The Youngest Director in Box Office History Was Still in High School When James Wan First Called

Hollywood has seen plenty of unlikely origin stories, but few are as genuinely disarming as the one behind ‘Backrooms.’ The A24 horror film, directed by Kane Parsons, has been dominating conversation ever since its release, and the story of how it came to exist is just as fascinating as the liminal nightmare unfolding on screen.

The concept traces back to a single eerie photograph taken during the renovation of a former furniture store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which gradually metastasized into a sprawling internet mythology across 4Chan threads and creepypasta forums. The idea of infinite, abandoned office space as a form of existential dread struck a deep nerve with online audiences, but it was Parsons who truly unlocked its cinematic potential.

Parsons had only been producing his ‘Backrooms’ series online for roughly a month when the conversation about a feature film first began, having released his debut short at the start of 2022. What happened next is the part that has left even seasoned Hollywood veterans shaking their heads. When James Wan, the filmmaker behind ‘Insidious’ and ‘Saw,’ had his first Zoom meeting with Parsons, they were joined not by a manager or agent, but by his dad. “We didn’t realize until we reached out that Kane was still in high school,” Wan admits in an interview with Variety.

Wan later elaborated on that first contact, noting that “his dad needed to be on the Zoom with him” and that the team wanted to ensure they had the father’s permission before moving forward. Despite the unusual circumstances, Wan was struck by Parsons’ intelligence, saying, “He’s a really smart kid, really brilliant. His maturity is way beyond his years.”

Parsons had built his YouTube shorts using Blender, open-source CGI software, and when the transition to feature filmmaking began, he pre-visualized roughly ninety percent of ‘Backrooms’ using the same technology before a single frame was shot. That meticulous preparation translated directly into results on set. Producer Kori Adelson noted that Parsons never went a day over schedule and delivered the film on time and on budget, even while working with Oscar nominees like Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve for the first time.

The finished film obliterated box office expectations with an $81 million domestic debut and $118 million worldwide in its opening weekend, the largest in A24 history by a significant margin and the biggest debut ever for an original horror movie. The result also made Parsons, at 20 years old, the youngest filmmaker in history to top the domestic box office, shattering the record previously held by Josh Trank, who was 27 when ‘Chronicle’ opened to number one in 2012.

The success of ‘Backrooms’ extends a remarkable streak of breakout films from directors who built their careers on YouTube, alongside names like Curry Barker, Danny and Michael Philippou, and Mark Fischbach. As producer Adelson put it, “The world is changing, and Hollywood needs to look to YouTube to find the young people who are coming up and have something to say.”

The high school kid on that first Zoom call has just rewritten the record books. Now the question is simple: were you among the record-breaking crowds who showed up for ‘Backrooms’ this weekend, and did the film live up to the hype that started with a teenager and a borrowed CGI program?