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A24’s new film, “The Backrooms,” is riding a train few have ridden before, staking a $10 million budget on a movie based on a YouTube series. At stake, the potential fate of inexperienced directors being put into a role like this one.
That’s not the only reason the film stands out. Typically, a handful of directors produce Hollywood’s top films. Twenty-year-old independent filmmaker and former YouTube creator Kane Parsons is directing it by himself.
It’s also unusual because it centers on a 4chan post from May 12, 2019. The post included a photo of an empty clothing store with bright yellow walls and fluorescent lights.
In this photo, Parson imagined a maze-like world where everything seems almost normal, but just quite isn't. He turned this idea into one of the most popular series of videos on YouTube, reaching 216 million views across all videos.
Beginning in 2022, Parsons’ 22-part series is recorded like lost footage, beginning with a character named Kane supposedly resembling the creator of the series who phases through the floor, no-cliping out of reality into a beige labyrinth. The footage displays an eerie liminal space that feels uncanny or supernatural, the psychological horror series dives into, to put it generally, being in a space where you should have never been able to get to.
A little over a year after the first episode aired, A24 announced it was working with Parsons on a film adaptation. The studio’s riskiest decision was to put inexperienced film director Kane Parsons, who never produced a blockbuster, at the helm of the creative production.
To understand how preposterous this decision was, look at cinema’s past decade, and a highly concentrated industry comes into view. Per domestic box office reports by Mojo, when combining the top 10 highest-grossing movies at the box office from 2016-2025, 42 out of 100 films were produced by a director with another movie in the top 100.
This statistic is exactly why A24’s upcoming film could represent a turning point in the industry if the movie is successful. Companies like A24 could start to see true value in those creators who have clear passion and talent, but don’t quite have the connections or resources to produce a blockbuster movie.
So far, the trailer for “The Backrooms,” which was released March 31, has reached 23 million views on YouTube and has posted 62.5 million views on TikTok.
The potential success of the film could help prove original ideas are worthy of attention.
In fact, we have seen an original idea make ground-breaking numbers at the box office. The “Blair Witch Project,” released in 1999, had no experienced directors and was also anchored by a found footage aesthetic. The movie would go on to be a home run, making an enormous $248 million at the box office worldwide.
What could set “The Backrooms” apart from the indie ‘90s film, though, is leaving the film as a one-hit-wonder once all is said and done.
Hollywood’s been in a sequel chokehold for years now, but the problem can be revealed by just looking at the movies released in the past year.
Looking at the top 10 movies in the domestic box office for 2025, eight out of those 10 fit into the sequel, live-action remake or reboot category. Yes, you did read that correctly. The only two original movies in the top 10 for that year were “A Minecraft Movie” and “Sinners.”
This is exactly why “The Backrooms” feels like a breath of fresh air. Not only is the movie being directed by a non-veteran director, but it also isn’t a sequel. Not all sequels are unnecessary, but they show studios aren’t as willing to take risks anymore. So when a studio does, and defies those unwritten laws, it may be something to watch closely.
Most importantly, this should be inspiring. One of the greatest gifts of modernity is how accessible everything has become. Whether it’s creating your own YouTube series or something else, media, though an overcrowded landscape, is one of the most powerful tools humans have.
Parsons proves this; he flipped the traditional path to becoming a Hollywood director on its head. He has ended up in a role that, without social media, he wouldn’t have found himself in.
“The Backrooms” movie releases in theaters May 29. One of the biggest things one can do to support it is just simply showing up. Sometimes, the most powerful thing viewers can do in a system that typically only allows the select few to climb the ladder toward greatness is to hold the ladder steady while one of our own attempts the climb.
Derek Marshall is a freshman studying pre-business.
