Cumulatively, many of the first Gen Z voices to make major headway in the film industry this decade are springing up in horror, much in the same way Millennial mavens like Robert Eggers, Ari Aster, and Jordan Peele rose up in the exact same genre during the 2010s. However, that era still was going through the same established pathways developed in the 1990s: make some shorts, build connections, and premiere at Sundance (even Peele’s studio-backed Get Out launched in Park City to grow word-of-mouth ahead of the Comedy Central star’s hard pivot to genre filmmaking).
While the Philippous and Barker went a similar route, Parsons is coming straight from YouTube to the biggest opening in A24’s history. And even Barker seems a bit ambivalent about the old ways, despite Obsession’s TIFF success. Recently talking to NBC News, Barker said, “We’re finally getting to the point where people are like, ‘OK, fine, I’ll put my film on YouTube.’ Versus when I was in film school, that was kind of like a last resort. People didn’t want to put their stuff on YouTube. They wanted to go the festival route.”
After this month, that could change as studios are finally encouraged to look at YouTube as a potential training ground for new talent, much the same way music videos proved to be something of a farm league for young talent in the 1980s and ‘90s, nurturing future Hollywood staples like David Fincher, Michael Bay, and Spike Jonze. Or, perhaps, as a generational wellspring for an entirely different sensibility. Think Dennis Hopper circa 1970, as well as Robert Altman, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, and, ironically enough, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.
Then again, one has to wonder if this is itself only a stop-gap between the present and a larger future. Right now, in this generation, getting the distributive support of a prestige indie label like A24 or Focus Features, or a major studio like Universal and other interested parties—such as the unnamed suitor who allegedly made Barker a cool $10 million offer last week for his next original project, no script required—is critical to finding a large and financially lucrative audience who can still be best made aware of a film via traditional marketing and publicity.
But like the previous resistance to YouTubers, that could swiftly evolve in the coming years as more audiences and filmmakers get as comfortable as Barker did on his first film, and just say “screw it,” before uploading straight to the web. Interesting times, nay?
