’s comments in the DiscussingFilm clip make clear.

Reinsve has also spoken candidly about never quite feeling at ease while shooting inside the recreated Backrooms environment, though she admitted during press that returning to the space had taken on a strange nostalgic warmth. The tension between dread and familiarity she describes mirrors what makes the Backrooms mythology so resonant to its millions of online devotees.

Reinsve, who received an Oscar nomination for ‘The Worst Person in the World’, brings considerable dramatic credibility to her role as Mary, a therapist drawn into a reality she cannot fully comprehend. Her willingness to commit to one of the most unconventional mainstream horror films in recent memory has clearly paid off, both critically and commercially, and her enthusiasm for honouring the film’s built-in community suggests the production understood the weight of what it was adapting.

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