{"id":2341,"date":"2026-05-26T20:29:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/26\/mark-duplass-defends-backrooms-director-kane-parsons-amid-speculation-about-20-year-old-filmmakers-role\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:29:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:29:00","slug":"mark-duplass-defends-backrooms-director-kane-parsons-amid-speculation-about-20-year-old-filmmakers-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/26\/mark-duplass-defends-backrooms-director-kane-parsons-amid-speculation-about-20-year-old-filmmakers-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Duplass Defends \u2018Backrooms\u2019 Director Kane Parsons Amid Speculation About 20-Year-Old Filmmaker\u2019s Role"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\t \t \t\t<\/svg>\t\tLogo text<\/span> \t<\/a> <\/p>\n

\tMark Duplass<\/a> is defending Backrooms<\/a><\/em> director Kane Parsons<\/a> in light of social media<\/a> speculation about the 20-year-old filmmaker and YouTuber\u2019s role on the forthcoming horror movie.<\/p>\n

\tHitting theaters Friday from A24<\/a>, Backrooms<\/em> stars Duplass alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor<\/a>, Renate Reinsve<\/a>, Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell in the film about a therapist tracking down a missing patient in a bizarre dimension of liminal space. Parsons becomes the studio\u2019s youngest feature director with the project that adapts the YouTube<\/a> series that he began uploading as a teen in early 2022 and centered on an infinite maze of rooms. \t<\/p>\n

\tGiven that the Backrooms<\/em> movie counts such established filmmakers as James Wan<\/a>, Shawn Levy<\/a> and Osgood Perkins<\/a> among its producing team, social media users have suggested theories questioning whether Parsons was the primary director on the feature. Such posts have also suggested similar claims about Curry Barker<\/a>, the 26-year-old filmmaker who helmed Focus Features\u2019 recent breakout horror hit Obsession<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\tAfter an X user posted that \u201cwe all know Kane Parsons absolutely didn\u2019t direct this movie,\u201d Duplass responded to dismiss the accusation about his Backrooms<\/em> director. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cHmmm, with all due respect I don\u2019t remember seeing you on set,\u201d the actor wrote<\/a> in his post Tuesday. \u201cWhen I was there, Kane was 100% in control. More so than many directors 3x his age.\u201d<\/p>\n

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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. https:\/\/t.co\/GXQsI5jxG0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Duplass (@MarkDuplass) May 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\tDuring a recent discussion about Backrooms<\/em><\/a> at CCXP Mexico, Parsons revealed that the film\u2019s team created 30,000 square feet of actual backrooms. He explained that the movie, which counts A24 and Chernin Entertainment\u00a0as co-financiers, uses the existing series and online lore as a jumping-off point to examine its characters. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIt does take more of a specific approach, where you\u2019re seeing it through the lens of these specific characters \u2014 these individuals living these atomized, lonely lives,\u201d Parsons said. \u201cIn the film, there is rarely a moment where there\u2019s more than one or two characters on screen at a given time. It\u2019s a pretty lonely film.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t \t\t\t\t\tChiwetel Ejiofor in Backrooms<\/em>.<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA24<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tEarlier this year, YouTube content creator Markiplier self-distributed his horror movie Iron Lung<\/em> after numerous studios and distributors had rejected the project. The video game adaptation ended up surpassing $43 million at the global box office, marking an unlikely feat for a self-distributed title. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cThere still is a stigma against YouTube,\u201d Markiplier told The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a> at the time of his film\u2019s theatrical release. \u201cIt\u2019s not like I\u2019m going to topple the mountain by myself. It has to be toppled and then toppled again, until it becomes normalized. Once it becomes normalized, then it can become boring, and it\u2019s like, \u2018Of course a YouTuber can do this,\u2019 and there\u2019s nothing to question about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Logo text Mark Duplass is defending Backrooms director Kane Parsons in light of social media speculation about the 20-year-old filmmaker and YouTuber\u2019s role on the forthcoming horror movie. Hitting theaters Friday from A24, Backrooms stars Duplass alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell in the film about a therapist tracking down a missing patient in a bizarre dimension of liminal space. Parsons becomes the studio\u2019s youngest feature director with the project that adapts the YouTube series that he began uploading as a teen in early 2022 and centered on an infinite maze of rooms. Given that the Backrooms movie counts such established filmmakers as James Wan, Shawn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[141,142,143,112,2,144,145,146,27,60,1439,147,148,1440,149],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a24","category-backrooms","category-chiwetel-ejiofor","category-curry-barker","category-hollywood","category-james-wan","category-kane-parsons","category-mark-duplass","category-movie-news","category-movies","category-osgood-perkins","category-renate-reinsve","category-shawn-levy","category-social-media","category-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}