Most 20-year-olds with the No. 1 movie in the country would play it safe on the press tour. Kane Parsons — director of A24's record-smashing "Backrooms" ($81 million opening, the biggest debut the studio has ever had) — did the opposite. In one interview with The Australian, picked up by Variety and Deadline, he turned generative AI into target practice. Ranked from "spicy" to "call an ambulance."
6. The Cold Open
"Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools." A quiet start. He's not mad, he's disappointed. The setup before the haymakers.
5. The Mission Statement
"It defeats the purpose entirely for me." Short. Final. The kind of line you put on a poster — a hand-drawn one.
4. The Diagnosis
He called generative AI "less like innovation than a symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot." Dude reframed the entire tech-bro pitch as a sickness in a single sentence.
3. The Drive-By
"Obvious AI slop." That's how he described the billboards and signs we now walk past every day. Two words. No notes.
2. The Mic Drop
"If I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would." Thanos energy, except the snap is aimed at the thing trying to replace artists. The internet screenshotted this one into orbit.
1. He's Not Even Alone
The savagery isn't a solo act. A24's own "Heretic" (2024) ran a credits card reading "No generative AI was used in the making of this film," with co-director Bryan Woods calling the tech "borderline theft on some level." Guillermo del Toro said he hopes "to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak." Parsons just made it a box-office record while doing it. Advantage: the humans.
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