I cover audience and moviegoing trends. I wrote about CinemaCon’s quiet wars, broke down how fandom is upending Hollywood and went inside PostTrak to find out why movies flop. Email me at matthew@theankler.com
The two major horror movies coming to theaters this month share a lot in common — the biggest being how they were discovered.
A24’s Backrooms, which traces its origins to a 2019 4chan image of a creepy yellow-carpeted office space, quickly became a sprawling internet mythology of fan fiction, memes and video games. But the biggest breakout was Kane Parsons’ nine-minute “found-footage” horror short, which has racked up 77 million views since he posted it on YouTube four years ago, when he was only 16. New York-based horror producer Chris White discovered the film after his son — the same age as Parsons — insisted that he watch it.
“He’s like, ‘Dad, you’ve got to see this kid’s short. It’s really good,’” White remembers. The producer then contacted Parsons, who was game to let White pitch the project around Hollywood.
White brought the project to Michael Clear and James Wan at Atomic Monster, and the duo was immediately receptive to Parsons’ work. A similar process played out at 21 Laps, where then-creative executive Lucas Ford discovered Parsons’ initial short film and brought it to his higher-ups. The two production companies joined forces to develop it, also partnering with Chernin Entertainment and A24, and the film — starring Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve — is set to bow on May 29. At age 20, Parsons is the youngest director in A24’s history.
Two weeks earlier, on May 15, Focus Features will release Curry Barker’s Obsession, a horror flick about a guy whose wish for his crush to fall in love with him goes very wrong. Focus’ president of production and acquisitions, Kiska Higgs, had heard buzz about the project, made for under $1 million, heading into the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. It fully came onto Focus’ radar when the college-aged son of distribution head Lisa Bunnell told his mom he loved Milk & Serial, Barker’s 62-minute YouTube horror film, which he made in 2024 for $800.
Clearly, we are now in the “mom/dad, check this shit out” era of horror greenlights.
Today I break down:
- Why horror became Hollywood’s easiest way in for Gen Z creators
- The YouTube metrics that matter more than film school credentials
- How Kane Parsons telling producers “I don’t really watch movies” became a selling point, not a red flag
- How Backrooms could become A24’s next franchise universe
- What Jason Blum told me about YouTubers making more of an impact than streaming-movie directors
Don’t stop here
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