For the second half of May 2026, an intriguing type of horror has owned the box office. While Michael held on strong, Focus Features’ Obsession, which was made for $750,000, somehow made over $100 million at the box office, with an increase of almost 40 percent in its second week in theaters. Two weeks later, A24 released Backrooms, a movie that dwells in the horror of liminal spaces; the film made $10.4 million on its opening day, besting the $10.3 million made by the first film based on the viral Five Night’s at Freddy’s franchise.
For those who haven’t been paying attention to the hype surrounding these films, they share a few things in common: they are the feature-length directorial debuts of their directors (Curry Barker for Obsession, Kane Parsons for Backrooms). The other, and possibly more important, part is that both cut their teeth on YouTube, exploring their creativity in the medium before diving headfirst into Hollywood horror. Having a readymade audience to support anything you do is a must; maybe the parasocial nature of the internet means that fans who’ve watched these creators long enough will just want to see their fav win.
YouTube creators making horror for Hollywood isn’t new; making this kind of bank at the box office for these first-time directors is a newer trend. That said, it’s been about a decade since Hollywood has tapped YouTube for the next great director. With the hype surrounding Obsession and Backrooms, bone up on your YouTube-turnt-Hollywood director knowledge with a timeline of YouTube creators who transitioned into Hollywood directors through horror.
Lights Out (2016)
Director: David F. Sandberg
Starring: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Billy Burke, Maria Bello
Release date: July 22, 2016
Before directing 2019’s Shazam!, Sandberg’s directorial debut was based on a 2013 short film of the same name, which Sandberg dropped on Vimeo and his YouTube page. If you are afraid of what may get you in the dark, this is the horror movie for you. Lights Out received solid reviews and made almost $10 million more than initial projections on its opening weekend.
Skinamarink (2023)
Director: Kyle Edward Ball
Starring: Lucas Paul, Dali Rose Tetreault, Ross Paul, Jaime Hill
Release date: January 13, 2023
Ball ran a YouTube page where he’d create videos based on his nightmares; one of those shorts is the story that became Skinamarink, which was shot for $15,000 and made over $2 million at the box office before landing on Shudder. It’s one of the more “quiet” horror movies, rewarding your patience by scaring the crap out of you later on.
Talk to Me (2023)
Director: Danny and Michael Philippou
Starring: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, Zoe Terakes, Chris Alosio, Marcus Johnson, Alexandria Steffensen
Release date: July 27, 2023
The Australian twins were better known as RackaRacka before the release of Talk to Me, which deals with a grieving woman’s addiction to an object that can communicate with spirits. During their time making all kinds of YouTube content, they worked as crew on The Babadook, with that company producing some of their YouTube videos.
Bring Her Back (2025)
Director: Danny and Michael Philippou
Starring: Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Jonah Wren Phillips, Sally Hawkins
Release date: May 29, 2025
After bringing in $92 million on a $4.5 million budget for their directorial debut Talk to Me, A24 brought back the twins formerly known as RackaRacka for their next film, more than doubling the budget of Bring Her Back, a tale of a foster mother trying to bring back her deceased children.
Together (2025)
Director: Michael Shanks
Starring: Dave Franco, Alison Brie
Release date: July 30, 2025
Shanks is one of the creators behind timtimfed, which means he’s been creating YouTube content for almost 20 years. His feature-length debut came in 2025 with Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple who mysteriously begin to fuse. Casting the real-life couple in this kind of mind-bending body horror was an added stroke of genius.
Shelby Oaks (2025)
Director: Chris Stuckmann
Starring: Camille Sullivan, Brendan Sexton III, Keith David, Sarah Durn, Derek Mears, Emily Bennett, Charlie Talbert, Robin Bartlett, Michael Beach
Release date: October 24, 2025
In the land of YouTube movie reviews, Stuckmann is seen as kind of an OG, with his first film review hitting his YouTube channel in 2009. In 2021, Stuckmann launched the Paranormal Paranoids ARG, raking in 100,000 views due to interest (especially wondering if the videos were real). They became the basis for the film, which dove deeper into the ARG, making $8 million at the box office to mixed reviews from critics and viewers.
Iron Lung (2026)
Director: Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach
Starring: Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach, Caroline Kaplan, Troy Baker, Elsie Lovelock, Elle LaMont, Mick Lauer, Seán McLoughlin, Isaac McKee
Release date: January 30, 2026
Based on the 2022 video game that the popular gaming YouTuber helped spread across the platform, Markiplier took the reins completely on this project, directing, writing, distributing, editing, and starring in the flick. The game has the player stuck in a submarine with no way to escape, which meant that Markiplier carried the majority of the screen time by himself. Fifty thousand gallons of fake blood later (the most of any horror film), and Markiplier brought in over $51 million on a $3 million budget, making the deals to get the film into theaters and on YouTube on his own.
Obsession (2026)
Director: Curry Barker
Starring: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter
Release date: May 15, 2026
One-half of the sketch comedy group that's a bad idea, Barker had been creating content for the channel for almost nine years before the release of Obsession, which follows what happens when a guy wishes for his crush to be madly in love with him. And while smaller horror movies making bank at the box office isn’t new, the overwhelming appreciation for the film feels like Barker properly used a One Wish Willow. We kid, but the obsession for this film is real, with repeat theater viewings a badge of honor for Obsession lovers.
Backrooms (2026)
Director: Kane Parsons
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell
Release date: May 29, 2026
Seven years after the creepypasta went viral, Kane Parsons’s take on the Backrooms craze—which began as a series of videos he produced on Blender and uploaded to his Kane Pixels account on YouTube—turned into A24’s latest horror behemoth. Hollywood indeed saw the promise in Kane’s idea, with everyone from James Wan to Osgood Perkins hopping on board as producers, being on hand if Kane needed any help walking his film over the finish line.
Time will only tell if Hollywood can continue to select the right YouTubers to turn into tomorrow’s horror directors.
