Horror movie Backrooms by 20-year-old director Kane Parsons is poised to be a surprise Box Office hit when it arrives in theatres later this week.
Deadline predicts it could take $20 million during its opening weekend, as it looks set to resonate with a younger audience of movie goers, already fans of Parsons’ work on YouTube.
For those who don’t know, the youngster previously worked on the YouTube series The Backrooms (Found Footage) in 2022, which helped him earn over 3.2 million subscribers.
He was then signed by boutique film company A24 to turn the concept into a full-blown movie.
However, what’s unique about Parsons – aside from his age – is that he grew up with games like the rest of us. And he actually cut his creative teeth in LittleBigPlanet on the PS3, where he learned about lighting and set designs.
Backrooms stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, a store owner who discovers a strange doorway in his basement. After becoming obsessed with the ethereal space, his therapist Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve) decides to enter the other dimension in order to rescue him.
The film currently commands an 81% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and has been praised by critics.
But Parsons’ influences go beyond LittleBigPlanet, as he was also inspired by Portal while making the film.
He told Letterboxd:
“Portal would be the earliest influence. It’s the easiest one for me to pin down as the strongest influence over everything I’ve done in my entire life probably. It’s inherently comedic and absurd, and that’s what I like about it. So many bleak creative choices come from an inherent humour.”
What’s neat about this new era of directors is that they all grew up on video games.
Zach Cregger may be deviating slightly from the source material for his upcoming Resident Evil, but it’s clear he understands the franchise deeply as well.
I think it’s so cool that Parsons got his start on LittleBigPlanet, and it’s a reminder of just how impactful the Media Molecule franchise was on the PS3.
I’m sure we’ll see it cited by more and more creators in the future, and that’s something both the developer and Sony should be remarkably proud of.
