A 20-year-old YouTuber is doing such a great job with his horror videos that he will be releasing his own feature film about the famous Backrooms in collaboration with A24. In the meantime, however, he has set up another project that is at least as good as his Backrooms work: MeinMMO editor Caro finds it even scarier.
The YouTuber Kane A. Parsons, better known online as Kane Pixels, became famous mainly through his horror videos on YouTube, which look very realistic and of high quality despite being set in a completely digital environment created in Blender. Blender is an open-source 3D graphics software.
His breakthrough was his Backrooms series, which is based on the famous image of an eerily empty and uninhabited yellow room and can be considered a legend of internet culture. His video “The Backrooms (Found Footage)” from 2022 is still the most successful video on his channel today, with 73 million views, making him not only a big name in the horror scene on YouTube.
The film studio A24 also took notice of him and allowed him to express his talent and love for the Backrooms in his own feature film. At the time of his breakthrough and the release of this video, he was just 16 years old.
In March 2023, Kane surprised his community with a 4-minute teaser that left many questions unanswered and ended with the production of a large cardboard mask. No Backrooms, no yellow wallpaper, no explanation other than the title: “The Oldest View.”
What followed was able to prove for his community and me that his success is not solely based on the notoriety of the Backrooms. He has a talent for storytelling, high-quality technical execution, and a knack for providing the entire YouTube audience with relentless tension and pure terror.
Here you can see the trailer for “Backrooms,” in which Kane Pixels is also involved:
YouTuber does not need to rely on strong source material, creates a new story that is just as effective
The first video of his new series “The Oldest View” will prove to be only an absolute taste of what his fans and friends of analog horror can look forward to.
The narrative around The Oldest View is told like a kind of vlog. After the first teaser, the video “Beneath The Earth” shows the YouTuber Wyatt (played by Kane himself) coming across a strange hole in the ground during a walk that houses a lit tunnel equipped with stairs. He decides to explore the corridor and “film it,” with the immediate mention that everything you see was created entirely in Blender.
Once he arrives at the bottom, he encounters an abandoned shopping mall that seems strange not only because of its location underground. Music plays, and it does not seem aged, but merely abandoned.
The appearance of the rolling giant makes his own project worlds worse than the Backrooms
At this point, I want to issue a clear spoiler warning. Anyone who has not seen the video is wholeheartedly recommended to watch the video “The Rolling Giant (The Oldest View Part 3)” in its entirety. Those who are not concerned about spoilers or are already familiar with the video can read on without hesitation.
The third part of the series, “The Rolling Giant,” is a masterpiece of relentless suspense and oppressive atmosphere even on its own, without the other videos. In this video, which is significantly longer than the others at 46 minutes and can be classified as a short film, Wyatt once again ventures into the underground shopping mall. And this time he actually finds a way to explore even deeper – but then loses his exit for the first time and ultimately becomes trapped in the mall.
In search of a way out, he explores the quiet mall and comes across a massive black silhouette made of cardboard with large hands set on some kind of rolling framework. And this figure will not only shorten the lifespan of Wyatt but will certainly terrify many viewers with the following horrors.
As Wyatt frantically tries to escape the mall, the cardboard giant seems to develop a life of its own. It terrorizes the protagonist in the already dreadful situation he finds himself in, and its movements, the ominous sound of rolling wheels, and its face create incredibly terrifying moments.
I do not want to give away any more about the plot. You can watch the video in full length here:
Horror through atmosphere and camera work
What Kane was able to prove to me with this video is his strong understanding of how to instill a sense of powerlessness in his viewers and frighten them through the disturbing realization of being inevitably trapped.
Wyatt’s paranoia quickly transfers to me, and his frightened camera pans, when he hears or suspects something, suggest a fright with every turn.
The uncomfortable feeling of the “too” empty and abandoned transitional spaces of the Backrooms is also evoked in the empty mall. However, Wyatt’s daring to explore an unknown place, his helplessness, and the threat of the Rolling Giant create even more horror.
Kane Pixels has already discussed his intentions with YouTuber Wendigoon, which adds even more depth to the project. The latter has also published a complete analysis that gives “The Oldest View” a melancholic but also existentially threatening impact when one revisits the series.
A story about forgetting and the fear of what is hidden within that forgotten
The Rolling Giant, just like the mall it stood in, really existed. It was part of an exhibition that celebrated the work of naturalist and botanist Julien Reverchon.
Ever heard of him? Probably not. And that is precisely the point.
Wyatt’s expedition into the depths of the mall is a reflection of Kane’s research when he first stumbled upon the uncomfortable image of the Rolling Giants on the internet. He wanted to know more, searched deeper and more intensely for information until he became lost in the topic, just as Wyatt becomes lost in the mall.
The forgotten Rolling Giant was once created with love and craftsmanship to celebrate a person whose name is known by very few, although his research molded generations to come. All of this fell into oblivion, just like the mall and the Giant, who eventually disappeared in the ruins of the demolished building… and thanks to Kane and his project, it “lives” again. This also explains the final ending, in which the Giant emerges through the hole in the ground and looks directly at the viewer.
Hopefully, you enjoyed this brief deep dive into the analog horror scene on YouTube. Kane Pixels’ videos on The Oldest View and the Backrooms are all available on his channel and definitely worth it.
If you were already on YouTube as a child, you probably still remember some projects that shaped you and your friends to this day. Here on MeinMMO, we present the classics: 6 famous YouTube videos that shaped Generation Z and Millennials
