Backrooms is at the forefront of horror’s YouTube wave

Though YouTube has always been a place where up-and-coming artists could be discovered and make it big, in recent years the platform has become a launching pad for some of Hollywood’s most exciting new horror directors. The filmmakers behind films like Talk to Me , Iron Lung , and Obsession all started off as content creators posting their independently created projects online. And if it weren’t for their fandom-fueled internet fame, studios might not have given them a chance to step up to the big leagues. Going viral on YouTube with a series of videos inspired by 4chan memes is what put Kane Parsons on A24’s radar and led to him becoming the director of the studio’s latest movie, Backrooms . Everything about Backrooms — from its unsettling aesthetic to the way its script (written by Will Soodik) leaves you in the dark about what’s really going on — feels emblematic of this new generation of horror auteurs who grew up and found their creative voices on sites like YouTube. During a recent conversation, Parsons told me that one of the most challenging things about bringing Backrooms to the big screen was embracing the fact that he needed to tell a story that could resonate with people who haven’t been following his work from day one. Though Parsons knew that longtime fans might show up expecting a deep dive into intricate Backrooms lore, his time on YouTube taught him that playing solely to that crowd can be a double-edged sword. …