Can ‘It Ends’ Become the Next Indie Horror Sensation Like ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’?

Every year or so, the horror genre produces a sleeper hit that nobody saw coming, and 2026 has already given us two massive examples. ‘Backrooms‘ and ‘Obsession‘ turned microbudget filmmaking into box office gold, and now horror fans are wondering whether the new SXSW breakout ‘It Ends’ could be next in line.

The buzz around ‘It Ends‘ has been building since its festival premiere, and with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score and a fresh distribution deal, the question on everyone’s mind is whether this Gen Z road thriller has what it takes to replicate the kind of runaway success that made ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ into genuine cultural phenomena.

The ‘It Ends’ Premise That Has Horror Fans Talking

‘It Ends’ follows a group of recent graduates who take a late night drive that turns into an inescapable nightmare when their car ends up on a never ending, two lane road surrounded by cosmic horrors. The film is written, edited and directed by Alexander Ullom in his directorial debut, and it stars Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson, Noah Toth and Mitchell Cole.

The story centers on three recent graduates named James, Day and Fisher, who are picked up by their friend Tyler for what starts as a normal night out. What follows is an existential horror film that plays out like a modern retelling of a philosophical nightmare, with the group trapped on an endless stretch of road while unseen forces swarm anyone who dares to stop moving.

‘It Ends’ had its premiere at South by Southwest on March 7, 2025. Critic Siddhant Adlakha of Variety praised the film as a standout reimagining of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist work No Exit. That kind of critical love out of the gate is exactly the sort of festival buzz that preceded both ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ before their own theatrical breakthroughs.

How ‘Backrooms’ Turned a YouTube Series Into a Box Office Monster

To understand what ‘It Ends’ is up against, you have to look at what ‘Backrooms’ pulled off. Based on a creepypasta that spawned a viral series of YouTube shorts, the film became a downright phenomenon under 21-year-old director Kane Parsons. Parsons became the youngest filmmaker ever to deliver a number one opening at the global box office, beating a record that had stood since 2012.

The numbers involved are staggering for a film with such humble origins. Produced for less than 10 million dollars, ‘Backrooms’ stunned Hollywood with more than 364 million dollars at the worldwide box office, including a record breaking 81.4 million dollar domestic opening weekend. That made it, already A24’s top grossing movie of all time domestically and globally, with the film crossing a milestone 350 million dollars globally after 37 days in theaters.

What made ‘Backrooms’ resonate wasn’t just the box office. Around 86 percent of the audience was younger than 35, with more than half under 25, proof that the film tapped directly into an online generation that grew up with liminal space horror as internet folklore. That built in fanbase from years of viral video content gave the movie a launching pad that traditional horror releases simply do not have.

Why ‘Obsession’ Proves Low Budget Horror Can Break Records

If ‘Backrooms’ showed what a viral internet property could do, ‘Obsession’ proved that an original idea from a YouTube creator could dominate just as hard. Written, directed and edited by Curry Barker in his feature directorial debut, the film follows a music store employee named Bear who buys a supernatural toy that grants his wish for his coworker Nikki to fall in love with him, with horrifying consequences.

The financial story here is almost unbelievable. Made on a budget between 750,000 and 1 million dollars, ‘Obsession’ has grossed roughly 148 million dollars. By July, that number had climbed even further, with ‘Obsession’ becoming the highest grossing live action English language original movie of the 2020s at 371.2 million dollars, breaking the record previously held by ‘Sinners.’

Like Parsons, Barker built his following long before Hollywood came calling. He spent years amassing a fan base on YouTube with his sketch comedy channel and his found footage feature Milk and Serial before Obsession became his breakout debut. That pattern of internet native filmmakers translating audience trust into ticket sales has become one of the defining horror stories of the year.

Can ‘It Ends’ Follow the Same Path to Box Office Success?

There are real reasons to think ‘It Ends’ has a shot. On Rotten Tomatoes, 100 percent of 24 critics reviews are positive, a score that rivals or even beats the reception that both ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ received out of their own festival runs. That kind of unanimous critical praise tends to fuel exactly the word of mouth buzz that turned those two films into unexpected hits.

The distribution path also looks promising. Neon acquired the film’s worldwide distribution rights on December 18, 2025, with the intent for a theatrical release in 2026. Neon has built a reputation for turning under the radar horror into cultural moments, and landing a film with a perfect critics score suggests real confidence in its commercial potential.

That said, ‘It Ends’ lacks one major ingredient that fueled both prior hits, which is a preexisting viral fanbase. Neither Ullom nor his cast arrived with millions of YouTube subscribers already primed to show up opening weekend, meaning the film will have to build its audience the old fashioned way through reviews, festival buzz and eventual marketing rather than an internet fandom years in the making.

Whether ‘It Ends’ can turn its critical acclaim into the kind of numbers ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ put up remains to be seen once Neon locks in a release date, but horror fans who caught it at SXSW seem convinced this endless road thriller has the goods. Do you think ‘It Ends’ has what it takes to join the ranks of 2026’s biggest horror breakouts, or does it need that viral internet spark to really take off at the box office?