The media is getting the Obsession and Backrooms story wrong. Horror has been saving Hollywood for years, and young audiences never left. Here's the bigger picture.
One person that doesn’t get enough of a shoutout is David F. Sandberg. While obviously older than any of these other filmmakers you named, he did start off in YouTube as well! I know the quality of his last couple movies have not been strong but he still caught the eye of the industry still.
Great article and some insightful observations. It so true that the movie watching audience is crying out for originality and it feels like the only genre still doing this is horror
Great observations, Jeff, and particularly the last paragraph. It's exactly the point I’ve been trying to make concerning documentaries, as well. If distribution possibilities are vanishing for our feature length stories, we need to consider other platforms.
Great article and I completely agree with your takes. At the end of it all what I think this signals is that new wacky ideas won't always work but they need to be the norm rather than playing it safe
Some nice observations here. On the point about directors coming up through television in the '60s and '70s, I'll just add that TV commercials (Ridley and Tony Scott) and music videos (Spike Jonze, Michael Bay, and of course David Fincher) were the big foot-in-the-door mediums in the '80s and '90s. It definitely makes sense that YouTube would serve that function now.
Great post! I guess some people can't wrap their heads around the fact that, we infact live in a modern world and modern world has new issues and solutions. When people live under a rock for a long time, they miss stuff. Being a YouTuber myself, I am so proud of how far some creators have come.
Something I do want to clarify, and it is not just you, because for some reason, the record is not fully accurate. Trank was actually not the youngest to have a movie open to number one before Parsons. It was actually John Singleton for Poetic Justice when he was 25 years old. That obviously isn’t on you. The trades have just over sighted this for a long time.
Enjoyed it. I don’t think we can discount Barker’s following on YouTube or the popularity of The Chair, but I also think you are right, he was using what was available. His entire evolution is available for anyone to see.
I do think YouTubers will be mined like marvel comics ip for the foreseeable future too.
Brilliant writing! It's great to see the next generation of filmmakers evolve and use alternative platforms to build an audience. The counterculture has always emerged from the bottom and young creatives have a thumb on the pulse because they're also the target audience. Making exciting new stuff for the people, with the people.
Thank you for this. Every few years news articles come out SHOCKED that low-budget horror with great premises massively outperform expectations. This has literally been how horror has always worked lol, and its one of the only genres that still plays in theaters.
Excellent analysis, Jeff. You'd think that Hollywood and the media would get past an esoteric understanding of this culture. It's in Hollywood's best interest to get this right.
Excellent analysis, Jeff. You'd think that Hollywood and the media would get past an esoteric understanding of this culture. It's in Hollywood's best interest to get this right.
One person that doesn’t get enough of a shoutout is David F. Sandberg. While obviously older than any of these other filmmakers you named, he did start off in YouTube as well! I know the quality of his last couple movies have not been strong but he still caught the eye of the industry still.
Lights Out was great!
Great article and some insightful observations. It so true that the movie watching audience is crying out for originality and it feels like the only genre still doing this is horror
Great observations, Jeff, and particularly the last paragraph. It's exactly the point I’ve been trying to make concerning documentaries, as well. If distribution possibilities are vanishing for our feature length stories, we need to consider other platforms.
Great article and I completely agree with your takes. At the end of it all what I think this signals is that new wacky ideas won't always work but they need to be the norm rather than playing it safe
Some nice observations here. On the point about directors coming up through television in the '60s and '70s, I'll just add that TV commercials (Ridley and Tony Scott) and music videos (Spike Jonze, Michael Bay, and of course David Fincher) were the big foot-in-the-door mediums in the '80s and '90s. It definitely makes sense that YouTube would serve that function now.
Great post! I guess some people can't wrap their heads around the fact that, we infact live in a modern world and modern world has new issues and solutions. When people live under a rock for a long time, they miss stuff. Being a YouTuber myself, I am so proud of how far some creators have come.
Something I do want to clarify, and it is not just you, because for some reason, the record is not fully accurate. Trank was actually not the youngest to have a movie open to number one before Parsons. It was actually John Singleton for Poetic Justice when he was 25 years old. That obviously isn’t on you. The trades have just over sighted this for a long time.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/1993W30/?ref_=bo_rl_table_1
Wow, had no idea. I wonder if that’s some oversight based on bias…
just happy indy films are friggin exploding!
Enjoyed it. I don’t think we can discount Barker’s following on YouTube or the popularity of The Chair, but I also think you are right, he was using what was available. His entire evolution is available for anyone to see.
I do think YouTubers will be mined like marvel comics ip for the foreseeable future too.
Good stuff.
Loved this breakdown! I’m actually posting a brief essay about this tomorrow…lol
Mine is more about Obsession than Backrooms tho!
Brilliant writing! It's great to see the next generation of filmmakers evolve and use alternative platforms to build an audience. The counterculture has always emerged from the bottom and young creatives have a thumb on the pulse because they're also the target audience. Making exciting new stuff for the people, with the people.
Thank you for this. Every few years news articles come out SHOCKED that low-budget horror with great premises massively outperform expectations. This has literally been how horror has always worked lol, and its one of the only genres that still plays in theaters.
Excellent analysis, Jeff. You'd think that Hollywood and the media would get past an esoteric understanding of this culture. It's in Hollywood's best interest to get this right.
Excellent analysis, Jeff. You'd think that Hollywood and the media would get past an esoteric understanding of this culture. It's in Hollywood's best interest to get this right.