Кейн Парсонс (Kane Pixels) / YouTube
19-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons, who became famous on YouTube for his viral horror series «The Backrooms», will direct the feature-length version of the film for A24.
He became the youngest director to ever helm a movie for A24. The film will star Chiwetel Ejiofor («12 Years a Slave») and Renate Reynswe («The Worst Person in the World») in the lead roles. The filming will start this summer. To help the promising director not get lost, he will work with an experienced team of producers. In particular, the team has been joined by screenwriter Roberto Patino, known for the series «DMZ».
Hints of a possible plot can be found on YouTube channel Parsons. A24 hired the young man after his short horror series «The Backrooms» became a hit. Judging by the original, the film will explore the concept of alternative dimensions and oppressive spaces in which it is easy to get lost. It is expected that the visual style that Parsons has recreated in the short films will become the main one.
But we first heard about The Backrooms in 2019 in the depths of the Internet for special connoisseurs — on the 4chan forum. An anonymous user posted a photo of an empty corridor with yellow walls, and another one came up with a creepy one. Over time, the story grew, and people came up with their own levels, rules, and video adaptations.
«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», — the original post read, written on Reddit.
In fact, A24 decided to turn a 4chan horror video into a full-fledged movie. The idea fits in with the latest trend of YouTube directors getting the green light from big studios. Before that, the Philippou brothers followed a similar path with their channel RackaRacka — their movie «Talk to Me» became an unexpected hit. And David F. Sandberg, the author of the short film «Don’t Turn Out the Lights», later made a feature-length version and moved on to «Shazam! Fury of the Gods» in the DCU
Source: World of Reel