Like many Internet phenomena, it's difficult to pinpoint the creator of Backrooms. The concept originated as an anonymous creepypasta on 4chan in 2019, a liminal maze that sought to capture the feeling of escaping reality. The game quickly took on a life of its own as other short stories, videos, and even games sprung from the urban legend. One of the many people the Backrooms' mythology is based on is Kane 'Pixels' Parsons. At the age of 16, he created a nine-minute found footage horror film that became so popular that it was turned into a feature film.
Now, distributors of the feature film, A24, are retroactively bringing down the hammer on related material that predates the film. “Creators, beware,” reads a post on a dedicated subreddit. “A24 has asked me to take down my Backrooms-inspired work, which replicates the pattern of the famous 2019 image that started the entire Backrooms story. It's disappointing to see a company claim such a broad connection to a concept that has been developed, shared, and loved by online communities for years. I had hoped A24 would celebrate its creative history rather than take action against independent artists who were just as inspired by it.”
“Redbubble has informed us that the work has been removed following a complaint filed on behalf of ‘A24 Films LLC.’ We have not been contacted by A24 and cannot independently confirm who submitted the complaint,” it said. “I contested the removal and explained that my work was not copied from A24’s film or merchandise, but was reproduced from the original 2019 Backrooms image.”
Parsons is “looking into it” and is confident it “should not have happened.”
It's an unfortunate situation that's quickly becoming the norm as studios cling to Internet properties built collectively by entire communities. Last year, Skibidi toilet creator Alexey 'DaFuq!? Boom' Gerasimov partnered with Michael Bay's production company Invisible Narratives to expand the IP into movies and TV shows, but has reportedly been forced to hand over control of the assets. Invisible denied the accusations, claiming that Gerasimov decided to step down while remaining as executive producer, but Invisible Narratives nonetheless attempted copyright infringement against Garry's Mod. This shows a distinct lack of understanding of the history of Internet culture.
Thankfully for Backrooms, the community has Parsons. “We're investigating. This shouldn't be happening,” he explained of the Reddit post. Ultimately, as the post's author, GnarlyNet, explains, this sets a worrying precedent for “when big companies adapt to community-created Internet culture.” Needless to say, as they explained in a follow-up comment with photographic evidence, they “painfully recreated the pattern from the original image in Inkscape a few years ago.” If A24 is willing to retroactively target Backrooms content, it puts a ton of community-created content at risk.
