This week on Thank God for Movies, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton dive into Backrooms, the surprise A24 horror sensation from 20-year-old filmmaker Kane Parsons. But first, we unpack the bigger story around the movie… How have Backrooms and Obsession, two low-budget horror films from extremely young directors, been outpacing Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu? Are they signaling a possible shift in what younger moviegoers actually want from theaters?
More specifically, we discuss whether Gen Z might go on to reshape the box office. Why Disney’s franchise strategy may be losing its event-movie power. And of course, how films like Backrooms, Obsession, Pressure, I Love Boosters, Sheep Detectives, and The Furious may point toward a more interesting summer movie season than expected. Just imagine! We could be experiencing a new wave of original, lower-budget, filmmaker-driven movies breaking through with audiences! Or this could be a total blip.
After all that, we get lost in Backrooms, a surreal psychological horror film based on the viral creepypasta and Parsons’ popular YouTube series. We dig into the film’s eerie production design, liminal-space dread, found-footage flourishes, unsettling performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, and why the movie feels so sharply tuned to post-COVID anxiety, internet culture, AI-era unease, and Gen Z’s fascination with abandoned spaces.
Also: don’t forget to wish Will a happy birthday! Assuming you’re listening to this the day it comes out. But even then!
SHOW NOTES:
- 00:00:00 – Intro: A new horror film wave?!
- 00:16:25 – Review: Backrooms
