Jimmy Fallon was almost in disbelief over the number of hats 20-year-old director Kane Parsons wore to bring to life the new horror box office hit, “Backrooms.”
During Thursday’s broadcast for “The Tonight Show,” Parsons discussed the making of the Chiwetel Ejiofor-led movie with Fallon, where he confirmed that he’d been working on “Backrooms” in some capacity since he was 16 years old.
“It’s a direct result of doing this work on YouTube, but it, you know, kind of spiraled into … the views got attention,” he said, before explaining how the concept originated from a viral 4chan post. “I think you could liken that, the way that worked online, to sort of an urban legend or an internet folktale.”
As Parsons went on, he explained that he took a sci-fi spin on the urban legend, uploading his own found-footage series of shorts after teaching himself VFX software. He added: “People saw it, and somehow it spiraled out of control – and now there’s a movie.”
When Is 'Backrooms' Streaming?
Fallon admitted that he too was now a fan after seeing “Backrooms,” praising the indie horror film as “weird and cool.” After enthusiastically describing the movie, Fallon asked Parsons about the movie’s score, applauding the soundtrack as “fantastic.”
Here’s where Parsons blew Fallon away. “I co-composed with Edo Van Breemen on the score,” the director said. “I’ve scored my own work online for years. And I think [with] music production, I would just as happily pursue that as a line of work, I think. It brings me a lot of joy.”
Though, Parsons confessed he often feels like “a caveman banging rocks together,” given he doesn’t actually have any formal music training. (Parsons notably also doesn’t have any formal film school training, either.)
Yet, Fallon assured Parsons that he didn’t need it, noting, “Good for you. Don’t learn. Whatever you’re doing is working. It’s great. Don’t look at anything.”
Watch Fallon’s full interview with Parsons above.
“The Tonight Show” Starring Jimmy Fallon airs week nights at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC.
