Backrooms horror film dominates box office while director warns of AI dangers

The horror film "Backrooms", directed by 20‑year‑old Kane Parsons, opened with an $81 million weekend in North America and has grossed $89 million, placing it among A24’s highest‑grossing releases and rivaling major summer titles. The movie, based on Parsons’ YouTube shorts, features Chiwetel Ejiofor as a failed architect trapped in a secret extradimensional space.

Parsons, who praised the film’s low‑budget production using free tools like Blender, also voiced strong criticism of generative AI, calling its current impact "genuinely harmful" for Hollywood. He cautioned that AI threatens creative processes, though he sees limited utility for tedious VFX tasks, and plans to explore AI themes artistically in future projects.