Kane Parson’s $400M hit Backrooms, spinning off his web-series inspired by “creepypasta’ horror content on the internet, is invariably and understandably billed as a horror.
The director told a panel at the Zurich Summit on Saturday, however, that he does not see it as being aligned with the genre.
“I didn’t direct like a horror film. I don’t view it as a horror project. I think that’s just naturally been the path of least resistance from a marketing perspective and it’s what seems comfortable to people as a framing device,” he said,
Parsons acknowledged that A24, which spearheaded the adaptation the web-series and distributed the movie, would not like his comments, but added he hoped to be able to avoid this sort of framing in the future.
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“I’m going to try to stay as oblivious to those labels as possible… I think I have more creative control now with future projects so those sorts of structures will probably be a little less forceful in the future,” he said.
Parsons was talking on a panel on the $4.7 billion resurgence at the U.S. box office this summer, alongside Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer; President & Chief Content Officer Mattel Studios and Barbie producer Robbie Brenner and Sony Pictures Classics co-head Michael Barker.
Kramer, Brenner and Barker all acknowledged the role played by Backrooms in the box office resurgence, alongside Obsession, which was also born out of the YouTube space.
“Backrooms was an amazing example… and speaks to one of the things that’s happening with our industry…. your fandom travelled from YouTube to the theaters,” said Kramer.
“Young people want to go back to movie theaters. Fandoms shift. Theatrical can inform a fandom. YouTube can inform a theatrical fandom. It’s all connected in a way that I don’t think we thought was possible, and that for me was a big takeaway of this summer, and it gives me great hope for the film industry.
Barker described the box office success for Backrooms as symptomatic of a wider shift for the film business.
“If you look at the history of the motion picture business, there are these major inflection moments of transition. When I was 15 years old, Easy Rider came out in the middle of the Vietnam War, in the middle of a right-wing president, that spoke volumes to people in the moment. It spoke to young people, and they responded in huge numbers, and it affected the movies that were going to be made afterwards,” he said.
“I think this is that moment this summer with Obsession and Backrooms. What we haven’t talked about is what is in those movies that speaks to the population in the moment, and some of it’s very scary stuff… we’re in that moment for sure.”
Barker suggested the box offices was also being impacted by a phenomenon set in motion by the pandemic and the rise of the platforms, which has resulted in audiences in their teens, 20s and 30s being exposed to wider cinema content.
