He turned an obscure internet horror meme into A24’s biggest movie ever, and he did it before he was old enough to legally rent a car. Meet the director behind Backrooms 2.
When reports surfaced this month that Kane Parsons would direct Backrooms 2 for A24, the reaction was not “who?” It was “obviously.” That is a remarkable place to be for a filmmaker who is only 21, and whose entire career started on a YouTube channel he ran as a kid. Understanding why A24 keeps handing him the keys means going back to a bedroom in Northern California and a screenshot from 4chan.
His path from internet creepypasta to studio blockbuster is genuinely one of the strangest success stories in recent film, so let’s trace it.
In Brief
Kane Parsons is a 21-year-old American filmmaker who taught himself visual effects as a kid and, at 16, turned an obscure internet horror concept called the Backrooms into a viral YouTube series. That series became an A24 feature he directed, the studio’s biggest hit ever, and he is now reported to be returning for the sequel.
Table of Contents
From Kane Pixels to a Viral Phenomenon
Parsons was born in Petaluma, California, in 2005, and taught himself video production as a child. Online he goes by Kane Pixels, a channel he started at age 10, though the first real uploads came a couple of years later. This was not a kid dabbling. It was years of self-taught visual effects piling up before anyone was watching.
The turn came at 16. Parsons found a screenshot of the original Backrooms creepypasta, an eerie photo of an empty yellow-wallpapered room, and built a short film around it. He posted “The Backrooms (Found Footage)” to YouTube in January 2022, and it detonated. The video’s shaky-camcorder realism and creeping dread pulled tens of millions of views and turned a niche internet idea into a full-blown horror obsession, as the Hollywood Reporter later chronicled.
How a 4chan Screenshot Became an A24 Movie
Hollywood noticed fast. In early 2023, the trades reported that A24 was developing a Backrooms feature with Parsons directing, backed by heavyweight producers including James Wan’s Atomic Monster and Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps, with Roberto Patino writing the screenplay.
Sit with the age math for a second. A teenager who had never made a studio film was handed a feature by one of the most respected names in modern cinema, becoming A24’s youngest feature director ever. Filming happened in the summer of 2025, and the finished movie went on to outgross everything else the studio had ever released. The bet paid off spectacularly.
What Makes His Style Work
The appeal is not gore or jump scares. It is atmosphere, and specifically the feeling of a place that is almost normal and deeply wrong at the same time.
Parsons built his name on liminal spaces, those empty, over-lit environments that look like a memory of somewhere you have been. His found-footage instinct, learned frame by frame in editing software rather than film school, makes the unreal feel documentary-real. That is a hard tone to fake, and it is exactly why A24 wanted the creator himself rather than a hired veteran. Hand the property to someone else and you risk losing the specific unease that made it a phenomenon.
Now He’s Back for Backrooms 2
Which brings us to the present. Multiple outlets report that Parsons is set to return to direct Backrooms 2, making it his next project rather than a distant follow-up. We covered the reporting and the box-office context in our news piece on Kane Parsons directing Backrooms 2.
Keeping him in the chair is the low-risk choice disguised as a bold one. He built the world, the audience trusts his eye, and at 21 he has already proven he can carry a blockbuster. The only real question is where he takes the mythology next.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Kane Parsons?
He was born in June 2005, which makes him 21 as of 2026. He was still a teenager when A24 hired him to direct the first Backrooms feature, making him the studio’s youngest feature director.
What is Kane Pixels?
Kane Pixels is Parsons’ YouTube channel and online handle. It is where he posted the self-made visual-effects videos, including “The Backrooms (Found Footage),” that launched his career.
How did the Backrooms movie start?
It grew out of Parsons’ viral 2022 YouTube short based on the Backrooms creepypasta. The videos drew tens of millions of views, and A24 signed him to direct a feature adaptation, revealed in early 2023.
Is Kane Parsons directing Backrooms 2?
According to multiple trade reports in September 2026, yes, he is set to return to direct the sequel, though an official A24 announcement had not been made at the time of those reports.
What is the Backrooms?
An internet horror concept centered on endless, unsettling “liminal” spaces, most famously a maze of empty yellow-wallpapered rooms under humming fluorescent lights. It started as online creepypasta before Parsons adapted it to film.
Final Takeaway
Kane Parsons is what happens when a self-taught kid with a specific, eerie vision meets an audience hungry for exactly that. He did not climb the usual industry ladder; he built an audience of millions first and let the studios come to him. With Backrooms 2 reportedly his next film, the most interesting young horror director working right now is still just getting started. For more film coverage, browse YouGottaRead’s Movies section.
