‘Backrooms’ Director Kane Parsons on the Games, Shows, and YouTubers That Shaped Him
Kane Parsons, the youngest director in A24 history, discusses his journey from YouTuber to filmmaker with his new movie 'Backrooms.' The film, inspired by a 4chan meme, explores themes of liminal spaces and the unknown. Parsons aims to capture the eerie essence of these spaces while appealing to Gen-Z audiences.
- ▪Kane Parsons is the youngest person to direct an A24 movie.
- ▪His film 'Backrooms' is a feature-length adaptation of a popular internet meme.
- ▪The movie explores themes of liminal spaces and the unknown, appealing to Gen-Z perspectives.
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CultureBackrooms Director Kane Parsons on the Games, Shows, and YouTubers That Shaped HimThe youngest auteur in A24 history maps the influences that inspired the first-ever liminal-space horror movie.By Zack HauptmanMay 27, 2026Parsons on set with ‘Backrooms’ star Chiwetel Ejiofor.Everett CollectionSave StorySave this storySave StorySave this story“It's been a very weird time recently,” Backrooms director Kane Parsons tells me over Zoom, from his room in Vancouver. “It's been very strange—good strange, but it's all very new.”Only four years ago, Parsons was a teenage YouTuber creating videos based on “the backrooms,” a 4chan meme (born from a single photo of a mysterious yellow-walled room) that spawned its own online mythology about a parallel universe of eerily vacant and…
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