YouTubers take over Hollywood: Smash film Backrooms by ‘loner’ director, 20, is latest low-budget project to top Box Office

Four years ago, while most 16-year-old boys were worrying about passing their driving test, Kane Parsons was making a terrifying nine-minute film about a man holed up in his bedroom, trapped in a nightmarish maze of endless abandoned rooms.

Parsons, who claimed to be a loner and began creating YouTube content after being diagnosed with severe childhood arthritis at the age of 13, posted the film on YouTube and it went viral, gaining 10 million views in just two weeks.

The young filmmaker found a Hollywood agent a few days after his 17th birthday.

A deal was soon struck with prestigious studio A24, the powerhouse behind Oscar-winning films such as Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Parsons was given a budget of $8 million to develop his ‘bedroom movie’ into a full-scale Hollywood feature.

Parsons, now 20 and still unable to legally drink alcohol in his native California, is the toast of Hollywood as his film Backrooms has topped the US box office.

The film, which recreates the mustard-yellow rooms of the original YouTube film lit by buzzing fluorescent lights, has grossed a staggering $130 million worldwide since opening last weekend and has also topped the British charts.

Backrooms even managed to attract British Oscar winner Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) for a fraction of his normal salary because he was so keen to work with the young YouTube sensation.

Parsons’ creation outshines traditional studio productions like Star Wars’ newest offering, The Mandalorian And Grogu, and let’s see how it stacks up against the $200 million superhero blockbuster He-Man, starring Nicholas Galitzine, opening in theaters this weekend.

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark, a furniture store owner who explores the store’s basement back rooms.

The film takes place primarily in mustard yellow rooms called backrooms, lit by buzzing fluorescent lights.

But Parsons isn’t the only fresh-faced YouTuber knocking on Hollywood’s doors.

A Tinsel Town executive at a major studio told The Mail on Sunday: ‘There hasn’t been a revolution like this in Hollywood since silent films were replaced by talkies. You had to work your way through the system and work your way up before any studio would trust you to make movies.

‘These kids are coming out of their bedrooms and making movies that are drawing young audiences, especially young men, into movie theaters in numbers we haven’t seen in decades.’

Indeed, the number two movie at the global box office is the horror movie Obsession, made by 26-year-old YouTuber Curry Barker for $750,000.

The film, released on May 15, grossed $155 million worldwide.

Mark Fischback, who went by the name ‘Markiplier’ on YouTube earlier this year, self-financed the sci-fi horror film Iron Lung, which grossed over $50 million.

This shiny new order even has a name: creator-driven cinema.

The manager says: ‘People in the music industry have launched their careers outside of YouTube. Justin Bieber started releasing music videos online, but the film industry took a while to catch up, mostly because it’s hard to make good movies on a small budget in your bedroom.

‘But technology has become so advanced and AI tools so good that now any talented kid with a good idea can win the jackpot.’

Renate Reinsve plays Mary, Clarke’s therapist, who also ventures into back rooms in the film alongside Ejiafor.

The film has grossed a staggering $130 million worldwide since last weekend.

Pictured left to right: Finn Bennett, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kane Parsons, Renate Reinsve, Lukita Maxwell and Mark Duplass attend a special screening of Backrooms in Los Angeles on May 7

The source adds: ‘YouTube users are tapping into the insecurities of the post-#MeToo generation because they grew up during Covid, suffered through lockdown, and have the same insecurities and hang-ups as the kids who will watch their films.’

Critics praised Backrooms, in which Ejiofor plays a man who discovers a portal to a malevolent alternate world in his furniture store. He then wanders with increasing anxiety and terror through a never-ending maze of backrooms.

One reviewer said: ‘The film taps directly into the helplessness and loss of control people are feeling during Covid. Parsons has captured the psychological distress of an entire generation.’

This past weekend, Parsons became the youngest director in history to top the box office in the US and UK.

His own past is as remarkable as his newfound success.

Born in Petaluma, California, his childhood was cut short when he became bedridden at age 13 when he was diagnosed with severe arthritis.

He told the New York Times: ‘Arthritis didn’t make sense for a 13-year-old.’

His father, a video game developer, encouraged his son to create escapist worlds on his computer using free software like Blender.

Parsons now receives weekly autoimmune injections, allowing him to live a fairly ‘normal’ life.

But the stress of turning Backrooms into a film forced him to take two weeks of bed rest during post-production: ‘I ended up with a bit too much on my plate. ‘I definitely exploited my nervous system to the fullest extent I could.’

Obsession’s Curry Barker started making comedy skits on YouTube, which were watched by a handful of friends before moving on to horror movies ‘just for fun’.

He said: ‘No one was making the movies that me and my friends wanted to watch, so I decided to make it myself.’

The 26-year-old self-described “straight C and D grader” from the backwoods of Mobile, Alabama, struck gold two years ago when the movie Milk & Serial, which he shot in his bedroom for $800, reached 2.4 million views on YouTube.

‘This made me think bigger,’ he said.

Barker is now credited with helping revive the struggling movie industry, devastated by the pandemic, as audiences abandoned movie theaters and turned to streaming services like Netflix.

Made for just $750,000, Obsession follows Bear, a shy record store clerk who purchases a lucky charm, a wooden stick that grants a wish when pulled.

Bear wishes his best friend, Nikki, would “love me more than anything in the world.”

This wish backfires when Nikki develops a deadly obsession with him.

‘Curry has millions of followers on YouTube and all of these kids went to the cinema to see Obsession,’ says the studio executive. Some of them probably went to the cinema for the first time.

‘These are kids who grew up during the pandemic, who could never have traditional Friday nights at the cinema with their girlfriends like previous generations did. ‘Many of them are experiencing the joy of watching a movie with an audience for the first time.’

Curry was offered $10 million for his next film, a horror film he had not yet written.

He landed an agent at the mighty United Talent Agency and signed on to direct the remake of 1974’s blood-soaked classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Social media has democratized the cinematic landscape to the point that studios will struggle against filmmakers who have never stepped foot on a professional set or attended a single film studies class.

‘Traditionally, if you want to make films, you go to film school and then join a production company in a junior position as a runner or gripper,’ the manager said. ‘This is history.’

But smug moviegoers aren’t convinced YouTubers will save Hollywood.

One of the industry’s leading figures, who has an Oscar award to his name, told MoS: ‘I think you will see creator-driven cinema in genres such as comedy and horror. So, can these children create a masterpiece like Lawrence of Arabia? I don’t think so.

‘What they can do is work efficiently with time and money because they grew up creating content in their bedrooms. But are they artists? ‘For every film that succeeds, there are hundreds that fail to do so.’

It remains to be seen whether any of the YouTubers will end up on stage with a golden statuette in hand. But don’t ignore this.

The Oscars ceremony itself is also embracing new media: From 2029, Hollywood’s marquee event will switch from traditional TV to broadcast worldwide via YouTube.