Mark Duplass Has Been Cast in A24’s Found Footage Horror Movie Based on a Viral YouTube Series

A24 is making a sci-fi found movie based on a YouTube series called The Backrooms. The viral video turned into a series, which has amassed over 190 million views. The movie is being produced by James Wan and production has just announced cast members Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell and Avan Jogia. It was previously announced that Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve were cast.

Created by Kane Parsons, The Backrooms is a found footage short that takes place while a filmmaker is exploring a liminal space and runs into otherworldly creatures. The short is based on a creepypasta of the same name from 2019.

Essentially, the backrooms posit the existence of a ‘place’ that people can slip (or ‘noclip’) into and become lost or trapped. An unreality behind or parallel to this reality, The Backrooms are not inherently sinister on first viewing, as they appear to be simply unoccupied office space of banal manilla walls, long corridors and ugly carpets. The terrifying element comes with the idea of finding yourself there unable to escape. Trapped in a labyrinth of these corridors that is unending and eternal, meaning that there is no exit and that anyone finding themselves in this other dimension will be confined there perpetually. There is also the added detail that there are ‘others’ or other ‘things’ of an apparently malevolent nature in this environment with you and that every moment you remain inside, you run the risk of encountering one of these denizens of the other place.

The plot details of the Backrooms movie have not been released, so we don’t know how similar the A24 film will be to the YouTube series. Parsons is just 19-years-old, making him the youngest director to work with A24 — and possibly any major studio. He wrote the script along with Roberto Patino and Will Soodik.