Kane Parsons, the director behind Backrooms, a $400 million hit, has a problem with how people talk about his movie. He doesn’t see it as a horror film, and he wants everyone to know it. Speaking at the Zurich Summit on Saturday, Parsons told a panel that the horror label is a marketing shortcut, not a creative choice.
“I didn’t direct like a horror film,” Parsons said. “I don’t view it as a horror project. I think that’s just naturally been the path of least resistance from a marketing perspective and it’s what seems comfortable to people as a framing device.”
The irony is that the whole panel was using Backrooms as the prime example of a new era for the industry. Parsons was on a panel discussing the $4.7 billion resurgence at the U.S. box office this summer, alongside Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer, Mattel Studios President & Chief Content Officer Robbie Brenner, and Sony Pictures Classics co-head Michael Barker. All three acknowledged the role Backrooms played in the box office rebound.
Parsons’ Marketing Complaint
Parsons acknowledges that A24, which spearheaded the adaptation of his web-series and distributed the movie, would not like his comments. But he hopes to avoid this framing in the future.
“I’m going to try to stay as oblivious to those labels as possible,” he said. “I think I have more creative control now with future projects so those sorts of structures will probably be a little less forceful in the future.”
The director is not arguing that Backrooms is a comedy or a drama. He is arguing that the horror label is a default, a convenient way for studios to describe a movie without doing the work of understanding what it actually is. His complaint is marketing, not artistic.
Kramer’s Fan-Dom Shift
Kramer used Backrooms as the centerpiece of his argument about how fandoms travel across platforms. The CEO of the Academy said the movie was “an amazing example” of how fans move from YouTube to theaters.
“Young people want to go back to movie theaters. Fandoms shift. Theatrical can inform a fandom. YouTube can inform a theatrical fandom. It’s all connected in a way that I don’t think we thought was possible, and that for me was a big takeaway of this summer, and it gives me great hope for the film industry,” Kramer said.
Brenner acknowledged the role Backrooms played alongside Obsession, another film born out of the YouTube space.
Barker’s Inflection Point
Barker framed the box office success as part of a wider shift for the film business. He compared it to the moment when Easy Rider came out in the middle of the Vietnam War, during a right-wing presidency, and spoke directly to young people.
“If you look at the history of the motion picture business, there are these major inflection moments of transition,” Barker said. “When I was 15 years old, Easy Rider came out in the middle of the Vietnam War, in the middle of a right-wing president, that spoke volumes to people in the moment. It spoke to young people, and they responded in huge numbers, and it affected the movies that were going to be made afterwards.”
“I think this is that moment this summer with Obsession and Backrooms. What we haven’t talked about is what is in those movies that speaks to the population in the moment, and some of it’s very scary stuff… we’re in that moment for sure.”
Barker also suggested that the box office was being impacted by a phenomenon set in motion by the pandemic and the rise of streaming platforms, which has resulted in audiences in their teens, 20s and 30s being exposed to wider cinema content.
The Labels That Matter
The panel’s framing of Backrooms as a cultural signal matters because Parsons is not wrong about the marketing. The horror label has been the default way to describe the movie, and that label has stuck. But Parsons is also not wrong about the creative process. He directed it the way he wanted.
The disconnect is the story. Parsons wants creative freedom for his next projects, and he sees the horror label as a structure that could be less forceful in the future. The panel sees Backrooms as evidence that young audiences are shifting their attention back to theaters, and that the relationship between online communities and mainstream cinema is changing.
What The Panel Missed
The panel’s discussion of Backrooms was enthusiastic, but it missed Parsons’ point entirely. They treated the movie as a horror because that is what it became in the marketplace, not because that is what Parsons made. Kramer’s fan-dom shift argument and Barker’s inflection point comparison both rested on Backrooms being the horror movie that proved their point.
The irony is that the panel’s framing is exactly what Parsons said he wants to avoid. He wants to stay oblivious to labels, and the panel spent the whole session attaching one to his movie.
The Future Of Parsons
Parsons’ comments suggest he is thinking about his next projects with more creative control than he had on Backrooms. Whether he can avoid the horror label in marketing remains to be seen, but he has stated his position clearly.
The broader question is whether the industry can stop treating Backrooms as a horror. The movie’s success was built on the audience it found, not the label it wore. Parsons may not have directed it like a horror, but the label stuck anyway.
Key Points From The Panel
- Kane Parsons insisted Backrooms is not a horror project, calling the label marketing shorthand.
- Bill Kramer, CEO of the Academy, called Backrooms “an amazing example” of fandom traveling from YouTube to theaters.
- Robbie Brenner of Mattel Studios acknowledged Backrooms and Obsession as part of the box office resurgence.
- Michael Barker of Sony Pictures Classics compared the moment to Easy Rider and said the summer was “that moment.”
- Parsons said he will try to stay oblivious to labels and hopes for less forceful structures on future projects.
The irony is that Parsons is the only one on the panel who disagrees with the framing. Everyone else agrees that Backrooms is the horror movie that changed everything, even as Parsons insists it isn’t.
That is the story. A director says his $400 million hit is not a horror film, and the entire panel treats it as the prime example of a new era for the industry.
Source material: “‘Backrooms’ Director Kane Parsons Distances $400M Hit From Horror Moniker: “I Don’t View It As A Horror Project”- Zurich Summit,” Deadline.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.