Origins of Backrooms

The Backrooms started with one eerie image and an anonymous post on 4chan’s paranormal board, /x/, in 2019. In a thread asking for “unsettling images,” someone shared the now‑iconic photo of a yellow, empty office space, and another user replied with a short description of an endless maze you reach by “no‑clipping” out of reality, instantly turning it into a creepypasta. That single exchange—one picture, one block of text—became ground zero for the Backrooms myth that would later spread across Reddit, TikTok and YouTube and eventually inspire Kane Parsons’ films

Kane Parsons, known online as Kane Pixels, is a British‑American filmmaker, visual effects artist and musician born in 2005. He created his YouTube channel back in 2015 and spent years uploading short films, animations and VFX experiments, including popular Attack on Titan animations that showed off his sense of scale and camera movement.

Most of his earliest uploads were later set to private, but that long apprenticeship gave him a toolbox: he could model environments, animate creatures, composite live‑action with CGI and design sound, all on his own. When he stumbled onto the Backrooms idea, he wasn’t starting from zero; he was a self‑taught one‑man studio ready for a breakout.

Parsons didn’t just ride a meme; he authored a tone. His Backrooms shorts are patient, often structured like incident reports or training videos, with long stretches of silence followed by a single impossible image. That discipline, rare even in seasoned directors, convinced many viewers that he was more than a talented kid; he was a filmmaker with a clear, coherent vision.

KaneParsons later took that concept and turned it into a found-footage horror series on YouTube. His first Backrooms video quickly went viral after its 2022 release, drawing tens of millions of views, and the series continued to grow from there, eventually reaching more than 75 million views overall.

How Backrooms happened

Hollywood noticed quickly. In February 2023, A24, along with Chernin Entertainment, Atomic Monster and 21 Laps, announced a feature adaptation of The Backrooms with Parsons attached to direct and Roberto Patino writing the script. At that point he was still a teenager, making this feature his directorial debut and a major bet on internet‑native horror talent.

A24 later fully greenlit the film, confirming it as a sci‑fi horror project based on Parsons’ YouTube universe and revealing that it would star Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve in lead roles. Production was set to begin in the summer, and Parsons, at 19, officially became the youngest director in the studio’s history.

Release and reception

Backrooms released on May 29, 2026, with a historically successful opening weekend, earning $90 million in the USA and around $125 million worldwide, delivering A24’s largest every opening weekend, outshining Disney’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. The film has been received mostly well so far with fans praising its uncomfortable atmosphere (in a good way) and its translation from online videos into a feature film. Audiences who were familiar with Parsons’ shorts particularly appreciate that the movie keeps the found-footage energy and subtle lore combined with real emotional stakes and strong performances from the cast. The success of Backrooms will undoubtedly open the door to bigger studio opportunities for Parsons’ and provide him with leverage to shape his next projects. The strong early performance have also reportedly led to A24 already exploring a sequel to continue the Backrooms universe under his direction.

Why Kane Parsons matters right now

Parsons is part of a new wave of horror storytellers who treat YouTube and social media as their film school, their festival circuit and their proof of concept all at once. Like other breakout horror directors who began online, he brings a DIY sensibility to studio filmmaking, showing that you can build a believable world with minimal resources if your sense of atmosphere is strong enough. For A24, giving him the reigns isn’t just a stunt; it’s a logical extension of the Backrooms mythos, which has always been decentralized, collaborative and internet‑driven as they themselves continue to lead the way in the new wave of cinema.

If you haven’t already, make sure to watch Backrooms in theatres before its too late!