SALT LAKE CITY — One look around on social media, and one can tell the film industry is changing and has been for a while.
Large studios have been relying on sequels and remakes for years to make money, but even those once-sure box office hits seem to be floundering. A new generation of rising filmmakers is proving they know what their audiences want.
Success for YouTuber-directed movies
Josh Bauer is a Utah independent filmmaker known for his horror anthology series, “Bizarria!” He said there are a few reasons why YouTuber-directed movies are seeing so much success.
“What we're seeing a lot of now is directors that have already cultivated a huge audience online, an audience that is willing to come see their work in theaters,” he said.
Over the last two years, a wave of horror movies by filmmakers who made their names on YouTube has emerged.
The rise of Curry Barker
Most recently, the box office hit “Obsession,” directed by YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker, 26. If you are a YouTube short scroller, you’ve probably run into some of his work. Barker is best known for his comedic sketches with his friend Cooper Tomlinson, whom he met in film school in Los Angeles, where they later dropped out to focus on their projects.
Barker has also made several short horror films, including “The Chair.”
“Obsession,” a horror movie now in theaters, is expected to gross $79.7 million at the global box office and was filmed in just 20 days on a budget of $750,000.
Obsession movie poster.(Blumhouse)
Kane Parsons and A24
Another summer movie to look out for this week is “Backrooms.” It's a story that carries deep internet lore on sites like creepypasta.
The film's director, Kane Parsons, known online as Kane Pixels, landed the deal with A24 at just 19 years old.
Parsons had been creating “backrooms” content by himself for years, gaining him a large YouTube following. He learned how to use the 3D graphics software Blender at a young age and created films heavily inspired by the first-person perspective video games he played.
Backrooms movie poster. (A24)
Low budget box office hits
Other horror movies released by YouTube creators have done well at the box office, with budgets considered by Hollywood as tiny.
“Shelby Oaks” directed by Chris Stuckmann had a budget of $1.4 million, making $8.1 million at the box office. “Bring Her Back” directed by the Philippou Brothers, Danny and Michael, grossed $39.1 million on a budget of $15 million.
“Iron Lung,” directed by Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach, earned $21.5 million globally on a reported budget of $3 million.
All done with minimal marketing, relying instead on their online fan base to spread the word and show up.
YouTube's role in great film
Parsons, who has 3.1 million subscribers on his channel, said YouTube provides something very useful: immediate feedback.
Bauer, who has his own YouTube channel under his name, agrees.
“The really great thing about it, that I love … is that it has this built-in feedback system where as soon as you post a video, you immediately can get likes, you can get comments, you can get viewer analytics,” Bauer said. “So you see how it's reading with the audience. It's a fantastic way to test out what works and what doesn't.
A playground for new creators
Which according to Bauer has created a new wave of creators that are really audience-focused, almost ensuring it will do well with the masses at the box office.
Turns out you no longer need the best gear, A-list actors or even a budget to create a movie that does well at the box office. You just need practice and repetition — and a platform to do it on.
That is what YouTube provides to a new generation of filmmakers. With approximately 2.27 billion active monthly users, according to Digital applied, it is one of the largest streaming platforms in the world, and uploads can be done on the platform for free.
“So what we have here is like the largest playground that any filmmaker could ask for. For testing out their filmmaking as well as learning practical filmmaking skills,” said Bauer.
Plus, YouTube audiences are always wanting content. Baker’s YouTube channel “that's a bad idea” has 1.17 million subscribers and most are short-form sketches with Baker and Tomlinson as the only actors. Instead of waiting on money or for an audition to pan out they just started creating, over and over again.
What the new generation is bringing
With the sheer volume of content creators are pushing out, mixed with the amount of quick feedback they are receiving, they have learned a lot about the audience experience.
One lesson: audiences aren’t dumb — they don’t need things spelled out for them. So while jump scares can be fun, audiences can see them miles away.
” … Jump scares can be kind of predictable and sometimes can be unearned, you know, someone opens a closet and a ball falls out, but because the music is loud, it's supposed to be a jump scare. And I think that a modern audience kind of rolls their eyes, right? I mean, I do,” Barker told TotalFilm in an interview.
Baker has even claimed his version of the ‘modern jump scare.’
“I have kind of my own modern jump scare that I try to pursue, but it's not a jump scare at all. It's just like my version of a jump scare is like if you could have two or three or even four moments in your movie where you can kind of make the audience go like, “Oh, I didn't like that. Like, that was weird. That made me feel uncomfortable. I didn't like that …'”
So, are audiences really done with the tradition jump scare? Filmmaker Bauer said probably not.
“I think that things like the jump scare are great traditions and I think that in one way or another they will always exist. Like the jump scare will always persist into the future just as it has for 100's of years of horror filmmaking. But I also think that (it can be interwoven) with other types of scares.”
These new filmmakers are also used to the barest of budgets, forcing them to be creative and put their energy on story and performance. On the surface, plots like “Obsession” are fairly simple: a man makes a wish, but how it is executed is what makes it.
The focus has gone away from crazy plot lines, focusing instead on executing one idea to perfection. The vibes seem to take precedent over all else. From the incredible performance of Inde Navarrett as Nikki in the film “Obsession,” tension is created from her simply just standing in place and backrooms are notorious for their eerie liminal spaces that mean hours of endless walking wondering what is around the next corner. Both show that waiting for something scary to happen is far scarier than it actually happening.
The audience is almost relieved at the end when something actually happens so you don’t have to sit in dread anymore.
What Utah filmmakers are bringing
Bauer is always keeping an eye out for what Utah filmmakers are working on.
“To me, it feels like Utah filmmakers are always trying to best themselves in a way that's really inspiring and I get just as excited to watch their films as I do any other movie that's produced by studio.”
He encourages other creators or just movie lovers to try and watch what local filmmakers are doing.
“Go see a horror movie. Go see a local Utah horror movie. You will probably be surprised. What I find is that horror filmmakers are always the ones to put the most passion into their work. You're guaranteed to take something interesting away from it every single time.”
Some Utah horror directors he recommended include Jordan Augustine, Brandon Carraway, Danny Hunt and J. Manzo.
As for fans of horror, Bauer said, they are always hungry for the next new thing. Lucky for them, so are young filmmakers.
“Horror fans are not exclusively enticed to come see a movie just based on name or brand recognition. What they're really looking for is a new and interesting concept that they can really be thrilled by,” Bauer said. “And so that's why horror filmmaking in general is always going to be carried on the shoulders of the next younger generation.”
Related: This Utah ghost town doubles as an artist residency. Here’s how it works
