![\"Matthew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cropped-2026-headshots-1000px-SQ-matthew_frank.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The two major horror movies coming to theaters this month share a lot in common \u2014 the biggest being how they were discovered.<\/p>\n
A24\u2019s Backrooms, which traces its origins to a 2019 4chan image<\/a> 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\u2019 nine-minute \u201cfound-footage\u201d horror short<\/a>, 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 \u2014 the same age as Parsons \u2014 insisted that he watch it.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Dad, you\u2019ve got to see this kid\u2019s short. It\u2019s really good,\u2019\u201d White remembers. The producer then contacted Parsons, who was game to let White pitch the project around Hollywood.<\/p>\n White brought the project to Michael Clear and James Wan at Atomic Monster, and the duo was immediately receptive to Parsons\u2019 work. A similar process played out at 21 Laps, where then-creative executive Lucas Ford discovered Parsons\u2019 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 \u2014 starring Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve \u2014 is set to bow on May 29. At age 20, Parsons is the youngest director in A24\u2019s history.<\/p>\n Two weeks earlier, on May 15, Focus Features will release Curry Barker\u2019s Obsession, a horror flick about a guy whose wish for his crush to fall in love with him goes very wrong. Focus\u2019 president of production and acquisitions,\u00a0Kiska Higgs,\u00a0had heard buzz about the project, made for under $1 million, heading into the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. It fully came onto Focus\u2019 radar when the college-aged son of distribution head Lisa Bunnell told his mom he loved Milk & Serial, Barker\u2019s 62-minute YouTube horror film, which he made in 2024 for $800.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Clearly, we are now in the \u201cmom\/dad, check this shit out\u201d era of horror greenlights.<\/p>\n Today I break down:<\/p>\n Why horror became Hollywood\u2019s easiest way in for Gen Z creators<\/p>\n The YouTube metrics that matter more than film school credentials<\/p>\n How Kane Parsons telling producers \u201cI don\u2019t really watch movies\u201d became a selling point, not a red flag<\/p>\n How\u00a0Backrooms\u00a0could become A24\u2019s next franchise universe<\/p>\n What Jason Blum told me about YouTubers making more of an impact than streaming-movie directors<\/p>\n Don\u2019t stop here<\/p>\n Unlock the full story \u2014 and the no-spin reporting Hollywood trusts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two major horror movies coming to theaters this month share a lot in common \u2014 the biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[11015,49,48,65684,75,12445,65685,199187,337],"class_list":["post-652640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-blumhouse","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-curry-barker","tag-entertainment","tag-focus-features","tag-jason-blum","tag-kane-parsons","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}