Christopher Nolan is the latest major filmmaker to praise the breakout horror hits Obsession and Backrooms.
In a new interview with The Telegraph promoting his upcoming epic The Odyssey, Nolan reflected on the lengths he went to in order to make the film feel authentic, including traveling the world and assembling a “cast of thousands.”
“I think cinema is vital and essential and continues to transform itself,” the Oscar winner said. “We’ve got all these great new young voices in movies, making the medium their own and moving it forward.”
The article states that Nolan pointed to Curry Barker and Kane Parsons — the filmmakers behind Obsession and Backrooms — as evidence that “things are on the right track.” Both horror films have made history at the box office.
Barker’s Obsession, released May 15, has grossed more than $400 million globally on a $750,000 budget. The film became the highest-grossing festival acquisition of all time after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival and is now Focus Features’ highest-grossing release ever.
Meanwhile, Parsons’ Backrooms has surpassed $350 million globally and is A24’s highest-grossing film in a number of countries. Parsons, 21, also became the youngest director to top the domestic box office.
“This is why I never bought into the arguments that young audiences’ attention spans are too fried to enjoy a three-hour Greek epic,” Nolan said. “Those films are so mysterious and ruminative. I mean, parts of Backrooms are like David Lynch at his most obscure. And yet young people can’t get enough of them.”
The Oppenheimer director continued: “I’ve never seen a more rapid wholesale dismissal of a supposedly foundational jump in technology in my lifetime. So much energy has been expended on bringing in AI, but if you look at that generation’s reaction, they’re utterly rejecting it.”
Nolan also cited his children, who are in their late teens and early 20s, as examples.
“Their judgment of AI slop has been immediate and harsh. They see it for what it is very quickly — and it’s much easier for them to identify it, because it grew out of an online world they know really well,” he explained. “While that doesn’t mean that every aspect of the technology is useless or meaningless, in filmmaking it’s hitting at exactly the wrong time. After years of driving towards heavily virtual environments, we’re seeing a renewed interest in more tactile, more real forms of storytelling.”
That sentiment was echoed when The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Gen Z moviegoers about the rise of younger filmmakers like Barker and Parsons.
“Audiences in general, but especially audiences my age, are getting so overwhelmed by all of the CGI movies — the Marvel epidemic. It really deterred a lot of people from wanting to go and see these big-budget movies,” one moviegoer said.
Nolan isn’t the only legendary filmmaker championing the next generation of talent. Steven Spielberg also recently praised Obsession, saying he “loved” the film and applauded Barker for making it on a budget of less than $1 million.
As far as Nolan’s next film, The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus’ long, torturous trip back to Ithaca after the Trojan War to save his wife Penelope and son Telemachus. Its star-studded cast includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Travis Scott, Elliot Page, Lupita Nyong’o and more.
Check out all of The Hollywood Reporter‘s Obsession coverage here and Backrooms coverage here.
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