June 15, 2026 · Field reporting from the dark edges of cinema.
Horror Dispatch logoHorror Dispatch
Latest
The Liminal Empire: How a 20-Year-Old's YouTube Series Became A24's Biggest Film EverBig Open, Hard Fall: The "Scary Movie" Reboot and the Front-Loaded Comedy ProblemSlow Water: Inside the "Cape Fear" Limited Series and the Patience of Prestige HorrorOut of Park City: "Leviticus," Neon, and the Pipeline That Keeps Producing Horror's Next WaveBuilding the Coven: AMC's "Vampire Lestat" and the Slow Construction of a Rice UniverseThe Liminal Empire: How a 20-Year-Old's YouTube Series Became A24's Biggest Film EverBig Open, Hard Fall: The "Scary Movie" Reboot and the Front-Loaded Comedy ProblemSlow Water: Inside the "Cape Fear" Limited Series and the Patience of Prestige HorrorOut of Park City: "Leviticus," Neon, and the Pipeline That Keeps Producing Horror's Next WaveBuilding the Coven: AMC's "Vampire Lestat" and the Slow Construction of a Rice Universe
June 15, 2026 · Field Edition · No. 5
The Liminal Empire: How a 20-Year-Old's YouTube Series Became A24's Biggest Film EverLong Reads

The Liminal Empire: How a 20-Year-Old's YouTube Series Became A24's Biggest Film Ever

"Backrooms" rewrote A24's record book — and made the case that the next generation of horror auteurs is being incubated on YouTube, not in film schools. LOS ANGELES — When the weekend grosses settled, the number that mattered was not the one most studios chase. It was the lineage. "Backrooms," directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons and distributed by A24, opened to $81.4 million domestically

Read the full dispatch →