Kane Parsons on his Backrooms set and Mark Duplass in an Instagram video
Explained Backrooms Film Horror

Who made Backrooms? Kane Parsons responds to bizarre ‘ghost directing’ rumours

Even Mark Duplass had to respond

Daisy Phillipson
27th May 2026, 12:51
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Backrooms hasn’t even hit cinemas yet, but the upcoming A24 horror film has already sparked a huge online debate surrounding its creator, Kane Parsons.

The 20-year-old filmmaker first launched his eerie Backrooms web series on YouTube when he was just 16 years old, transforming an already viral creepypasta into a fully fleshed out concept. 

His horror sci-fi world is now getting the big screen treatment. Written by Will Soodik, the film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell, but Parsons ultimately had full creative control to ensure his vision remained intact. 

And that’s exactly why this new claim is all the more confusing. 

How the Backrooms drama started

It started with a tweet, of course. News emerged earlier this week that Backrooms is eyeing a $40-$50million domestic debut after unprecedented pre-sales for A24. 

In response, user The CinemaTologist, whose bio says they’re a filmmaker, wrote, “Promising but we all know Kane Parsons absolutely didn’t direct this movie. But the needle is moving in the right direction.”

They quickly received backlash, and a community note has since been added to their response.

“Kane Parsons is credited as director of A24’s Backrooms in his feature debut,” it says. “He has been announced and reported as director since 2023 and has done press and interviews in that role.”

The CinemaTologist’s comment isn’t the only one of its kind, and seems to be in relation to established filmmakers James Wan, Shawn Levy and Osgood Perkins serving as producers. 

But they are in a minority, and many fans have pointed to the fact that Kane himself created his Backrooms shorts at an even younger age. Now, the cast have weighed in to shut it down. 

Mark Duplass shuts down claims and says Kane was ‘intensely prepared’

Cast member Mark Duplass – who is a horror legend in his own right, having co-written and starred in the Creep movies – directly responded to The CinemaTologist’s comment. 

“Hmmm, with all due respect I don’t remember seeing you on set. When I was there, Kane was 100% in control. More so than many directors 3x his age,” he wrote. What’s more, Duplass took to Instagram with a longer video about the situation. 

 ”A lot of takes going around right now about whether Kane Parsons at the tender age of 19 actually directed the Backrooms or whether it was more ghost-directed by one of his more experienced producers,” he said. 

“I was there. I suspect one of the reasons I was hired is because I mentor a lot of young filmmakers, and they may have thought it’d be good to have someone there who’s sensitive to that, and I was prepared to help out.”

However, Duplass revealed that, in fact, Kane didn’t need any help whatsoever. “He was intensely prepared,” he continued. 

“He spent the last five years of his life building out one of the most detailed mythologies I’ve ever been a part of, worked incredibly closely with his crew – particularly his DP and shot design – and was very sensitive and calm and smart in dealing with actors.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Mark Duplass (@markduplass) 

Kane himself has also responded with a rather hilarious comment pinned to a video about the situation from YouTuber Dolan Darkest.

Although Dolan was just giving a rundown of everything that’s happened, Kane jokingly replied, “This is actually all true. They don’t tell you this, but 96% of all movies released in North America and Europe are actually directed by the same person. 

“They call him ‘The Older Gentleman.’ He has had all of Hollywood in a chokehold for decades now. They make you sign over all of your intellectual property, life rights, and genetic information to him when you enter the industry. He loves movies.”

Fans are playing along, with one writing, “Can you cancel the release of your Backrooms movie and have The Older Gentleman make an action film for Slop Guys starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as relatable protagonist jellybean man instead? Thanks.”

Another quipped, “The situation is so insane that it ended up in the sloprooms; the layer below the backrooms.”

Kane Parsons opens up about protecting his vision for Backrooms

Kane Parsons and Chiwetel Ejiofor speaking on the set of Backrooms
Credit: A24

Film Shrine spoke with Kane ahead of the release of Backrooms, and while it was before this situation unfolded, it was clear he had full creative control over the film.

He first created the concept art using Blender in the same way he did for his Backrooms shorts.

“It started just with concept art,” he told us. “I’d go into Blender and try to realise these spaces without pulling punches really, and present different shots from the hypothetical film before it’s been made.”

When asked whether there was a level of pressure in translating his Backrooms’ rich lore to the big screen, Kane said the film felt like a natural extension of his original web series.

“I try to make what feels naturally compelling to me,” he explained. “When I work on the Backrooms series… it feels very natural. And the film is pretty much an extension of that.”

Kane said that once the project expanded into a full-scale Hollywood production, there were moments where he worried about preserving the series’ unique identity and sense of authorship, but he was able to overcome this. 

“There’s the human component beyond myself,” he added. “There’s a huge risk of losing that sense of authorship… I was very much precious about that information and trying to preserve that.”

“It’s very hard to have a script from someone who’s not been living with this for a few years,” he added. “The script is probably the single point of contact that is the most critical.”

Despite the challenges, Parsons said the process remained collaborative and constantly evolving, with the screenplay repeatedly refined to ensure it matched the standards set by his original videos.

Obsession’s Curry Barker has faced similar ‘ghost directing’ rumours

Oddly enough, these “ghost directing” claims have also hit Curry Barker following the huge success of his horror film Obsession. 

X user Millennial Excellence responded to a tweet highlighting the fact that Curry, also a YouTuber, is only 26 years old and shot Obsession in one month.

They wrote, “I read somewhere that Blumhouse got this young kid to act as kind of a ‘face’ for the film while a more experienced director was behind the scenes actually putting the work in. You ever hear of Milli Vanilli? Sort of like that.”

Milli Vanilli was a pop duo who were the subject of a huge music controversy when it was discovered that its members, Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, didn’t sing the tracks on their hit albums. 

As for the Curry claim, there is no source for this or any evidence to back it up. Much like Kane, fans have been correcting them in the comments. 

“This post may be believable if you ignore, for example, Curry Barker’s massive filmography of work readily available on YouTube for free,” said one. “If you find yourself thinking this could be true for even a second maybe look within.”

Another wrote, “That’s funny they’re saying that exact same thing about Kane Parsons and Backrooms.”

It’s unclear why these rumours have been started, but as Dolan Darkest argued in his video, “It was just a couple of tweets that went viral from people who couldn’t believe someone younger than them could be so successful.”

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Featured images credit: Instagram/A24/Mark Duplass