A24 Backrooms’ Bollocks, Bonus Scary Movie, Resident Evil Hype, and More – Cutting the Crap Horror Roundup

Welcome to Knockout Horror and to another Cutting the Crap horror roundup. It’s week three of July and we have quite a lot to talk about this week. We are going to be discussing more A24 related Backrooms’ Bullshit, Scary Movie’s streaming release, how hyped I am for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, and lots more. Let’s go.

A24 Messes Up… Again – Backrooms’ Copyright Controversy

Why does it feel like A24 are giving me a new reason to dunk on them when it comes to Kane Parsons’ Backrooms each and every week? At the beginning of July it was them double dipping on the theatrical release with Backrooms: Everything Must Go edition, only to release it on VOD a few days later. While last week it was Parsons releasing that content for free on YouTube, rubbing salt in the wounds of people who paid extra to rewatch the film.

Just for the record, I absolutely loved Backrooms so I am not just looking for excuses to take potshots. It just feels as though there is a new piece of negativity surrounding this film every single week.

This time, it’s a copyright controversy. As many of you will know, Backrooms started life as a 4chan based copy-pasta centred around a photo of the backrooms of someone’s workplace. In typical cost cutting fashion, the owner of the building had never updated, or utilised, the space and the original poster was struck by how uncanny and ominous the place looked with its barren space and yellow, 70s-style wallpaper.

This one post sparked a wave of users creating their own content inspired by the photo. We had stories, images, videos, and even games based on the concept. One of those users was Kane Parsons who then went on to produce a series of YouTube horror shorts centred on the idea of the backrooms being a liminal space. The rest is history.

So What Went Wrong?

Last week, A24’s automated copyright system flagged a bunch of user-created, Backrooms-inspired content that’s been around for years.

Images as simple as that of some retro yellow wallpaper were removed from places like Redbubble despite being around for a very long time before the film released. A Backrooms inspired game was even removed from the Google Play store.

The idea wasn’t so much “here is a picture of yellow wallpaper”, it was more the vibe and aesthetic of the content, as the whole Backrooms thing is very vibe and aesthetic heavy.

Naturally, fans of the Backrooms were absolutely incensed. This is a community owned and community built concept and the idea that A24 could claim ownership over it caused widespread outrage. Kane Parsons immediately came out to say that he has no connection to this and that he is working with A24 to get things fixed.

A24 withdrew the copyright claims, basically attributing it to a rogue algorithm that incorrectly flagged original content as being pirated footage from the movie. They stated that they make no claim of ownership over the yellow wallpaper or any of the community works attributed to the copypasta.

Was it Really Just a Rogue DMCA Bot?

Honestly, if we take A24 at their word, then it’s easy to dismiss this as a simple piece of lazy, automated DMCA bot shenanigans that was really not intended to harm anyone. Do we really owe them that, though? I mean, don’t get me wrong, without A24 financing some seriously risky projects, we might not have filmmakers like Ari Aster absolutely blowing up cinema screens. They are an incredibly important company.

With that being said, their image of “cool indie movie company” is doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to some of their underhanded practices. A24 are “the brand” now and they recognise that their logo at the beginning of a movie is worth a ton. They really aren’t this daring company giving a voice to the little man, anymore.

In fact, A24 are becoming increasingly money-driven and there is evidence of them frequently engaging in underhanded ways to make a few extra dollars. They double-down on theatrical runs, they hold their movies off of free streaming for a long time, they underpay their workers, and they are hyper-aggressive when protecting their IPs.

With this in mind, they deserve the same kind of scrutiny that other major corporations get.

I can’t shake the feeling that this seems a lot like a major corporation attempting to monetise something created entirely from the ground up by internet denizens and seeing whether they can get away with it. I mean, what do they have to lose? They can make a bunch of copyright claims, essentially own the entire visual DNA of the Backrooms, and see whether the community kicks up a fuss. If they do, tell them it was a rogue DMCA bot.

The rogue DMCA bot story might be completely true and I would really like to think it was, but this is a story as old as the internet. I will always have the question in the back of my head of what would have happened had Parsons not personally jumped into a Reddit thread to defend the community?

What’s New On The Site?

I actually started a whole new section on Knockout Horror this past week. We are now going to be covering horror merch, horror video games, and horror survival goods to help you through those horror marathons. The first article to kick it off was our review of G Fuel’s Jump Scare Collector’s Box and Stab Stimulant flavour. You can read all about my impressions of it as told through a 24-hour horror marathon.

For those who missed it, last week’s news is right here.

On the review front, we took a look at the true story of a horrifying double bear attack with Grizzly Night and were rather disappointed by Mexican influencer horror No Me Sigas. We also opened last week by checking out the latest The Substance rip-off Slanted.

I’m catching up on a couple of missed reviews this week while things are quiet in the horror world. Look out for reviews of Primate, to go with our Primate Ending Explained, and The Strangers Chapter 3. I’ll also be reviewing Evil Dead Burn if I can make it to the cinema to check it out.

All of those links open in a new tab. Now back onto the news.

Scary Movie Hits Streaming With Bonus Content

The Scary Movie reboot, which is effectively Scary Movie 6, has just landed on premium VOD with extra content. You can grab it now on places like Amazon and Apple Video but, to be honest, it has a pretty high asking price for what is, essentially, the second most critically lambasted entry into the already rather maligned spoof comedy horror series.

I’m a huge fan of the Scary Movie series but I do recognise that, to be perfectly honest, most of them are pretty awful. The first entry is an absolute classic but, after that, they really went on a run of diminished returns with each new iteration. With that being said, Scary Movie 3 is probably my favourite of the bunch. This reboot reunited almost all of the original cast and returned the Wayans brothers to the writing room with the sole objective being to shock and offend.

Full disclosure, I still haven’t seen it. We were supposed to watch it in the cinema with a friend but that didn’t happen. We are going to watch it with him sometime in the near future, on VOD, so I will hold my opinion until then.

Anyone else feeling a bit cynical about this whole “extended digital release” thing? It’s almost as if the theatrical run is becoming an advertisement for getting the full experience on premium VOD.

When I go to the cinema, I want the entire thing. I love movies releasing on premium VOD with bonuses like behind-the-scenes footage or commentary tracks, but extra footage included in the film just feels a bit underhanded. Still, when it comes to gross-out comedies, it’s always been a bit of a tradition. It reminds me of the days of “unrated” versions being released that might feature a few extra raunchy jokes and a bit more nudity.

Resident Evil Hype

Is anyone else getting hyped for the new Resident Evil movie releasing in September? With every day that passes I feel more and more confident that Barbarian director Zach Cregger is going to knock it out of the park.

I am a huge fan of the Resident Evil video game series and just wrapped up the platinum trophy on Resident Evil Requiem. To be perfectly honest, I found it to be a little on the disappointing side. I managed to wrap up all of the trophies much quicker than I did with the other games and tons about the game just didn’t vibe with me.

I’m eager for some more Res Evil content to get the taste of disappointment out of my mouth.

While the, mostly disappointing, 2000s films were action-packed b-movies, it seems as though Cregger is aiming for something a lot more serious with the upcoming September 18th release. He’s already mentioned that the film will be lore-accurate and the fact that it is coming out in IMAX means it should be a visual treat.

Cregger is an actual fan of the games and has decided to opt for a completely original story told within the Resident Evil universe. There are plenty of reasons to start getting hyped if you haven’t already and I can’t wait for this one.

What’s New on Streaming

Streaming additions this week seem pretty sparse. One noteworthy title added to Shudder is Saccharine featuring Midori Francis. Click the link to check out our review. It’s a body horror that sees a woman attempting to lose weight using a revolutionary new drug that just so happens to have a sordid secret ingredient. Honestly, it’s not a terrible movie but I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it.

Shudder has also sneaked in a few cult classic horror movies recently for you to check out: Messiah of Evil, The Woman, Embodiment of Evil, and The Last Horror Film. If you haven’t seen Lucky McKee’s The Woman yet, do yourself a favour and go check it out. It’s a tough watch in parts but man is it good.

The Ring arrived on Paramount+ recently. Gore Verbinski’s 2002 remake of the legendary J-Horror movie Ringu is one of those rare examples of a Western remake absolutely nailing what made the original so great. If you haven’t seen it, you should add it to your watchlist. It’s the movie that really helped jump start the J-Horror rip-off fest that dominated early 2000s horror. Talk to Me was just added to Netflix in the US, as well. Absolutely essential horror viewing.

Knockout Horror’s Pick of the Week: I mentioned in our last update that Exit 8 was about to hit Shudder and that actually arrived yesterday. It’s a seriously brilliant Japanese, Liminal Space horror that’s a perfect follow up to Backrooms for those looking for similar films. A young man finds himself trapped in looping subway corridors and has to spot anomalies to escape. Go check it out.

August’s Horror Slate and Onto Next Week

August’s horror slate is taking shape and, once again, I am super amped for Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man coming on the 7th of August. It follows a summer town turning to chaos after an ice cream man feeds the kids sweet treats with a twist. Insidious: Out of the Further is scheduled for later in August so Hollywood horror fans have something to look forward to.

August 7th also sees the release of slasher movie Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. It follows a slasher director who wants to make a sequel featuring the original movie’s final girl, causing all sorts of sordid problems. It’s directed by I Saw The TV Glow’s Jane Schoenbrun so should be fantastic.

That’s all for today. Onto next week and another batch of horror news. Thanks for reading.

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