Pop Culture Happy Hour - Gen Z and the movies

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Two big horror films, Obsession and Backrooms, just smashed all box office expectations. So much of their success has been driven by Gen Z, which is now the biggest moviegoing demographic. But what makes a movie a Gen Z movie? Today we’re bringing you an episode of NPR’s It’s Been a Minute. Host Brittany Luse talks about this trend with Sam Adams and Reanna Cruz. If you want to hear more about these movies, check out these episodes: In ‘Obsession,’ love hurts. It really, really, really hurts.'Backrooms' brings YouTube horror to the big screenZendaya brings 'The Drama,' we bring the spoilersConnect with Pop Culture Happy Hour:Letterboxd / FacebookOur weekly newsletterSupport Pop Culture Happy Hour+See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Two big horror films, Obsession and Back Rooms, just smashed all box office expectations. Back Rooms is A24's biggest opening in the studio's history, and obsession made more than 300 times its small budget. So much of their success has been driven by Gen Z. Gen Z is now the biggest movie-going demographic, according to a couple of recent surveys by Fandango and Compscore. And not for nothing, both of these movies were directed by Gen Z filmmakers. What Makes a Movie a Gen Z movie? I'm Stephen Thompson. Today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour,

we are bringing you an episode of It's Been a Minute. Host Brittany Luce sat down with Sam Adams, staff writer at Slate, and Rihanna Cruz, entertainment journalist and critic. Rihanna is also a member of Gen Z. Here's Brittany. Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce,

and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. Rihanna, Sam, welcome to It's Been a Minute. So happy to be here. Thank you for having us. Yeah, thank you. Okay, I'm excited to talk about this.

I want to talk about backrooms and obsession. These movies have done huge numbers, huge numbers. What did you think about them? Rianna, we'll start with you. It's interesting. I've had kind of inverse reactions to both of those movies where I was in the theater for obsession. I was like, this is pretty good.

And then over time I've started to like it less. And I've had the opposite experience with backrooms where I saw it. And I was like, all right, this is okay. And the more I sit and think about it, the more I like it. I like a lot of horror movies. Me too. We kind of live in horror maxing times, which I'm obsessed with. But I think of the two, I'm definitely team backrooms.

I know we don't want to pick sides. But that's the side that I'm coming down on, I got to say. I'm going to say I'm inclined to agree with you. I'm inclined to be with you. Backrooms I saw initially and I was like, it was decent. And then over time, I've grown to appreciate it a little bit more. And then I saw obsession yesterday and I was like, my husband, I were leaving. He was like, is this a moment we're like, I'm too old, understand what's going on?

But what did you think, Sam? You saw both of these movies, Backrooms and Obsession. What did you think? Well, since we're not picking sides, team obsession. Yeah, backrooms, I think, is an incredible vibe. Like, I love the environment of it, which is what the director of King, Parsons kind of comes out of the sort of literal backrooms in it. I think the script, which he did not write, is kind of the mess. There's like several monologues coming from a middle-aged man.

Yes. And I'm like, have you met any middle-aged before? Right. I mean, it's like you've got this wonderkin and someone decided that the best protagonist for his movie was like a 48-year-old divorced guy. I think that's a bit of a category error right there. Whereas Curry Barker, who made obsession. I think that's like, it's an imperfect movie. But I think that's, but I think that's a bit of a I think some parts of it really work. It's like there's so many horror movies you see now that just feel like they're kind of grinding their gears in the first 10, 20 minutes until you start getting to the kills and the premises established.

And I think this is a movie that actually cares about the characters and has, especially in Indian Everetti, who plays Nikki, I think has a really, like, stellar effector performance at the center of it, which has been so key to just the one viral clip of her going sort of no, no, no, I'm not even going to try to do her performance. No, no. That was so key just in my experience of kind of watching people warm to the movie online, that really seemed to get people's attention. You know, one of the things that's interesting is that, according to the Hollywood reporter,

75% of a possessions audience was 18 to 34 through the second weekend, which is mostly Gen Z. Wow. And over half of Backroom's first weekend audience was under 25, according to Indy Wire. Yeah, this makes sense to me. Yeah, I mean, like Gen Z, they're showing up for these films. Why do you think that is? I mean, you say it makes sense to you, Rihanna. Why do you think that is?

Well, I think both of these movies have been massive cultural moments. I think both of them have been founded on premises that are easy to convey. You know, I think the marketing for both of those movies has been good, especially on social media, right? And I think it lands really well with audiences that want to be. to be in on the discourse a little bit. Like I've seen a lot of people talking about these films on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels and Twitter, it's interesting to me how many people are showing up because they want a take and they want a comment, right?

And I think there's also an element that like horror is very easy to consume. It doesn't really ask much of its audience. You know, you kind of just show up. And in the case of Backroom, specifically like be immersed in the vibe. You know, when I was growing up, it was like, it's Friday night. What movie are we going to see? I don't think that's how younger people are approaching it. It's not the default thing anymore.

So they are picking the movies they want to see, not just based on like, do I want to see this thing, but like what is going to be an experience to see this in the theater? And horror is the genre where you most feel like you're in a crowd. People are like screaming and gasping and, like, reacting along with you. And it's just like the theatrical. experience for horror is really special. Like the feeling of being part of a group is something that especially a generation that you know is coming up to the pandemic is really craving that sort of collective experience. That's a really, really, really good point.

The Session was directed by Curry Barker, who is 26, and Backroom's was directed by Kane Parsons, who is 20. Both of them started out as YouTubers. What do you think about the Gen Z YouTuber to director pipeline happening with these films? Super Mario Galaxy just crossed the, billion dollar mark. So it's not like everything has changed in Hollywood, but it's certainly like, feels like a moment for these particular kind of movies. I think Gen Z is responding to something that feels like a little bit more theirs, not just that the filmmakers are, you know, in their 20s,

but also that this is not something that has been like shoved down their throat by a major corporation. And it feels like something they're being ordered to see. It feels like something that it's possible for them to discover. And I just think that's really like intoxicating. and it's a feeling that's been missing from movie going for a long time. Over the past few years, there's been a lot of, you know, the YouTuber to director pipeline. I'm thinking of Chris Stuckman and Shelby Oaks. I'm thinking of the Philipoos and talk to me and bring her back. Such a good movie.

Great flicks. Not Shelby Oaks, the other ones. But I think there is something to the fact that audiences feel, yeah, a little bit of ownership over these creators. You know, there's a parisocial relationship, I think especially when it comes to backrooms because I hate to call it a property, but it is like a thing on YouTube. Audiences like myself watched it. Backrooms was based on a creepy pasta, which is like a meme if a meme was scary. Yeah, a Gen Z way of engaging with horror material.

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Join the IBAM team. Rate and review this show right now. Thank you so much. Coming up after the break. I saw something on the internet the other day where someone was saying, if you're in a certain age, like in your mid-20s, like you've just never known a world where people are rewarded for doing good. And I think that feels like something that really runs through in these films.

Stick around. Even before these films came out, According to a couple recent surveys by Comscore and Fandango, Gen Z is now the biggest movie-going audience. I think for a long time, Hollywood was worried that that wouldn't be the case. But I wonder, what is bringing Gen Z to movie theaters? I think it's a lot of things. I think, again, social media plays a big part of it.

People want to be in on the discourse. That's how obsession got me because I was like, everyone's talking about. I'm like, I want to talk to. I want to be included. Well, yeah, exactly. And I think Gen Z is a demographic that uses the platform letterboxed a lot. Oh, yes, letterboxed. You know, Letterboxed gamifies movie watching.

It rewards you the more movies you watch. Yeah, I love logging my watches into Letterboxed, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it shows off to your friends how cultured and tapped in you are. You know, there's something really satisfying about seeing your movie stats go up. It's a social media platform for movies, and I think that has a lot to do with it. I also think that, like, the idea of these movie subscription services, like a. MCA list turns the movie, which was previously, in my eyes, like a solo experience into something easy that friend groups can do. Oh, so you're an A-Lister, okay. Oh, you know I'm an A-Lister.

It's for a lot of people cost effective. I see a lot of movies with a lot of different people. I have a lot of people on my A-List entourage. Like, it's a social element baked into the service. What is A-List entourage? Basically, all of your friends who, who also have a list, you can send each other links and, like, add each other on the app. So they all populate in your app, right, when you're buying a ticket. And it's very, very easy to book tickets for your friends. Oh, that makes sense. Sam, what do you think?

How do you think Gen Z's become the largest movie-going audience? I mean, I wonder if one of the things that's maybe going on in this particular moment is sort of like a long-term rant of mine is that people have been complaining for years that movies are too expensive, right? I think what really happened is that people stopped valuing that 100% agree. So it wasn't that they cost too much as that they were like 15 bucks for a movie when I can wait for it. Why would I pay that? Everything else is so much more expensive now that I think maybe part of it is people are coming back around to like there's not a lot of other things you can do except for like go for a walk that involves like paying 15 bucks to do something

collective for two hours. Like you can't get two beers for that in most cities. No. So I think, and especially if you have something like, you know, a subscription service, which also they often like discount your popcorn and your soda and whatever. Like I think it actually is just sort of like a good value for money proposition on top of everything else. And I think part of what's going on with these movies, too, not just obsession and backrooms, but also like the drama a couple months ago, which was another movie that seemed to be a real hit with this demographic is these are movies that people are like discussing. There's something that you can kind of chew on. on four days and weeks afterwards, which again is like, spend $15, go to a theater for two hours and you have like weeks of, I guess, entertainment.

I just saw the drama a week ago. Gen Z members of the IBM team have let me know that that was a Gen Z movie. And after I saw it, I was like, oh, I totally get the sensibility. I 100% agree. I think there are certain movies that are of certain generations, regardless of who made them, right? High fidelity feels very Gen X to me. Mean girls made by Gen X person, but very millennial. For sure.

Although I think they're everything everywhere all at once is perhaps like more apt example of like what a millennial film really is because of like it just has this sort of like millennial hope core kind of vibe running through it. Hopecore definitely millennial. Yeah, exactly. And like the millennial directors, it just feels like the generational fingerprint is really on there. What do you think makes a Gen Z movie? Like what do you think about that?

Backrooms and Obsession are very. dumer vibes. That's definitely part of the Gen Z movie aesthetic. I think as a member of Gen Z, I think there's two things going on, right? And it's in and or or situation. It's that members of Gen Z have to be featured in the movie. I think that's why the drama in part is a Gen Z movie. I mean, it's just Zendaya and she's on the cusp, right? I think she's technically a millennial, but only just by a few months, though of course more culturally she might be Gen Z. Either one of Mr. Claimer.

Robert Pattinson keeps insisting in interviews that he's Gen Z as sort of like a running joke. Do you wish you were a Gen Z? You're not Gen Z. I am. No, you're a millennial. I believe that you believe that you're Gen Z. I am Gen Z. What year were you born?

It doesn't matter. I think Gen Z movies have to feature members of Gen Z in some capacity and also have a devotion to exploring the digital aesthetics. landscape that we find ourselves in. I don't think obsession does this. Part of my issue with the movie is that screens are kind of non-existent for these characters. But I don't know. I think that's why the drama to me lands because it features Zendaya.

And also it has a very uniquely Gen Z experience of like being on the computer too much and getting really involved in like scary communities online. Not saying that happened to me, but I saw that happen to people that I know where when she was talking in the movie about, you know, being obsessed with school shootings, like I would come across people like that on Tumblr when I was a teenager and be like, whoa, this is really freaky. It's something that could actually happen. And so that's why I think like the two things are members of Gen Z and or digital aesthetic,

where Backrooms is made by a Gen Z director, but all the characters are not Gen Z. and yet it focuses on like digital abstraction. I didn't even think about that. You're right. Well, because we live in a very digital age, you know, as Gen Z, like, where the first generation to grow up fully online. That part makes sense. But I'm talking about what you said with backrooms where it felt Gen Z because it's got

a kind of digitally abstracted aesthetic. I mean, of course, like, canonically, it's taking place in 1990, so no one in the film can be Gen Z. But to me, it's always kind of fun to see people who were not even born in the 1900s. in general, tried to imagine what it was like back then. It's almost like, I don't know, someone's trying to go back through, like, when people were obsessed with Egyptology in the 1920s and they were like trying to excavate and figure out what ancient Egyptians were doing.

That's kind of how this movie felt where it's like a person who grew up around probably not too many shopping malls or maybe saw a lot of vacant strip malls and it's trying to sort of like make sense of like why that feels so horrifying and what was going on there. It's funny to me as a person who like, I'm old enough to remember people shopping. in these places, but like, why would Kane Parsons? Kane Parsons was not born when people were shopping in these places. So it's kind of interesting to see through the lens of like a period film. What horror there is to be mind in sort of like thinking about the ruins of the world that

was? I mean, one of the sort of recurring explanations in backrooms that Chutel-Eggiafor's character has is it's like if you described a dog to someone who didn't know what a dog was and then had them draw a picture of that thing in the backrooms, which is set in, you know, sort of shopping malls and these like public spaces that are kind of devoid of all meaning. Yeah. One of the things that I think links, certainly the movies that seem to be hitting with Gen Z this year is this total evacuation of like any meaning from the world.

Like there are rules, but they don't work anymore. Even an obsession. It's like the rules like take this stick, like break it. Wish for what you want. You'll get it. And bear in theory like does what the instructions on the package tell him to do. And it does not work out for him. And so these are worlds in which there's just kind of like no pathway to success or happiness anywhere.

Like the world is just fundamentally broken. I saw something on the internet the other day where someone was saying, if you're in a certain age, like in your mid-20s, like you've just never known a world where people are rewarded for doing good. And I think that feels like something that really runs through this, the sense of the world you're seeing in these films. Yeah, that's what I mean about the like doomerism of it, right? I think that's the dominant vibe that Gen Z finds ourselves in. It's interesting to see that conveyed in movies. And I don't think that there has been anything to accurately portray that hopelessness so far. So I think that's a really great point, Sam.

One of the things about obsession is that the film kind of starts off with a group of four friends who all work at the same job that none of them are fulfilled. by are seen to particularly like they're all kind of lonely in their own individual ways and they don't share with each other emotionally as you think that friends might they're kind of like suffering in silence even though they're spending a lot of time together and what hope for happiness that a couple of these characters have it gets snuffed out by the events of the film right I do wonder also how much of this vibe that's coming through is because also because horror is like one of the few places that like a young filmmaker who doesn't have a movie star on board can like make an impression and get an audience, like the fact that Curry Barker was a sort of online sketch

comedian, but when he wanted to make features, he obviously knew that like horror was the place to break in. Like, I wonder if you gave a Gen Z filmmaker $10 million like Kane Parsons got for Backrooms to make like a romantic comedy or something, maybe it wouldn't seem like quite so hopeless. I mean, I would totally watch a Gen Z rom-com. Like, one of the coolest things for me has been seeing through different pieces of art made by members of Gen Z how they're feeling about their experience of the world. But I'd like to see more perspectives on it. Like even the YouTuber to film director pipeline, like it's still very white and male. I'll be curious to see if that or how that opens up for Gen Z. I mean, for millennials, we had versions of that. Like Abbott Elementary is due

to the success of Quinta Brunson. She started out doing online videos, as did Issa Rae, who turned an online video series into basically an HBO show. I mean, it was a different kind of era for Hollywood to a certain degree, both in terms of diversity and in terms of trying to mind the internet and video content for potential new stars. I'm hoping to see maybe another cycle of that and some new voices, but Hollywood is obviously paying attention to the success of these movies, right? Hollywood tends to learn the least disruptive lesson they can from things like this. So in this case, it's like get me the next young white guy with a big YouTube presence. And that's one way to go in this, but the lesson I hope they would take from these is just

let younger people kind of like represent their experience. I think there's a few movies just about characters in their 20s doing anything that looks like real life or resembles the way they see the world. And I don't think that it has to come from YouTube. And Curry Barker had a YouTube following. It's not enormous. It's not like the 83 million people who watched the backroom's video. It's just enough to give them a leg up. And the people are responding to this because it's a good movie and it has characters in their 20s whose lives feel like the lives of people in their 20s, and I hope some smart person will take that lesson from it instead.

Sam, Rihanna, thank you so much. This has been such an enlightening conversation. You all brought up so many things I haven't even thought of. So thank you both so much for joining me. Thank you. Happy to be here. That was Sam Adams, staff writer at Slate and Rihanna Cruz, entertainment journalist and critic.

This episode of It's Been a Minute was produced by Liam McBain. Engineering support came from Tiffany Vera Castro. This episode was edited by Nina Pottuck. Our supervising producer is... Shera Vincent. Our executive producer is... Barton Gurdwood.

Our VP of programming is... Yolanda Sanguinei. All right. That's all for this episode of It's Been a Minute from NPR. I'm Brittany Luce. Talk soon.