Sometimes a filmmaker makes a movie and that’s it. The story is told, the credits roll and everyone moves on to the next project. Other times, the filmmaker has a much bigger plan hiding behind what we see on screen.
That appears to be the case with Kane Parsons and BACKROOMS.
Following the massive success of his feature debut, fans have naturally started wondering what’s next for the surreal horror phenomenon, especially with talk of a potential sequel already circulating. Parsons, however, appears to have something much larger in mind, revealing that his ultimate goal has always been to continue the story as a limited television series.
Speaking with Deadline during the Zurich Summit Studio, Parsons made it clear that the BACKROOMS story was never something he was making up as he went along.
“I’ve said since the very beginning that the dream scenario would be a limited series for BACKROOMS to get to the main ending,” Parsons told Deadline.
That’s a pretty interesting statement considering where BACKROOMS came from.
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR BACKROOMS BELOW
Parsons first introduced his take on the Backrooms mythology through a series of found footage style videos on YouTube in 2022. The concept centers around the idea that people can somehow glitch out of normal reality and fall into the Backrooms, an seemingly endless maze of abandoned yellow rooms, corridors and spaces that feel familiar enough to be unsettling while remaining completely wrong.
The online series eventually grew into a feature film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, turning what began as an internet horror concept into a full blown theatrical success.
Parsons says the larger story has been mapped out from the beginning, with the challenge being figuring out the right format to tell it.
“There’s always been a plan,” Parsons said, explaining that it has “just been about finding the proper way to package that.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re getting a BACKROOMS television series anytime soon. Parsons isn’t announcing a new series, revealing a production date or confirming what comes next for the franchise. What he is doing is making his long term intentions pretty damn clear.
“I can’t say anything but there’s been a very set arc to the whole thing from the beginning,” he told Deadline. “I just feel absurdly excited at the idea of actually being able to follow through on all of it.”
For fans who discovered BACKROOMS through Parsons’ original YouTube videos, that could mean the feature film is only one piece of a much larger story.
Parsons also kept things intentionally vague when asked about his future, simply saying, “I never stop making things. There’s a few things that I would love to talk about when I can soon.”
Considering Parsons is only 21 and has already taken BACKROOMS from an internet horror experiment to one of the biggest indie horror successes in recent memory, there is clearly more coming from the filmmaker. Whether that eventually becomes another movie, a television project or something else entirely remains to be seen.
For now, the important part is that Parsons says he knows where this strange little trip through the Backrooms is supposed to end.