It's always fascinating to see a niche aspect of the internet break containment and make its way into the centre of our collective cultural consciousness. It happened with cottagecore, putting "maxxing" at the end of any word, and it happened with the backrooms, largely thanks to the astronomical success of Kane Parsons' Backrooms film.

It didn't take long for brands to jump on the bandwagon and make parodies of Parsons' film. McDonald's dropped its beloved Grimace into the unending maze , Ikea posted themed horror-shorts, hell, even the sponge brand Scrub Daddy posted a backrooms clip . Other than this all being proof that we do indeed live inside a simulation, it's indicative of just how successful this movie was .

(Image credit: A24)

Parsons' version of the backrooms has become almost "minor cultural shorthand" for all things liminal right now. "South Park just did a backrooms episode," Parsons adds.…