If you’ve been lurking around movie forums and pages (or took a quick detour at the mall, passing by the cinemas) this past week, you’ve most likely come across the title Backrooms.  The much-anticipated film—which started as a creepypasta-turned-web series on YouTube—has been setting records since its release last May 29. As of press time, it has minted over $100 million in U.S. ticket sales, becoming A24’s highest-grossing film ever. Meanwhile, its 20-year-old director, Kane Parsons, is now the youngest filmmaker to top the box office. 

With all the rage surrounding Backrooms, there’s a heightened interest in the use of liminal space in cinema, and we’re here to bring you the goods. Read on for a list of liminal space thrillers to add to your ever-growing watchlist:

Vivarium (2019)

What it is about: Young couple Tom and Gemma (Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots) get lured to an eerily perfect suburban development called Yonder, only to find themselves unable to leave its identical, pastel-green streets.

This Lorcan Finnegan flick turns the dream of domesticity into a slow-burn nightmare, trapping the couple in a loop of mundane horror—from cooking and cleaning to raising a child that isn’t quite human.

Why you’ll love it: If you’ve ever stood in a too-perfect neighborhood in search of your dream home and felt a creeping, inexplicable dread, this film will confirm every instinct you had.

Cube (1997)

What it is about: Six strangers wake up inside an elaborate series of interconnected cubic rooms, some rigged with lethal traps, with no memory of how they got there and no clear path out. Vincenzo Natali’s feature film debut proves that you can do more with less through a single recurring set that becomes an entire universe marred by paranoia and moral collapse. 

Why you’ll love it: This is a pure, geometric nightmare fuel of a film that leaves you with a distrust in rooms with right angles.

Us (2019)

What it is about: The Wilson family’s beach vacation takes a wrong turn when their red-suited doppelgängers emerge from the darkness to hunt them. Jordan Peele weaponizes the uncanny valley in this sprawling picture of America’s shadow self, with Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) at the terrifying center of it all. The subterranean tunnels where the “Tethered” live are, perhaps, among the most hauntingly liminal spaces in recent cinema.

Why you’ll love it: It leaves viewers with the haunting line, “If they look like us, do they think like us?”

Coraline (2009)

What it is about: Henry Selick’s animated take on Neil Gaiman’s novella puts a horrifying spin to “Be careful what you wish for.” Young Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) discovers a hidden door in her new home that leads to “The Other World,” a mirror version of her life where her Other Mother (voiced by Teri Hatcher) is attentive, the food is delicious, and everything seems perfect, except everyone has buttons for eyes. 

Why you’ll love it: The Other World’s slow decay from paradise into a skeletal, spider-spun trap is as visually stunning as it is deeply unsettling.

The Shining (1980)

What it is about: It’s virtually impossible to make a list about liminal space thrillers without including Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. This cinematic standout based on Stephen King’s novel introduces viewers to Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a writer hired as off-season caretaker for the vast Overlook Hotel, a definitive liminal space in horror cinema.

As the film progresses, Jack is slowly consumed by the building’s malevolent history, as every hallway turns into a threshold between the real and the unreal, sanity and madness, past and present.

Why you’ll love it: Nearly half a century on, Room 237 still haunts everyone who’s seen the film. 

Kontroll (2003)

What it is about: Living entirely underground, Nimród Antal’s debut follows Bulcsú (Sándor Csányi), a disheveled Budapest Metro ticket inspector who seems to have completely abandoned life above the surface.

A hooded figure has been pushing passengers onto the tracks, and Bulcsú—who sleeps in the stations—is both investigator and suspect. The Budapest Metro becomes a purgatory: a place people pass through, but where Bulcsú is somehow permanently stuck.

Why you’ll love it: Kontroll is proof that a subway system is the perfect stand-in for the subconscious, as grimy and labyrinthine-like it is, with people who look like they’ve forgotten where they were going.

I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

What it is about: Teenagers Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) bond over a late-night TV show called The Pink Opaque, until one disappears and the show becomes a portal to something the other can’t fully grasp or survive.

Director Jane Schoenbrun renders suburban rec centers, dim parking lots, and television static with grief-soaked beauty, building a landscape of dissociation and buried identity.

Why you’ll love it: It is a well-made trans allegory, a horror film, and a lament for every version of yourself you failed to reach. 

Exit 8 (2025)

What it is about: Genki Kawamura’s adaptation of the cult-favorite indie simulation game by Kotake Create, Exit 8 takes you to an infinite loop of a Japanese subway exit (we swear, it’s not Shinjuku Station!), where the unnamed protagonist (Kazunari Ninomiya) gets trapped after receiving some life-changing news.

The film keeps the spirit of the game alive, maintaining key elements like The Walking Man (Yamato Kochi), the eerie tiled walls, and the “anomalies,” while also bringing a compelling plot that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats. 

Why you’ll love it: Exit 8 invites the audience to spot anomalies as the protagonist navigates the corridors, inadvertently turning the movie-viewing experience into a taste of the game itself. 

Backrooms is now showing in PH cinemas nationwide.

Got any more liminal space thrillers to add to the list? Let us know in the comments!