Mark Duplass defends ‘Backrooms’ director Ken Parsons amid speculation about the 20-year-old director’s role

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Mark Duplass, defender Back rooms Director Ken Parsons in light of social media speculation about the 20-year-old director and YouTuber’s role in the highly anticipated horror film.

Hitting theaters Friday from A24, Back rooms Duplass stars alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Finn Bennett and Luketa Maxwell in the film about a therapist who tracks down a missing patient in a strange dimension of liminal space. Parsons becomes the studio’s youngest feature director with the project, which adapts the YouTube series he began uploading as a teenager in early 2022 and centers on an endless maze of rooms.

Given that Back rooms The film features well-known filmmakers such as James Wan, Shawn Levy, and Osgood Perkins among the production team, and social media users have suggested theories questioning whether Parsons is the film’s main director. Such posts have also suggested similar claims about Cary Parker, the 26-year-old director who helmed Focus Features’ recent blockbuster horror film. mania.

After one X user posted, “We all know Ken Parsons never directed this movie,” Duplass responded by dismissing the accusations about him. Back rooms exit.

“Hmm, with all due respect, I don’t remember seeing you on set,” the actor wrote in his post on Tuesday. “When I was there, Ken was 100% in control. More so than many directors three times his age.”

During the recent discussion on Back rooms At CCXP Mexico, Parsons revealed that the film team created 30,000 square feet of actual back rooms. The film, which counts A24 and Chernin Entertainment as co-financiers, uses existing series and online lore as a starting point to examine its characters, he explained.

“It takes a more specific approach, where you see it through the lens of these specific characters — these individuals who live scattered, lonely lives,” Parsons said. “In a movie, there’s rarely a moment when more than one or two characters are on screen at a given time. It’s a very lonely movie.”

Earlier this year, YouTube creator Markiplier self-distributed his own horror film Iron lung After many studios and distributors rejected the project. The video game adaptation ended up surpassing $43 million at the global box office, marking an unexpected feat for a self-distributed title.

“There is still a stigma against YouTube,” Markiplier said. Hollywood Reporter At the time of the theatrical release of his film. “It’s not like I’m going to drop the mountain myself. It has to be dropped and then dropped again, until it becomes normal. Once it becomes normal, it can get boring, and it’s like, ‘Of course YouTubers can do this,’ and there’s no question about it.”