When “Insidious” and “Saw” filmmaker James Wan had his first Zoom meeting with Cain Parsons, creator of the online monster “Backrooms,” they had his father, not the YouTuber’s manager or agent, in attendance.
“I didn’t know Kane was still in high school until I contacted him,” Wang admits.
Parsons was only 16 at the time, but Wang believed that Backrooms, a series of viral “found footage” shorts set in a seemingly infinite liminal space, had all the ingredients to make a compelling feature film.
“It felt unique. It felt different than anything we’ve seen before,” Wang said. He would later go on to produce Backrooms through his company Blumhouse Atomic Monster. “It had a fresh atmosphere and concept.”
Wang’s confidence paid off. Backrooms grossed $81 million domestically and $118 million worldwide this past weekend, impressive results for a film made for just $10 million. This success has led to a string of hits from directors who got their start on YouTube, including Callie Barker (Obsession), Danny and Michael Philippow (Talk to Me), and Mark Fischbacher (The Iron Lung). At 20 years old, Parsons became the youngest director ever to top the box office charts.
“The world is changing, and Hollywood needs to look to YouTube to find young people who are coming up and have something to say,” says Cori Adelson, the film’s producer and president of North Road Films. “People like Caine grew up online and figured out how to get their work noticed in a way that was impossible for young filmmakers 20 years ago.”
YouTube isn’t the only online platform that has helped “Backroom” succeed. Backroom has a range of digital influences built into its DNA. The film’s central concept, an extradimensional network of empty rooms, was born on the imageboard website 4chan and then picked up and spread across Reddit forums. Parsons then turned the idea into 24 short stories that garnered tens of millions of views and caught the attention of Hollywood.
“Kane himself is a proxy for the entire online community,” says Michael Clear, the film’s producer and president of Atomic Monster. “‘Backroom’ is more of an Internet phenomenon than a YouTube phenomenon.”
Parsons, who Adelson describes as an “old soul,” impressed producers with his vision for expanding the world of “Backrooms.” However, he had no formal training. So Clear and producer Dan Cohen, who also recognized Parsons’ potential early on, devised a plan to help him become more comfortable behind the camera. They surrounded him with a network of mentors like Wan and Osgood Perkins, the “Long Legs” filmmaker, who served as producers and “big brother” figures on the film. To unravel the mysteries of “Back Room,” producers had Parsons come up with a two-page synopsis and, after interviewing a series of screenwriters, ultimately selected Will Sudik, who worked on “Homeland” and “Westworld,” to expand the story into a full-length feature. They came up with the story of a troubled furniture salesman (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who discovers an endless series of interconnected rooms accessible in the basement of his store.
“The ideas became more and more sophisticated,” Cohen says.
They also asked Parsons to shadow director Bryce McGuire in the horror film “Night Swim,” which Clear was producing.
“The budget was in a similar range, and[McGuire]was also just starting out as a director, so it felt like a one-on-one experience,” Cohen says.
However, the movie was shot in Los Angeles, and Parsons lived in the Northern California city of Petaluma. Cohen was moving to Vancouver with his family to make a film at the time, and decided to have Parsons stay at his Westwood home.
“It was just sitting there, empty,” Cohen said. “I said to my wife, ‘I trust this kid to make a multimillion-dollar movie, and I trust him to take care of the house.'”
Parsons created the short using Blender, an open source CGI software. When he moved into feature film production, he used technology to pre-visualize 90% of the “backroom” before shooting a frame.
“This allowed us to do all the stress testing in advance,” Adelson said. “That kept us on schedule. Kane didn’t miss a day. He made this movie on time and on budget.”
Although Parsons had never worked with professional actors before, his mastery of film mythology allowed him to transition from making films in his own backyard to working with Oscar nominees like Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve.
“He adapted quickly and was so fluent in this world that people instantly got what he wanted,” Cohen says.
Rumors circulated online that Parsons was so young that he might not actually be directing “Backroom.” Mark Duplass, who stars in the film, dispelled the gossip last week by tweeting, “Caine was 100% in control. More so than many directors three times his age.” Cohen said the allegations about Parsons are vexing and false.
“Caine was the director of the movie, absolutely,” Cohen says. “He was intricately involved in every step of script development and film production. It would be crazy to suggest otherwise.”
The success of “Backrooms” and “Obsession” caused Hollywood to rethink how it discovers and develops talent. And just as earlier generations of filmmakers aspired to be the next Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese, many YouTubers will aspire to be the next Caine Parsons or Curry Barker. For companies like Blumhouse Atomic Monsters, there’s a sense that the specialized genre of horror is changing to accommodate new visions of what’s scary on screen.
“In a world of cinema where things can feel overly predictable, filmmakers like Caine and Curry are doing something completely different,” says Clear. “When I watch a movie, I get really excited because I never know what to expect.”
For Adelson, the success of these YouTubers is a sign that Hollywood may be about to experience a youth earthquake, with Hollywood’s old guard being replaced by a group of rising filmmakers.
“Hollywood should take note,” Adelson says. “Take risks. Be bold. Make choices driven by your audience, not fear. Young people want to support young people. These films connect because they are about young people. A lot of older people at the studios are making green-light decisions, and they are cut off from the audience. It’s very difficult for them to understand what’s going on on the ground floor.”
