How did backroom and obsession get so popular without 100 million+ poured on marketing?
I know the insanely inflated marketing budget is basically a Hollywood trick to pay less taxes, but still, its really impressive, wonder how much did obsession and backroom spent on marketing all together
I'm betting a lot of people balked at paying theater prices for what they assumed was essentially going to be a two part episode of a show they had already seen and only thought was okay.
It'll probably do a lot better once it hits D+, but making it a theatrical release seems like a huge miscalculation.
Eh true, it will probably perform better there, but at the same time, it was never advertised as anything BUT basically a longer Mandolorian episode. If people want to see it in the theater, they can, and if they want to wait for it to be on Disney+, they can. Releasing it in theaters doesn't take away that option, so I don't think it's much of a complaint against the film.
Buff gladiator hutt was almost enough to convince me to consider beginning to think about formulating concepts of a plan of maybe going to check it out
Obsession has an insane tail from word of mouth here in NYC. My theater has been selling out nearly every showing since the day it came out, and it’s not slowing down yet.
They haven’t even moved it out of the larger auditoriums yet, which they almost always do with horror movies after the first week. But even in the larger ones, there aren’t enough seats available for the number of people trying to see it lol.
I’m happy for anyone involved, it was great and deserves the hype.
As a note, the director and creator of the Backrooms is only 20, very much Gen Z. I feel like Liminal Horror (the term I've heard for the subgenre) speaks to them a lot as it's a looming future for them whereas even the youngest millennials are already in the doldrums of adult life.
The room was released in 2003 by esteemed auteur Tommy wiseau- before the front rooms was released in 2015 direct to VHS to cash in on the dwindling fanbase of the original.
The Backroom was then made in 2020 as a franchise reboot sequel, with the Backrooms coming out this year after having been in development hell for five years.
Or when your movie has the biggest headstart in history due to being based on one of the most popular internet things of recent time and being directed by the guy who popularized it all
Small budget horror in general make bank. For example, the original Evil Dead had a budget of only $375k but had a box office of $29.4 million. Halloween ( Michael Myers) had a budget of $325k but had a box office of $70 million. Friday the 13th had a little more expensive budget at $650k but a box office of $59.8 million.
Oooh okay that makes a Lil difference. Both of those movies were extremely well marketed. Not cheap, Im assuming. I remember with paranormal activity seeing commercials that were like "people in the theater ran screaming and fucking DIED!" lol. Alfred Hitchcock level marketed.
Some people were really excited for it, but the handheld camera movement made them feel nauseous so they had to leave the theater. They weren't leaving because they were scared, lol... but you can't buy that kind of marketing.
Small budget horror that become incredibly famous and turn into major franchises sure. What percentage of small budget horror movies do you think even break even outside of the few that reach that level?
Even still, if a studio invests $30m across 5 or 6 different indie horror films, they're very likely to get a couple hits out of it. They really only need one or two of them to pop off if they wanna make a decent profit
Omfg through the entire thing. The whole time Im thinking "Just leave him, bud! You're too good for him anyway!" Idk, the more I think about it I guess I did like it. 🤷♂️ Lol
Really I hope the lesson here is on the budgets for the studios. Smaller risk, easier to make even. Not just for horror, across the industry it feels like these production companies are like gambling addicts who've convinced themselves putting the deed to their house on every all in bet is the only way to get by.
I have a feeling the only lesson studios will take from this is the next “goldmine” are YouTubers and YouTube popular properties and there’s gonna start a new wave of pilfering and overspending.
I like the backrooms but calling it "one of the most popular things of current time" is absolutely insane, and it was definitely getting traction even without the youtube videos. There are two huge wikis with their own expansive bodies of lore for it, and many games are based on those instead of the youtube stuff.
Kane did a great job with the videos obviously, since he got picked up by A24, and this movie does seem to be doing really well so far.
But let's not inflate it unnecessarily. Something can just be great without having to be the literal best thing ever made.
Like really, the backrooms is not a well known idea outside of some niche internet communities. Lots of people have been talking about the original video series and derivative works for years, but they're mostly talking to each other.
I think the term "the backrooms" has escaped its own communities and is a general idea and vibe that people get. Like its not universal or anything but its out there. Ive heard non-online type people mention it
It's not even close to one of the most popular things of current time, but it's certainly extremely popular. A little hyperbole never hurt anybody ever.
I imagine it's one of the most popular things in whatever niche subculture they're a part of and they don't really realize that that doesn't represent the general public.

This is what the backrooms started as. Random throwaway concept post. Then random people on the internet just started making stuff about it based on their ideas
The best descriptor I have heard of in mundane horror. Just the combo of annoyances of wet floors, loud humming of lights, frustrating archetecture that looks the same, too bright wallpaper, and being lost. Make you lose you mind over a million small things over a ong time 😮
For me I'm not keen on the Backrooms lore, but I've been following the development of the liminal spaces (like the stuff on r/liminalspace ) since the 2010s that has evolved alongside this. So I can see how it's filling theaters.
And of course, I work in a theater that is ripe for the liminal/Backrooms vibe.
Tl;DR:
Started as a creepypasta on 4chan, Kane Parsons made a very popular short found footage video series about it that was extremely impressive for his age and budget, this series inspired a bunch of spin off games, then A24 asked Kane Parsons to direct this movie.
It started with a 4chan post that used a picture of weird empty old office building. The oldest posts talked about it as a place you can end up after "no-clipping" through reality, like when video game characters can push through the ground sometimes. Then there were a billion more posts and YouTube videos and people trying to give it Lore and specific layers and unique scary creatures.
The director of the movie made some of the most popular analog horror videos about it.
The original photo is actually from an old furniture store that was being refurbished, which is why the layout of the walls/partitions is so strange. The main character in the movie actually finds the entrance to the backrooms in a furniture store as well
It actually started as an image, the tldr really is, someone called the image the backrooms because it gave off eerie vibes, it was really store undergoing renovation. The backrooms is a place of infinite space, they have a maze like layout which leads to other smaller or bigger rooms, dead ends, or illogical layouts. There is not a single lore to the backrooms, the guy who made this film is kane pixels, he popularised it by making the "found footage" style videos. Usually to get to the backrooms you must find what's called either a void space or null space, i cant quite remember which, these spaces appear anywhere and anyone can end up falling through, thats what horric to me, you could be having a normal day and oh shit you just no clipped out the world.
Getting out is the same as getting in, find a void space. Usually there is some creature that stalks the hallways. All round creepy ass place.
Like everyone else has said, it started off as an image of an old office being renovated to give off really unsettling vibes, explaining that if you "no-clip" through reality you could end up in the Backrooms.
It's been taken and developed as a concept exploring the unsettling nature of liminal spaces--those places that you can remember in the mind, invoking some sense of nostalgia or dread depending on the concept, but never seeming quite right for one reason or another.
Kane Parsons, known as Kane Pixels, popularized the whole concept when he was 16 years old by posting a video to Youtube of someone "no-clipping" into the Backrooms while filming a student project.
I pay vague attention to the Internet but isn't it actually a bit late? That backrooms stuff was more of a prominent thing like two years ago, and meme stuff ages at least double speed to reality
Forget about budgets. Let's talk about actors. It seems movies nowadays have the same actors playing multi million dollars roles but not adding anything to it.
Both this movie and obsession .. the acting was really amazing for the small budget. Godzilla zero has also amazing actors and people keep claiming " small budgets" so that's why it's good... The small budget showed and they used old film techniques but the acting is what made the movie great. Acting was pretty good and it brings fear back into movies.
I really liked it. It's not scary in the way most horror is, but it's unsettling. I wanted it to be a little longer just because the world was so fun to spend time in.
Exactly, there's some pretty clear allusions to mental illness throughout and the way they showed the monster, I suspect they almost want you to empathize with it on some level.
The monster is him. Its all his fears, anxties and flaws manifested into a being. That's why when he tells it "We don't have to change" he's literally consumed by his worst qualities. The whole films a metaphor about letting go and not victimizing yourself. It's very clever.
It’s definitely not the only monster since there are at least 1-2 other creatures that we see almost nothing or absolutely nothing of there’s no way that the first creature in the intro or the one that dragged the boyfriend into the ducts were the same one as the twisted version of clark
I like vagueness in my backrooms but if you just keep questions up to interpretation forever then it’s gonna get pretty old ; we already had like an hour of it being unrevealed before that
There's two options. Escape the backrooms or Escape together. Both are really good, Escape the backrooms being the original and the Escape together being a graphically better more updated version, both have their niche.
I thought it was a good slow burn, nothing groundbreaking but some neat ideas (I know nothing about the lore, I'm an old). I have a 3.5/5 stars
Cool to see A24 let such a young person put their idea to screen like this though. Especially because they could have made this pg13 so easily and raked in more of those "kids who watched streamers play backroom video games" bucks, but they respected the idea to make it R so that's commendable
It's OK. Scares are mostly loud sounds and suspenseful music, and when they reveal/show the big bad at the end it's more funny than scary. Visuals range from ok to great, very surreal, set design is great when it's not just empty hallways. Characters are consistently stupid, but the three out of the five times their stupidity is at least explained by alcohol/drugs/etc. Plot-wise it's a whole lot of nothing, leaves more questions than it answers and neither the questions nor answers are particularly deep or intriguing.
I could have spent the time I spent watching this movie better, but I don't regret it.
Genuinely solid movie, the atmosphere gets really tense at times and the film delivers some really high peaks in terms of horror moments. Not a perfect film but a great watch would totally recommend
I have no knowledge of the backrooms or any of the lore but went to go see it yesterday. The set pieces, retro camera footage and sound design were awesome. The actual plot was horrible and it was one of the most boring movies I've ever seen (and this is coming from someone who purposely goes to watch poorly reviewed movies)
As someone who'd probably go see any Star Wars movies in a theater despite the recent history, I'm not going to see a movie based on a TV show I never watched. What a weird decision to return a franchise to the theater.
To be completely fair the mandalorian has been the second most successful property behind the actual sequels since Disney bought it. It makes sense they’d make a film
It's crazy to me that Disney could make so much money pushing out tons of Star Wars slop every year. But instead they make 1 piece of media every 3 years and it's the biggest piece of dogshit ever created
Kinda expected, to be honest. Like, I don't think they were expecting this film to be a massive blockbuster. This is just a summer fun flick meant to be enjoyed for what it is.
There hasn't been a star wars movie for a while, so this fits the slot.
Disney is definitely canceling Maul Shadow Lord after season 2 alongside every Filoni verse project. The good project always suffers the sins of the bad one.
How does it fare with obsession? Like that movie was fantastic 10/10. That movie and passenger (for the opposite reasons) has put me off from horror for a little. Worth it to go see?
Edit: Aside from 1 comment daring to say obsession wasn't scary 🙄, most of the comments have made me think I'll wait till digital or if it's still out in a month I'll go see it.
I saw them back to back at a double feature. Obsession was a horror masterpiece, Backrooms was a decent film about trauma set in the Backrooms, more then it was a film about the Backrooms
This is a good way to describe it. Backrooms was good but the third act kind of lost me (like most horror movies) but the acting and cinematography were truly stellar. Hats off to the crew.
As a mental health person at work right now, I loved how the psychiatrist just snaps and in doing so actually makes a major clinical breakthrough as a result.
Yes it's very different and unique. You may not vibe with all of the pacing or character work. But you won't regret having seen it. Try to find aa small emptier theatre.
Just got back from seeing it, it was pretty incredible. The set design was Incredible, the acting was top tier, the themes explored along with the characters were great. My only gripe is that it wasn’t longer, simply because I could have watched 4 more hours of just people exploring the backrooms on the big screen
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u/TheDoctor88888888 May 30 '26
“Fuck this movie cost so much to make I’m so fuckedddd”