If you left Backrooms hoping for more from Kane Parsons’ directorial debut, you’re in luck. The YouTuber turned film director for A24 spoke at length about the possibility that the story would get a sequel before it was even released. Now, after a historic opening week, that is official. A24 has tapped Parsons to return to his beloved franchise for a second time.
Kane Parsons Set to Direct Backrooms 2 from A24
Backrooms is the second massive smash hit in the indie horror scene from the month of May. Obsession is on track to be one of the most profitable films of all time, and Backrooms just enjoyed the best opening weekend for A24 ever. Kane Parsons’ directorial debut could pass Marty Supreme to top the box office ranks for the distributor.
The movie was obviously a huge hit, but it left plenty of room for a sequel. We left that film not knowing a whole lot about the rooms themselves. I wrote in my review that this is ripe for the franchise treatment. In the movie, one scientist says the goal is to learn even a tiny bit more about the rooms, and that could be the logic for subsequent movies. Parsons could continue dripfeeding lore to audiences.
That seems to be what A24 has in mind. According to a breaking report from Deadline, a sequel is officially in the works. Parsons made no secret on the press tour that he envisioned more than one movie, and he even admitted that he’d probably taken the horror concept to its limits on YouTube.
A full-length film was the logical next step, but it didn’t have to end there, and it’s not going to. Per the report, Parsons is currently looking for a screenwriting partner to pen the sequel. He worked with Westworld and Homeland writer Will Soodlik on the original film. Ultimately, that means virtually no progress has been made, so don’t expect a quick turnaround.
The film’s ending is rather ambiguous, and as we mentioned, there are tidbits sprinkled throughout that leave the door cracked for more. The backrooms are an endless playground for creativity and storytelling, so it’s not remotely surprising that a sequel is in order. Parsons knows his stuff, obviously, and A24 knows a good thing when it sees one.
What makes this interesting is that A24 doesn’t really deal in sequels. They do often work with directors more than once, like Ari Aster and Robert Eggers, but as a distributor, they don’t really do sequels like other big-budget distributors. This is rather unprecedented.
There is talk of a sequel to Talk to Me, ironically also from former YouTubers Michael and Danny Phillipou, from A24, but otherwise, the only time A24 has done the franchise treatment was with Ti West’s X trilogy, which included prequel Pearl and sequel Maxxxine.
Put simply, Parsons has captured the audience like fellow young ex-YouTuber Curry Barker, and A24 doesn’t seem ready to pass up an opportunity to do it again. And again and again and again, perhaps. Parsons took his original YouTube short film and made about two dozen sequels to it, so it’s possible that he could make a long-running franchise if it’s profitable and A24 wants to keep re-upping with the young, talented, exciting filmmaker.
Conclusion
We are officially in unprecedented territory here. Backrooms is part of a trend of indie horror movies that is dominating at the box office. That alone is not totally unprecedented, but doing so well that A24 has announced a sequel three days after the wide release date is. The movie’s not imminent, but the distributor didn’t waste any time giving Kane Parsons his next task.
