- Primary Subject: A24’s The Backrooms
- Key Update: Production is underway for the film adaptation of the viral analog horror series that defined the modern creepypasta era.
- Status: Confirmed
- Last Verified: April 2, 2026
- Quick Answer: A24 is adapting Kane Parsons’ YouTube phenomenon into a feature film, sparking renewed interest in classic internet horror tales like Marble Hornets and Candle Cove.
A24 is gearing up to release its movie adaptation of Kane Parson’s creepypasta story Backrooms.
But before viewers get lost in the endless dread of a yellow maze, there are several other creepypasta tales to watch for a proper spine-chilling warm-up.
From the story of the Slender Man to The Russian Sleep Experiment, here are five must-watch creepypasta stories to check out before Backrooms.
Marble Hornets
Before Backrooms, there’s the YouTube ARG series Marble Hornets. This found-footage web series ran from 2009 to 2014 and laid the foundation for many analog horror projects.
It inspired Parson’s Backrooms universe, serving as an early analog horror project based on the Slender Man mythos.
Marble Hornets follows Jay’s investigation of a student film project that was abandoned by his friend Alex, who encounters a tall, faceless entity known as The Operator.
The series established the Slender Man symbol, which later appeared in dozens of spinoff ARGs and games.
Beware the Slenderman
No list of creepypasta stories would be complete without Slender Man. Inspired by the infamous 2014 Slender Man stabbing, the 2016 documentary film Beware the Slenderman, directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky and released on HBO, examines the chilling real-world consequences of the myth.
The film follows two 12-year-old girls in Waukesha, Wisconsin, who stabbed their classmate 19 times in a wooded area, claiming they did it to please Slender Man – a faceless figure in a black suit that originated from a 2009 Photoshop contest on the Something Awful forums.
Channel Zero
Nick Antosca made a notable effort to bring creepypasta to television with the four-season anthology series Channel Zero on Syfy.
Each season, consisting of six episodes, adapts a different internet horror story. The first season, Candle Cove, follows child psychologist Mike Painter (Paul Schneider), who returns to his Ohio hometown only to discover that a skeleton-pirate children’s television program from the 1980s has mysteriously resumed broadcasting.
Subsequent seasons explore other eerie tales: the traveling haunted house of The No-End House, disappearances linked to staircases appearing in urban forests in Butcher’s Block, and a mysterious door in a newlywed couple’s basement in The Dream Door.
The Russian Sleep Experiment
The Russian Sleep Experiment is one of the most famous internet horror stories of the 2010s.
This chilling tale recounts a fictional 1940s Soviet study in which political prisoners were kept awake for 15 days using an experimental gas.
As the secret experiment progresses, the subjects’ sanity unravels, leading to extreme self-mutilation and cannibalism.
Jeff the Killer
Jeff the Killer isn’t just a web horror story; it’s also one of the most famous creepypasta memes.
Since its publication in 2011, it has remained one of the most recognizable creepypastas online.
Jeff is depicted as a sadistic serial killer with ghastly pale skin, no eyelids, long black hair, and a permanent smile-shaped scar. Its viral spread and disturbing visuals helped cement creepypasta as a cultural phenomenon.
The character quickly became a fan favorite, inspiring numerous fan works and the creation of related characters, such as Homicidal Liu and Jane the Killer.
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