He was only 16 years old when he first came up with the idea of ”Backrooms». Others at these ages worry about school dances, teenage dating, or their future academic careers. THE Kane Parsons instead he had dived into the labyrinthine and terrifying universe he envisioned and filmed – in his first year – as a nine-minute YouTube film.
The film and its sequels quickly went viral on the Internet, and Parsons soon caught the eye of A24. At 17, he signed a contract with the production company to bring “Backrooms” to the big screen. At the age of 19, he found himself collaborating with two top actresses – the Renate Reinswe and him Chiwetel Ejiofor– and today, having turned 20 years old, he sees his work flying high at the box office, but at the same time engaging cinephiles of all ages.
The issue of his young age also concerned him, as he confessed in a recent interview with the New York Times. “Will the movie people not take me seriously?” he was thinking. But at the same time, he was worried about being alienated from it as well youtube audience who brought him up and who first fell in love with the idea of ”Backrooms”.
His artistic references, as he says, have less to do with cinema and more to do with gaming. His favorite games are “Portal” and the “Half Life». He’s not a big fan of the series either, although he admits to having watched “Mr. Robot» at least eight times.
But what fascinates us in “Backrooms” – a story of a middle-aged man who wanders through vast yellow corridors of a parallel reality he discovers behind the walls of his shabby shop? “The world we live in is becoming more and more fragmented, more and more lonely”, replies Parsons himself. “Backrooms” is a film about people’s need to “map” their lives. To explain it, to give it reasonable interpretations “to escape the emotional burden” that life carries.
But what if there are no clear interpretations? What if the “corridors” of our mind extend to infinity? This part seems to be what the young creator wants to explore in his film. And this is also the reason – as he believes – that “Backrooms” is a really scary movie.
He was born on its outskirts Silicon Valleynext to rolling green hills that he says looked like the default Windows XP wallpaper. From a young age he experimented with one digital camera of his parents, making up short stories, until in adolescence, horrible pains in his legs began to plague him. Suffer from arthritis at just 13 years old. Since then he has been living with the autoimmune disease, which sometimes makes it difficult to even walk. He used many of those intervals that he struggled with autoimmunity to delve into visual content production methods. Then he familiarized himself with the program “Blender”, which allowed him to create digital virtual worlds. This is how the first version of “Backrooms” was born, which attracted millions of viewers on social media in just a few weeks.
He didn’t “sell” his idea to Hollywood lightly. He knew that what succeeds on the Internet, does not necessarily mean that it will find a response on the big screen. He remained cautious and to this day considers the film version of “Backrooms” to be an organic continuation of the “original” material.
On the set of the film Parsons suddenly abandoned his computer and found himself on a giant movie set. His vision was now being realized in a real studio. Yes, he found this transition surreal, but he soon realized that “there isn’t a specific directing methodology.”
His colleagues speak highly of him. They speak of a man who, despite his young age, managed the creative process with maturity and measure. This is not to say that there were not huge difficulties (the autoimmune disease struck again) and pressures (the time frames were suffocating) along this route.
He wouldn’t say no to a ‘Backrooms’ sequel, but he makes it clear that his initial goal was to turn his idea into television series. At the same time he has other ideas – such as a film adaptation of the video game “Portal”. However, the circle of “Backrooms” has not closed in itself. “I don’t think I’ll die in the next five years. So why don’t I tinker with it a little more?’ he humorously wonders.
With information from the New York Times
