By Sam Gassaway | Photo Editor
This year marks the first time internet creatives are getting a chance in Hollywood. With the release of “Shelby Oaks” late last year, written and directed by YouTuber Chris Stuckmann, and the release of “Iron Lung,” written, directed, edited, distributed and starred in by popular gaming YouTuber Markiplier, content creators are now at the heart of their own feature-length passion projects.
The “Backrooms” film is no different.
With the major motion picture adaptation of “Backrooms” being less than a month away, it’s surprising how little hype it’s amassed on mainstream channels. On social media, aside from the week the initial teaser came out, the reception has been very sparse.
In-person talks have been no better. Even people in the film and digital media department, who are tapped into niche and independent movie releases, have no idea what this film really is.
This release truly deserves more hype, from both horror film and cinema fans alike.
The film is being produced and distributed by independent cinema powerhouse A24, home to some of the most critically and commercially successful films of the past decade.
From “Moonlight” and “Lady Bird” to “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Brutalist,” the company has been on a roll since its establishment in 2012, securing over 90 Oscar nominations and 21 wins.
The only thing crazier than the studio producing this project is the mastermind behind it all: a visual effects YouTuber named Kane Parsons.
Parsons, who was 19 at the time of production, is the youngest director in A24’s history, and the studio gave him complete creative control.
It’s a level of trust in creative figures that Hollywood has yet to see since the closure of creative-focused studios like United Artists in 1981, and definitely not since Orson Welles and “Citizen Kane” in 1941.
In January 2022, Parsons, known online as Kane Pixels, released the first episode of the “Backrooms,” a found footage-style series on his YouTube channel, which has since amassed over 76 million views.
This unconventional online hit soon caught the eye of A24, and the idea of the feature adaptation was born.
The film serves as a culmination of a viral internet sensation and one of the most successful examples of modern folklore.
Originating from a single source image, the story quickly grew through online forms such as 4chan and Reddit. Now the lore of “Backrooms” is too deep to condense into a column, but a dimension of infinitely repeating hallways, fluorescent lights and liminal spaces can lead to infinite story potential.
Parsons’ viral online series and now major motion picture are a direct adaptation of this, not of an established, marketable IP, but of a shared idea.
If this concept doesn’t get you excited, this might not be the movie for you.
If this wasn’t enough info to encapsulate you, there’s also the mysterious underground marketing campaign, requiring fans to search through hidden codes and blow the dust off of their local library’s fax machine.
I know I’ll be seated in Cinemark when the film releases on May 29.
