Hollywood is Learning the Wrong Lessons From Backrooms’ Success, And I Can Prove It

Backrooms was a massive success when it was released earlier this year, and it ended up doing better than anyone could have expected. The movie is based on the viral YouTube series by Kane Parsons, which itself was based on liminal space photos originally released on 4chan. Parsons released the first video in January 2022, and it has already climbed to 91 million views. It was clear that the movie came with a built-in audience, but it ended up surpassing even those numbers. With Parsons directing the movie himself in his feature debut, the movie passed $389 million at the worldwide box office, making more money than Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Now, Hollywood is rushing forward to meet the demand for what it believes is the new trend, but it is taking the wrong message from Backrooms‘ success.

The Real Reason Backrooms Was a Huge Success

Backrooms was not only a massive success, but it was a big reason that Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu failed at the box office. Audiences ignored the big franchise movie and went to theaters to see a movie shot by a 20-year-old director and a second horror movie called Obsession that was based on an original idea. That was the big thing to take into account. Backrooms and Obsession were different from anything else in theaters, and while audiences ignored Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, and DC’s Supergirl, they soaked up all the original horror they could handle while those franchises were in theaters.

Kane Parsons set out to make a big-screen movie based on his YouTube series, and he got some big names to join him, with Chiwetel Ejiofor (an Oscar nominee from 12 Years a Slave) and Renate Reinsve (an Oscar nominee for Sentimental Value) in the lead roles. He didn’t lower his vision by creating something safe, either, as he made a movie set in the same dirty yellow world of his YouTube series. It not only impressed the audience, but Parsons won over the critics as well, with an 86% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Parsons also insisted that the movie was for the fans in more ways than one. When the studio began sending out copyright claims against fans of Backrooms, Parsons spoke up for them and said they had every right to homage his YouTube series, and A24 had to reverse course. Backrooms is, in no way, a big franchise movie. However, with the box office success, Hollywood seems to think that it is.

Hollywood Is Making a Mistake Following Backrooms‘ Success

Backrooms and Obsession should be a sign for Hollywood to make more original movies that are not like what the studio system normally releases. However, Hollywood can’t be stopped when movies end up as runaway successes. This happened after The Blair Witch Project was a huge success as a found footage horror movie. The film was like nothing that Hollywood had seen, and it was a success thanks to both its revolutionary found footage format and its marketing, where the studio made it look like the events in the story were real.

However, once Hollywood saw that success, the studios went full speed ahead with found footage movies, and most of them were trash compared to The Blair Witch Project. For every Paranormal Activity, there were a dozen found footage horror movies that no one remembers to this day. This happened with Halloween and Friday the 13th capturing fans’ attention with slasher movies, and then the floodgates opened with more movies that didn’t have any of the subtext of those original slasher movies. Now, studios are looking at the type of film Backrooms is and creating copycat movies rather than understanding that it is the originality of the movie that made it a success.

The first thing that happened was when A24 decided they could turn Backrooms into a franchise and release a sequel. The good news is that Kane Parsons wants this too, so that is a positive sign. However, sequels mean more of the story in this world, and as most horror franchises have learned, things don’t always get better as more movies are made.

However, the biggest thing that makes the Backrooms response look more like that of The Blair Witch Project is that Hollywood thinks it was a success because it was an internet sensation. The biggest announcement in response to Backrooms‘ success is the upcoming adaptation of Siren Head, another internet sensation like Backrooms. However, as Slender Man previously showed, being an internet sensation doesn’t mean anything if the movie can’t match up to what fans loved online. Siren Head does have the advantage of Zach Cregger as a producer.

Hollywood thinks that the online success is the reason for Backrooms‘ success, but that will soon backfire as it always does. Another YouTube analog success story, The Mandela Catalogue, is coming, and there is a feature-length movie based on the SCP Foundation in development. It is clear that Hollywood is just jumping on a trend without a true understanding of the real reason Backrooms was a success.

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