When James Wan, the filmmaker behind “Insidious” and “Saw,” had his first Zoom meeting with Kane Parsons, the creator of the online phenom “Backrooms,” they were joined not by the YouTuber’s manager or agent, but by his dad.
“We didn’t realize until we reached out that Kane was still in high school,” Wan admits.
Parsons was only 16 at the time, but Wan believed that “Backrooms,” a series of “found footage” viral shorts the unfold in a warren of seemingly endless liminal spaces, had all the ingredients to make a compelling feature film.
“It felt unique. It felt different,” says Wan, who would go on to produce “Backrooms” through his company Blumhouse-Atomic Monster. “There was a vibe and a concept that seemed fresh.”
Wan’s confidence paid off. “Backrooms” opened last weekend to $81 million domestically and $118 million worldwide, an impressive result for a film that was produced for just $10 million. Its success extends a streak of hit films from directors like Curry Barker (“Obsession”), Danny and Michael Philippou (“Talk to Me”), and Mark Fischbach (“Iron Lung”), who got their starts on YouTube. Parsons, who is 20, became the youngest director in history to have a film top box office charts.
