LOS ANGELES — A horror film birthed from a single eerie internet photo and directed by a 21-year-old YouTuber has taken the North American box office by storm, signaling a generational shift in Hollywood filmmaking.
The Backrooms, directed by Kane Parsons, captured the No. 1 spot at the North American box office in its opening week (May 29 – June 4), grossing over $100 million in just six days. Produced by indie powerhouse A24 on a modest $10 million budget, the film remarkably outperformed the $165 million blockbuster The Mandalorian & Grogu. Its success expanded globally, surpassing 700,000 cumulative admissions in South Korea within 11 days of its release.
The Genesis of a Gen Z Creepypasta
The movie originates from "The Backrooms," an online urban legend that started in 2019 on the forum 4chan. A single photograph of an empty, fluorescent-lit office space with yellow wallpaper sparked a viral phenomenon. Gen Z internet users retrofitted the image with gaming terminology like "noclip"—a glitch where players accidentally fall through a game's boundaries into an unintended, distorted reality.
Parsons, under his YouTube handle Kane Pixels, catalyzed this lore in 2022. At just 17, using self-taught skills in After Effects and Blender, he uploaded a VHS-style found-footage short that amassed over 83 million views. Recognizing his viral genius, A24 signed Parsons, making him the youngest director in the studio's history.
A Masterclass in Atmospheric Horror
The film blends A24’s signature psychological tension with Parsons’ loyal dedication to the lore. It follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a divorced furniture store owner who becomes obsessed with a liminal space discovered behind his basement wall. Despite the skepticism of his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve), Clark ventures deeper into the surreal labyrinth.
Refusing to rely on artificial intelligence for the infinite, glitch-like architecture, Parsons insisted on building a massive 2,800-square-meter physical set. "If it's made by AI, people lose interest in the details because they assume it's just randomly generated," Parsons noted in an interview.
A New Era for Hollywood
According to Deadline, Gen Z and Millennials drove the film's historic success, with 88% of the opening weekend audience under the age of 35.
Hollywood is paying close attention to this shift. Along with Parsons, 26-year-old YouTuber Curry Barker saw his ultra-low-budget horror film Obsession land at No. 2 in the same week. The New York Times compared this influx of YouTube creators to the 1990s wave of MTV music video directors like David Fincher and Spike Jonze, noting that a new medium has once again become the ultimate breeding ground for directors who inherently understand what the youth culture craves.
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