Kane Parsons says he did not make Backrooms as horror after $401 million run

Kane Parsons does not think he made horror.

The 21-year-old director told the Zurich Film Festival Summit that he did not direct Backrooms like a horror film and does not view it as a horror project, even though his first cinema feature has generated $401 million at the global box office since its May release, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Parsons was speaking in a Summit session titled "The Theatrical Box Office Resurgence! How to Get Audiences' Attention in the Era of Social Media and Online Platforms?" His fellow speakers included Academy chief executive Bill Kramer, Mattel president and chief content officer Robbie Brenner, and Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker.

Backrooms began as Parsons' YouTube series about endless yellow office rooms. He described that starting point at Zurich as a pre-existing but decentralised intellectual property presence online, meaning a story world already built and shared across many creators rather than controlled in one place. He said there was not a real sense before release of what the film would tap into for people who knew those videos.

He put much of that early attention down to scepticism. The trailer, he said, activated a desire to see "How did Hollywood mess this up?" or at least curiosity. He added that he likes to think the finished film did justice to the core idea familiar from his series.

The A24 release stars Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor, with Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell also in the cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter and an A24 trailer released in April. It is Parsons' feature directorial debut, his first time directing a cinema-length film. Interview Magazine had earlier reported that the result made him A24's youngest and highest-grossing director.

Attention has now turned to what comes next. Parsons has officially signed on to direct Backrooms 2 for A24, according to Dread Central. He had said in June that he was looking for a screenwriting collaborator for a sequel, according to Deadline.

What makes this stand out is the route Parsons took to get there. He moved from self-made online videos to a studio feature without treating the larger version as a genre exercise. For fans, this means the second film will come from a director who still frames Backrooms around place and idea rather than scares.