On Tuesday, I covered how Christopher Nolan was dropping every ball he possibly could when it comes to his latest upcoming film, "The Odyssey," a retelling of the epic poem by Homer that is going to get more than its fair share of doses of woke right into its keister.
I'm talking race swaps, female empowerment, and out-of-place technological advancement. Oh, and American accents too.
Read: People Should Be Angry With Christopher Nolan's Take on 'The Odyssey'
Nolan is currently being accused of Oscar-baiting. There are certain guidelines to films that have to be followed in order for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to consider a film worthy of the "Best Picture" award, and while only one has to be fulfilled, Nolan is going for all of them.
To be eligible to win Best Picture at the Oscars…
— C3 (@C_3C_3) May 13, 2026
1. At least 1 Non-White/Non-Straight lead or Significant Role.
2. At least 30% minor roles Non-White/Non-Straight people.
3. At least 2 Departments headed by Non-White/Non-Straight people.
This is why Nolan did it.
Coward. pic.twitter.com/3FaOzUo3To
And it's this nonsense that's driving people away from theaters in the first place. Producers and directors are far more concerned with getting pats on the back from their fellow glitterati than actually making anything that audiences want to see.
But art is a natural part of human existence. The drive to create is there, and we've gotten technologically advanced to the point where you don't need the high-quality cameras, hundreds of crew members, and A-list actors to gather a large crowd willing to shell out money for a ticket.
The studio A24 seems to have understood this fact, because it recently made a deal with a YouTube creator named Kane Parsons, more popularly known as "Kane Pixels."
Parsons is famous for his videos that fit into a genre called "analog horror." This often involves found footage-style camera work, as well as unsettling atmospheres, sounds, and obscurity to create a sense of dread more than actual jump scares.
Parsons is a master at this, often creating videos through a mix of real-life footage and a program called "Blender." It's with this that he created a series called "The Backrooms," an analog horror series about a place outside of our reality that looks like a bunch of misremembered places in the real world, including a long series of rooms and hallways that look like an old office building.
Parson uses liminal spaces and visual storytelling to create a mystery that has taken the YouTube community by storm.
Parsons created "The Backrooms" from a single picture that was posted on 4Chan that showed a bizarre liminal space. with the singular idea of the place in a picture being an infinite number of rooms just like it that you could never escape. Parsons took the concept and ran with it, creating what became the most popular horror series on the YouTube platform.
Fast-forward to today, and Parsons was hired by A24 to bring his YouTube series to the big screen. The film comes out at the end of May.
“Horror stripped to its essentials: a hallway, a door, knowing that you will go through it.” From director Kane Parsons, BACKROOMS opens in theaters everywhere May 29. pic.twitter.com/rVYVyPlEhK
— A24 (@A24) May 13, 2026
This isn't the first time this has happened, either. In fact, some of you may remember my reports about a film that was recently released in theaters by another YouTuber named Mark Fischbach, more popularly known as "Markiplier."
Read: Why Markiplier's Iron Lung Found the Success It Did and What the Critics Don't Get About It
Iron Lung Review - Cosmic Horror in a Metal Tube
Fischback created his own horror movie, "Iron Lung," a movie based on a video game made by an indie creator. The film cost Fischbach $3 million to make, and according to the final reports, it made over $50 million in return. A massive success for a film that had no major studio behind it and was only spread from theater to theater through fan-driven campaigns.
I do not doubt that "The Backrooms" will find critical success as well, not just because Parsons' fanbase will likely do the same thing Fischbach's did for him, but because the film was written and directed by Parsons himself. Parsons has also proven to be very meticulous about his writing and his creations.
But the point here is that Parsons, like Fischbach, isn't creating things for Hollywood. He's creating things for his community. He's trying to bring the story he created, and is still creating, to a wider audience to enjoy. He's creating art for pure reasons, not corrupt ones.
I've said that AI will likely become a massive threat to Hollywood in the near future, and I still hold to that, but AI can't be a threat without minds utilizing it. As Fischbach and Parsons are proving, you don't need an outrageous budget to create something amazing that people will love and flock to. You need the will to create, a lot of hard work, and a passion to tell the story well.
"The Backrooms" should probably worry Hollywood, because it's proving that their insults to our intelligence and DEI-driven agendas can't be saved by big budgets and massive marketing campaigns.
The citizen creator is here now.
