Before Kane Parsons had a Hollywood deal, he had a cheap laptop in his bedroom, a consumer-grade camera, and a grainy image from a 4chan forum.

Now 20, the filmmaker known online as Kane Pixels has gone from posting lo-fi horror videos on YouTube as a teenager to directing a film with the popular studio A24.

Backrooms will open in cinemas on May 29. Its producer credits include filmmaker Shawn Levy and horror maven James Wan, and stars Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve.

Far from a lucky break, Parsons’ trajectory demonstrates a significant shift in where the screen industry is looking for its future big ideas – particularly in the realm of horror.

From creepypasta to creepy cinema

The story of The Backrooms began on a 4Chan message board. In May 2019, an anonymous user on the site’s paranormal board posted a photograph of a yellow-walled hallway in response to a thread inviting people to share images that felt disquieting.

Another anonymous user replied with a short piece of lore:

If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in The Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.

If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in The Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the........

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