Backrooms has shot filmmaker Kane Parsons to stardom in recent weeks, but how well do you know the successful horror YouTuber turned Hollywood sensation?
While the movie world may have been dominated by how well Toy Story 5 has done since its debut in theaters – $312 million in its first weekend – there has been another movie that has been making waves.
Backrooms, the liminal horror film by 20-year-old sensation Kane Parsons, has just surpassed the $300 million barrier at the worldwide box office. Given the move was made for just $10 million, there are some huge profits being made.
But how much do you know about Kane Parsons? Here are some facts you might not know.
His love of the arts developed early
Kane was born in Petaluma, California on June 18, 2005. His father, Michael Parsons, was a British visual effect artist and his mother worked as a therapist. However, Michael’s parents divorced when Kane was just seven.
Kane’s interest in the arts was evident from an early age – helped by attending Marin School of the Arts at Novato High School.
Kane started out making fan films
Kane started out making fan films
One of Kane’s first works was adapting hit manga and anime series ‘Attack on Titan’ into short fan films. These fan films presented the events of the series in a historical war photography style, which fitted the theme of the show. These were praised by many as they had horror elements that was faithful to the original show and manga.
He’s been involved with Backrooms for years
Backrooms has provided Kane with his big break in movies, but he has been involved with it for years. Backrooms, a concept location from a creepypasta from 2019. Kane did not like the fact that there wasn’t much good content online at the time as he says himself, “there was definitely no real presence of high-fidelity content being made”. So he decided to do something about this himself. Used the 3d software ‘Blender’ he released his first ‘Backrooms’ project ‘Found Footage’ and released it on YouTube on January 7, 2022. It quickly grew in popularity and became and ongoing web series. Incorporating the fictional Async research institute, an MRI manufacturer and research lab that Kane had originally created as the focus of an unrelated project.
Kane was courted by several film studios
Less than a month after ‘Found Footage’ was released, Kane was contacted by several studios interested in making a film adaptation of it, including A24, Cherrin Entertainment, Atomic Monster, and 21 Laps Entertainments. Kane then announced in February 2023 that the film adaptation would be in the works as a collaborative project by Kane and the studios.
Kane holds a box office record
The film version of Backrooms, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Kane’s directorial debut, hit theaters in May and was an instant success, lauded by fans of the original creepypasta and newcomers to it alike.
The movie opened at number one at the North American box office, making Kane the youngest director to achieve that accolade, beating the record set in 2012 by Josh Trank, who was 27 when Chronicle got to the top of the charts.
He is the latest YouTuber to find success in Hollywood
Kane is now one of a growing number of young directors to come to prominence making films on YouTube. Others like Trank, Curry Barker [click here for more on him] and David F all first found fame on the platform.
He plans to continue Backrooms
And in May 2026 Kane confirmed that the ‘Backrooms’ web series would continue. In early June, Deadline reported that Kane was looking for a screenwriter to collaborate on a sequel to a film, though Kane denied this, he did express that he wouldn’t mind making a Backrooms television series.
Reporting by Iwan Parton
