Kane Parsons is going from YouTube to the big screen.
The Northern California-based content creator, who has nearly 3 million subscribers on his YouTube page, is ready to make his directorial film debut with “Backrooms” this month.
The horror film — with a PR tagline/description that simply reads “A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom” — is set to hit movie theaters May 29.
To say that there is a big buzz surrounding this film is a definite understatement.
The trailer was released on March 31 and, within just two days, it had already been viewed well over 10 million times on YouTube alone.
To put that number in perspective, the “Backrooms” trailer ranked in early April as the No. 3 trending trailer on YouTube. The only two that ranked higher on that list were both huge Hollywood blockbuster releases — “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (which is actually a HBO Max series set to debut during the Christmas season) and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day (due out at the end of July).
So, yeah, not bad when your directorial film debut ranks in the top three alongside two first-tier pop culture icons — Harry Potter and Spider-Man.
So, how did we get to the point where Parsons’ first film project is keeping such lofty company?
It all started when the budding young talent — who, according to his Wikipedia page, is still just 20 years old — began uploading “Backrooms” content to his YouTube page under the clever moniker of Kane Pixels in early 2022. These uploads, which were billed as “found footage” and explored scary scenes in massive “Backrooms” spaces, went viral and Parsons had a hit on his hands.
The initial idea behind “Backrooms” wasn’t something that originally came from Parsons. The concept dates back to at least few years earlier, when people began posting about such fictional “backroom” spaces on the anonymous English-language imageboard website 4chan in 2019.
Yet, some say it goes back much further than that, noting that images of such impossibly large and imposing rooms began showing up on internet image boards in the early 2010s.
Add a few scary characters — and a definite paranormal vibe — to the mix and it’s no wonder that horror aficionados would so embrace the concept. Notably, fans of the wonderfully named “creepypasta” genre — which is really a catch-all phrase used to describe user-generated horror content posted to the Internet — have really pushed “backroom” lore to the point where even Hollywood is paying attention.
No one, however, has done more to further the lore than Parsons, whose first animated effort on the subject — a nine-minute-plus video dubbed “The Backrooms (Found Footage)” — has garnered a staggering 73 million views and more than 100,000 comments on YouTube.
Parsons wisely went on to create a series of “Backrooms” YouTube videos, which have continued to bring in millions upon millions of views.
Soon, we’ll find out if YouTube success can translate to big-screen dollars, as “Backrooms” is set to open during an expected busy movie-going season that also includes such offerings as the Star Wars tie-in “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” the video-game-franchise effort “Mortal Kombat II” and “I Love Boosters” directed by Oakland’s own Boots Riley.
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Yet, things are definitely off to a great start — with the massive turnout of views for the trailer showing that there is much interest in this project. Perhaps this could be the next “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which successfully turned a huge online following into box office bank (as well as a sequel).
Plus, “Backrooms” has a really strong cast, led by the versatile actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Solomon Northup in 2013’s “12 Years a Slave.” Other actors in this film — which is a joint production between A24, Chernin Entertainment and Atomic Monster — include Renate Reinsve (an Oscar nominee for “Sentimental Value”) Mark Duplass (“The Morning Show”), Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell.
For those who want to secure their seats in advance, advance tickets for “Backrooms” are now on sale through AMC, Cinemark, Alamo Drafthouse and other movie theater operators.
Original article
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