If you like cinema, you know A24. After all, they are the ones responsible for you now knowing movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once, Ex Machina, or A Different Man and, of course, they are the ones who have brought to theaters around the world the movie that has been talked about non-stop for the past few weeks: Backrooms. What no one expected is that this work, which only cost 10 million dollars, has shattered all internal records in one fell swoop. Behind the door is the money They only needed […]
If you love cinema, you know A24. After all, they are the ones responsible for you now knowing movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once, Ex Machina, or A Different Man and, of course, they are the ones who have brought to theaters around the world the movie that has been talked about non-stop for the past few weeks: Backrooms.
It has only taken two weekends for the horror movie to surpass all box office records of A24, earning over 200 million dollars and thus surpassing its previous biggest success, Marty Supreme. That one made 191 million during its entire run in theaters (including the Oscar nomination), while Kane Parsons has already accumulated 212 million… and counting.
In reality, it was already foreseeable, given that it had the best opening in the history of the production company with 81 million just in the United States, tripling the previous one (Civil War, with 25.5).
The “culprit” has been a Gen Z eager for stories told for them that is paving the way for new cinema, which, hopefully, will be further away from sequels and franchises than what we have consumed in recent years.
Overall, Backrooms has already made so much money for A24 that they should put up a monument to its director. In today’s Hollywood, making 20 times what you spent is synonymous with victory against the system. Just ask the director of Obsession if not!
Backrooms is the movie of the season. With a budget of 10 million, it has made 135 million at the box office so far, and with an extraordinary critical reception and a notable reception from the public, the film is set to be one of the movies of the year. In addition to turning its very young director, Kane Parsons, who is only 20 years old, into one of the great revelations of cinema. He is also already making headlines for his completely contrarian opinions on AI in film. No to generative AI, thanks. In a recent interview with The Australian, the director […]
Backrooms is the movie of the season. With a budget of 10 million, it has made 135 million at the box office so far, and with extraordinary critical reception and notable audience reception, the film is set to be one of the movies of the year.
In addition to turning its very young director, Kane Parsons, who is only 20 years old, into one of the great revelations of cinema. He is also already making headlines for his completely contrarian opinions on AI in cinema.
Generative AI no, thanks
In a recent interview with The Australian, the director stated that regarding AI, he considers himself to be “in the same place as most people with their heads on their shoulders”: he does not want Hollywood, or any other industry, to start using AI. Stating that “if I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would,” Parsons seems to have very clear ideas about it.
In fact, it hasn’t stopped there. Stating that “generative AI feels less like innovation and more like a symptom of a greater cultural and economic corruption,” he has made his opinion on AI very clear. But he also wants to explore it in his work. He has said that “I am interested in using that iconography in art — not using AI to create the art itself, but examining what it represents,” hinting at where his upcoming projects may lead after the overwhelming success of his debut.
This contrasts with the recent statements by Martin Scorsese, stating that we must be open to AI, because cinema is a young medium and we should not close ourselves off to its possible evolutions. Demonstrating that there is a clear difference in how this technology is perceived generationally. And not necessarily in the age relationship that we would normally expect.
It is now official: Backrooms, in just one weekend at the box office, has earned 8 times what it cost, achieved the greatest success in A24’s history, and changed everything for its director, Kane Parsons, who at just 20 years old has just secured a spectacular future. However, it was a foreseen success: after all, it has been adding lore on its YouTube channel since January 7, 2022, and terrifying the audience with its version of the backrooms. But… what are they, how have they become a well-known term throughout the […]
It is official: Backrooms, in just one weekend at the box office, has earned 8 times its cost, achieved the biggest success in A24’s history, and changed everything for its director, Kane Parsons, who at just 20 years old has secured a spectacular future. However, it was a foreseen success: after all, he has been adding lore on his YouTube channel since January 7, 2022 and terrifying the audience with his version of the backrooms. But… what are they, how did they become a term known worldwide, and why have they dominated the box office? We’ll tell you.
Do not enter through the main door
Year 2019. Someone uploads to 4Chan, the famous anonymous Internet forum where some of the greatest atrocities in history have occurred, movies have been spoiled, and governments have been decided, the image of an interior place, carpeted, with several interconnected rooms illuminated only by artificial light. The text accompanying the image is “Post unsettling images that feel strange”. Another user, shortly after, named the phenomenon: “If you’re not careful and you step out of reality in the wrong places, you’ll end up in the Backrooms, where there is nothing but the smell of old damp carpet, the madness of the yellow color, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum, and approximately six hundred million square kilometers of randomly arranged empty rooms to trap you”.
Immediately, 4Chan users adopted the term “Backrooms” and began posting both real images and digitally created ones, as well as creating stories about people who have fallen into these places. But of course, there was no real timeline or canonical story, so everyone followed the lore they wanted to follow. Little by little, they started uploading more and more videos, creepypastas, and images in a collaborative effort that we can hardly see anymore on the current Internet. And in this maelstrom, Kane Parsons appeared.
In the end, the Backrooms were evolutions of things we had already seen in horror, liminal places between reality and fiction, which we recognize and do not at the same time. Particularly, that first image that started it all was of a furniture store being renovated in Wisconsin back in 2002. A perfect moment for Parsons, at just 16 years old, to upload a video created with After Effects and Blender to YouTube titled The Backrooms (Found Footage), about a man being chased by a monster in this place, filmed with a VHS camera in the 90s. It was a success with tens of millions of views and excellent reviews, indicating that it was better than what Hollywood was doing at that time. Life was never the same for the teenager.
24 short films later, where the story expanded and grew to unforeseen limits even with breaks in between (for example, between 2023 and 2025 he could only make four shorts), A24 saw the potential and decided to finance a low-budget film directed, of course, by the young man, to ensure that he respects the lore, his ideas, and his own tone. The result has been global applause and the discovery of the “backrooms” for an audience unfamiliar with the Internet… in addition to the birth of a new franchise. The meme has officially died on the Internet, but it has found a new place to sneak in, because in this world we live in, nothing lives and nothing dies: it simply learns to transform.
Ten years ago, no one knew what backrooms were. Now, they have not only become an online phenomenon, but they also have their own movie that, to top it off, is going to crush the box office above The Mandalorian and Grogu. And I assure you that no one at Disney had predicted this. However, this is not the first time an Internet phenomenon has made the leap to the big screen, usually with rather laughable success but, on rare occasions, managing to create something that goes beyond the meme. Shall we dive into the backrooms of the strangest meme-movies […]
On June 10, 2009, a user from Something Awful uploaded two montages of children with a strange creature behind them. Slender Man was born, unknowingly. Just four days later, there were already fanfics written about him, and the fandom began to grow monumental and uncontrollable. And, of course, he made it to Hollywood with a low-budget movie ($10 million) that grossed five times more. Everyone was happy, except for one thing: the character is not owned by anyone, which means there are dozens and dozens of low-budget movies featuring him as the protagonist.
There are a good handful of The Slender Man and Slender, with variations like Mystery of the Slender Man (which is a trilogy), Slender Man Stabbing, Slender: Demoniac, Slender The Arrival, Slender Man 2: Curse Book, The Slender Case, Beware the Slenderman… You might be wondering if any of these are good, and you can imagine the answer: not at all.
Karen
Surely you have heard the phrase “You are a Karen” or “She behaves like a Karen” at some point. The term originated in 2015 after the viral phrase “There’s always a Karen,” and even today it remains well-known and derogatory. Enough for movies to have been made about it, such as Karen, by Coke Daniels (which many confused with a bad sketch from Saturday Night Live), Amytiville Karen (where a “Karen” ends up possessed by a demonic spirit), or A Christmas Karen (which is basically the same, but at Christmas). To watch and forget.
This Man
All my life I have lived terrified by the idea that there is a man who appears to us in dreams and whose face we all remember. The idea was brilliantly exploited in Dream Scenario, with Nicolas Cage, but it was actually an idea from the Italian designer Andrea Natella, who first brought it to light in 2009 and it continues to this day. Surprisingly, the drawing of This Man gained international fame, and in Japan, a movie was made based on it titled, precisely, This Man, and there was even a Spanish-Italian co-production called Heste Hombre. Neither of the two gained relevance, and Dream Scenario overshadowed them forever. No one can compete with Nic Cage.
Grumpy Cat
In the early days of the Internet, when we were still satisfied with little, everyone was amazed by Grumpy Cat, one of the first memes that had the iconic combination of text above and text below: the cat’s constant angry face led to extrapolating it to hundreds of everyday situations. In fact, the cat was named Tardar Sauce and his face was the result of a disease. The cat lived only seven years, during which he became an Internet star and starred in his first (and only) movie, Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, in 2014, where he appeared alongside Aubrey Plaza, who also provided his voice. Not many people liked it, and Grumpy Cat faded into the background, making his owners rich until today, where comics about him and his brother are still being published.
The Dancing Hamster
If you’ve been on the Internet as long as I have, you surely remember the dancing hamster with a song from Robin Hood, Whistle-Stop. The dancing hamster (sorry, “hampster”) was born in 1997 with the intention of making it an Internet star, and boy did it succeed, becoming one of the first and most satisfying memes in history. It even had its own album, digital hamsters were offered to celebrate all kinds of parties, and in 2009, years after it should have, How the Hampsters Saved Winter was released on DVD, selling only 2000 copies, which led it to become “lost media” until 2022, when someone uploaded it to YouTube. For better or for worse, once seen, it’s bad. Ew.
Backrooms premieres this Friday in the United States, and it is already one of the most anticipated horror movies of the year. Partly because it is based on a YouTube phenomenon, partly because it looks frankly great, and partly because its director, Kane Parsons, turned 20 during filming. We are not exactly overflowing with new talent, and it should be a reason for joy that a talented kid prefers to make movies instead of TikToks, but of course, the world has not wanted to accept it so easily. Guaranteed bad vibes. Rumors say that Parsons, who created an entire mythology about the […]
Backrooms premieres this Friday in the United States, and it is already one of the most anticipated horror films of the year. Partly because it is based on a YouTube phenomenon, partly because it looks frankly amazing, and partly because its director, Kane Parsons, turned 20 during the filming.
We are not exactly overflowing with new talent, and it should be a cause for joy that a talented young person prefers to make films rather than TikToks, but of course, the world has not wanted to accept it so easily.
“Mmmmmh, with all due respect, I don’t remember seeing you on set. When I was there, Kane had it under control 100%. More than many directors who are three times his age“. Apparently, the person claiming that Parsons did not direct the film was an “expert” who knew that no executive would give 10 million to a 20-year-old, as if A24 and Paramount were the same thing.
In the same vein, Sophy Romvari, a film director, has stated that “Jealousy drives many of these discourses about age and success. I can confidently say that I am very happy to have made my first film at 34 and not at 20, I am much better now”. In any case, whether haters like it or not, Backrooms seems set to premiere in a big way, surpassing The Mandalorian and Grogu at the box office and delivering one of the big surprises of the year. Something is changing in Hollywood, fortunately.
