The "Chronically Online" Are Having Their Moment Thanks to 'Backrooms'

For years YouTube served as a proving ground for filmmakers outside traditional channels, and that path has yielded some of 2026's biggest hits. Recent films such as Backrooms, Obsession and Iron Lung trace back to creators who built careers on the platform — Kane Parsons, Curry Barker and Markiplier.

Backrooms has become A24's highest-grossing movie ever, while Obsession has earned more than $200,000 on a $750,000 budget. The Backrooms began as a 2019 4chan post imagining an endless, fluorescent-lit maze; Kane Parsons later posted a ten-minute found-footage video called The Backrooms that drew attention for its originality, tension and slow-building terror.

Rather than rely on constant jump scares, the piece leans on the unsettling idea that the setting could feel plausibly ordinary, which helped it resonate online. That resonance translated into feature opportunities. Parsons was invited to make a movie starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, and A24 backed the project when he was just 20.

backrooms, kane parsons, a24, youtube filmmakers, found footage, chiwetel ejiofor, renate reinsve, 4chan, obsession, markiplier