Horror’s new commercial clout dominated a panel at Rome’s MIA Market, where industry leaders credited two YouTuber-directed hits with changing what distributors want. Executives, programmers and filmmakers on the genre panel praised Curry Barker and Kane Parsons, the creators behind Obsession and Backrooms. “Horror is now cool, and that’s great,” said Andrea Romeo, founder and CEO of Wonder Pictures, which released Backrooms in Italy. Romeo said his company is now hunting for the next Parsons.
Peter Kuplowsky, programmer of the Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section, said the wider box office rebound has helped underpin the genre’s resurgence. Italian director Roberto De Feo said the two hits cleared room for Paolo Strippoli’s horror thriller The Spiral, which premiered in Venice and is a possible Oscar contender.
The returns explain the enthusiasm. Obsession cost roughly $750,000. It has grossed $523 million worldwide, the fifth-highest total for a horror film. Backrooms has reached $401 million. Parsons’s film opened May 29 with $81 million domestically, beating the A24 record previously held by Civil War. Parsons became the youngest director of a number-one global hit.
Barker, 26, was best known for the 2024 short Milk & Serial and for a comedy duo’s YouTube channel. His film also defied the usual pattern. Obsession’s earnings rose in its second week, a rare feat. The two films did not cannibalize each other, with Gen Z crowds filling theaters for both.
Not everyone reads the moment as a permanent shift. Analysts note that Hollywood still favors existing franchises over internet-born stories. The films also arrived during a strong stretch. Box office watchers believed the four-month summer period could reach $4 billion for only the second time since the pandemic.
The panelists nonetheless framed the success as a lasting opening for new voices. For producers and sales agents in Rome, the lesson was practical: low-budget horror from first-time feature directors now commands attention that once went to franchise sequels.
