Renate Reinsve Says She Wouldn’t Step Onto the ‘Backrooms’ Set Alone
Renate Reinsve spoke about her experience filming Kane Parsons’ upcoming horror movie Backrooms, describing the set as unsettling and hard to navigate. She said she would not feel comfortable going onto the set alone, due to both its size and its confusing layout.
Reinsve plays Dr. Mary Kline in the film. Her character is a therapist connected to Clark, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, a man who ends up trapped in a strange, endless dimension after discovering it inside a furniture store he owns. The setting is based on the viral internet concept known as the Backrooms, also referred to in the production as “The Complex.”
The actress explained that the physical production design had a strong impact on her during filming. She said, “I would get lost, I have a very bad sense of direction. When I got there the first time I was a bit scared of just losing it a bit but I kept sane.” Her comments suggest that the scale of the set made it easy to feel disoriented while working.
Reinsve also described the atmosphere on set as unusual and intense. She recalled the director’s reaction to seeing the finished environment built around the cast. She said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone that excited when I came on set. [Kane] was just, like, tripping, seeing what he had built on his computer, built around us – and it was truly a scary, eerie place to be. I wouldn’t actually go alone anywhere.” Her remarks highlight how immersive the production was and how it affected the actors’ sense of space.
The film itself follows Clark after he becomes trapped in a vast yellow-walled maze filled with empty rooms, fluorescent lighting, and no clear exit. The environment is designed to feel unnatural and repetitive, with small details that seem slightly off. The only sound he initially hears is the constant hum of the lights, adding to the isolation.
Reinsve said that the experience of filming in such a place actually helped her performance. She suggested that the discomfort and fear she felt contributed to the emotional tone of her character. She also spoke about the larger themes in the film, saying it connects to broader ideas beyond horror.
She explained, “It’s surprisingly existential on a lot of different levels. I think you can read it into a lot of things, the way culture and AI and technology is developing.” She added that the world of the film feels like something without a clear ending, which she found unsettling. She also said, “There’s this extrapolated world, where you don’t see an ending to it, that is scary. [But] it’s also about the psychology of these characters and how things can get distorted but kind of look the same, and how you sometimes can only make sense of something irrational with something else that is irrational. It has a lot of layers.”
The cast of Backrooms also includes Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell. The film continues to build on the viral online horror concept created by Kane Parsons, expanding it into a full feature with a focus on psychological tension and surreal environments.
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