Mark Duplass Debunks Rumors Kane Parsons Was Ghost-Directed on Backrooms

Quick one: a weird rumor popped up that the 20-year-old behind the viral Backrooms videos wasn’t actually the one directing his own movie. Mark Duplass heard that and basically said: absolutely not.

Duplass shuts down the ghost- directing chatter

Over the weekend, an X user floated the idea that Kane Parsons wasn’t really directing A24’s Backrooms feature, suggesting some mystery hand was guiding things behind the scenes. The theory likely came from the stacked roster of heavy hitters around the film — producers James Wan, Shawn Levy, and Osgood Perkins — and the fact that Parsons is, yes, very young for a studio feature.

Mark Duplass, who was on set and is in the movie, did not mince words in reply. He jumped on X Tuesday, May 26, 2026, to swat it down and make it clear who was calling the shots.

"Hmmm, with all due respect I don’t remember seeing you on set. When I was there, Kane was 100% in control. More so than many directors 3x his age."

Duplass added that he initially assumed part of why he was hired was to help mentor a young filmmaker — something he does a lot — but it turned out Parsons didn’t need hand-holding. According to Duplass, Parsons came in hyper-prepared, calm, actor- friendly, and already living inside the Backrooms mythology he’d been building for years.

Why this matters for Backrooms

Parsons didn’t just invent the aesthetic; he’s been curating this universe since his found-footage YouTube series blew up in early 2022. He’s also now A24’s youngest feature director, which is a big swing both for him and for a studio that loves big swings. If you’re wondering how much of the vibe made it from YouTube to a real movie set: at CCXP Mexico, Parsons said the team built nearly 30,000 square feet of practical backrooms and even did around 50 different wallpaper tests to nail that sickly yellow hum you can practically smell. He’s aiming past the creep factor too — he said the film leans into loneliness, following characters who are often stuck, alone, and adrift in those endless halls.

The YouTuber-to-feature pipeline conversation

This all feeds a larger industry hangup about online creators jumping to theatrical. That stigma isn’t aging well. Markiplier just self-released and self-distributed Iron Lung, which pulled in north of $50 million on a $3 million budget. Backrooms is obviously a different beast — A24, major producers, a viral myth to wrangle — but it’s the same question: can the person who built the thing actually steer the bigger version? Duplass’s answer: yes, and he already did.

• Director: Kane Parsons, 20, A24’s youngest feature director
• Producers attached: James Wan, Shawn Levy, Osgood Perkins
• Practical build: nearly 30,000 sq ft of backrooms sets; about 50 wallpaper tests to get the yellow right
• Theme: a horror story that digs into isolation and loneliness
• Trailer drop: March 31, 2026
• Theatrical release: Friday, May 29, 2026
• Context: Markiplier’s Iron Lung made $50M+ on a $3M budget, released and distributed independently

Bottom line: Backrooms is one of A24’s strangest bets on paper — a viral internet nightmare scaled up into a full-on feature, captained by the kid who sparked it. If anyone was still wondering who was actually directing, Duplass basically put a nameplate on the chair: it’s Kane’s movie.