Backrooms got to Nicolas Cage more than anything else — his words, not ours

Well, this is a turn-up for the horror crowd. Kane Parsons' "Backrooms" isn’t just making cash hand over fist — apparently it’s also managed to astonish Nicolas Cage himself. Yes, that Nicolas Cage, the man who’s seen more oddities on a film set than most of us have in a lifetime, came out recently saying the film hit him harder than anything else in years. Not your average bit of praise, that.

“Nothing has affected me the way his movie did. It’s like a de Chirico painting and M.C. Escher come to life.”

He was, as ever, in full 'Cage mode' talking about Backrooms at Fan Expo Dallas. If you missed it, he was clearly taken with the film’s mood and the way Parsons plays with the tension of 'still life' — or as Cage sees it, scenes so charged you might as well hang them in a gallery. Always one for a reference, he waved around comparisons to Escher and de Chirico — because of course he did. Fan Expo got the best of his enthusiasm, and video of the moment’s all over TikTok if you're the sort who wants to see the man in action.

“Can I somehow embrace, just get the performance leading up a still shot, a still photograph, and have that moment resonate so profoundly, like the last shot in Backrooms.”

For some context if you missed the box-office story: Backrooms, a liminal-space horror on just a $10 million budget, raked in more than $402 million. That’s the sort of profit that gets a studio’s attention, and sure enough, A24 has already started developing a sequel. Kane Parsons is sticking around to direct again, so this world of nightmarish corridors is far from finished.

Backrooms is one of the rare original horrors this decade to pull in over $400 million from a $10 million spend.

Backrooms 2 (Yes, Already)

It’s not just a studio cashing in, either — Parsons always planned for more. Straight after the big opening, he told Variety that this film was always meant to be just the beginning, calling it a 'foot in the door' for wider stories set in the same universe. He’s keen on expanding the Backrooms mythology beyond just this one outing but says it’ll all stay accessible enough for newcomers. If he’s smart, he’ll try to rope Cage into the next one; you know you’d watch it. Cage lost in the Backrooms? Sign me up.

If You’re Wondering About the Hype…

• "Backrooms" – directed by Kane Parsons, released this year, $10 million budget, $402 million at the box office, sequel on the way with A24 and Parsons returning.

Not everyone’s been bowled over, mind you. Our own Chris Bumbray had a go in his review, calling it a 'unique piece of horror movie-making', but he reckoned the thing dragged a bit and, to be blunt, wasn’t as scary as the buzz suggested. Still, he admitted he’d be in for whatever A24 cooked up next. Given those box office numbers, that’s not a brave prediction.