It’s hard to talk about the making of Kane Parsons’ upcoming “creepypasta on a studio film budget” film Backrooms without talking about Parsons’ age. Still a teenager when he began making his own short movie takes on the existing Backrooms online mythos—and then when A24 extended him an offer to build those films out into an actual movie—Parsons is now all of 20 as the film actually arrives in theaters. This has raised some questions from online pundits and other unaffiliated opinion-hurlers about whether Parsons actually directed his movie, or whether A24 used the more experienced staffers and producers surrounding the young director to effectively shadow-helm the movie. And Mark Duplass isn’t having any of it.
The actor-writer-director (who co-stars in Backrooms) hopped on social media this week to slap down the rumors, bringing a fair amount of heat to his denunciation of the idea that anybody but Kane Parsons directed this movie. Duplass admits, in a video posted to Instagram on Tuesday evening, that he himself initially wondered if he was cast in the film in part because he has a long reputation for helping to foster young talent in indie and horror spaces. On a similar note, the producers on the film are a grab bag of some of the biggest names in modern horror, including James Wan, Stranger Things‘ Shawn Levy, and most especially Osgood Perkins. The film’s director of photography, Jeremy Cox, is also a long-time associate of Perkins, having served on the second unit for Longlegs and The Monkey before graduating up to DP for last year’s Keeper. (Parsons himself has credited Perkins as a “strong mentor figure” who helped assemble the film’s crew.) In light of all that, you’d be forgiven for thinking A24 put a lot of steady hands close to Parsons as an “In case of emergency, break glass” measure, but Duplass flatly denies it.
“What happened was, he didn’t need any of us,” Duplass says in the video. “He was intensely prepared, he spent the last five years of his life building out one of the most detailed mythologies I’ve ever been a part of. Worked incredibly with his crew, particularly his DP… And was very sensitive and calm and smart in dealing with actors.” Duplass ends the video by snarking at the commentators questioning Parsons’ filmmaking ability: “Were you there?”
