Horror is cinema’s prevailing genre. It has been standing tall as the form’s most consistently popular and inventive monolith, with successive generations always finding ways to scare the life out of us, only to come back wanting more. Early folks like the expressionisticF.W. Murnauand gothicTod Browningpassed the spooky torch down to mid-century matinee giants in the form ofWilliam CastleandRoger Corman, only for the genre to explode into the hands of many. 1960s Japan had masters likeKaneto Shindo, only forGeorge A. Romeroto dominate the scene in Pennsylvaniaa few years later. Then in the ’70s,Tobe Hoopertook us to the grainy and grimy Texan wild, the ’80s reeked of atmosphere fromJohn Carpenter.Wes Cravenbrought the slasher back with a meta touch and we sawthe breakthrough of found footagefromDaniel MyrickandEduardoSánchez. The 2000s belonged to the Splat Pack, A24 made themselves known in the 2010s, and today,Jordan Peeleis digging his claws into the dark side of our everyday. But who’s next? Who will carry the spooky torchon to the next generation? 18-year-oldKane Parsons, that’s who.
Parsons has quickly and loudly made massive waves in the horror community in just a couple dozen YouTube videos. So much so thathe’s signed a deal with A24and is developing a feature-length adaptation of his series,The Backrooms. As great as that project is, Parsons proves himself to be horror’s youngest master in this year’s 12-minute nightmare,The Oldest View - Beneath the Earth. In just 12 minutes, Parsons essentially does nothing at all to scare his viewers… and it works. This short uses all the oldest tricks in the book in the simplest way possible. We don’t know what’s going on, we don’t know where we’re headed, and we don’t know what’s just around the corner, ready to jump out at us. WithBeneath the Earth’slittle touches of claustrophobia, flourishes of cosmic horror, and thegraininess of analog horror, Kane Parsons proves that the next generation of horror is here.
What is Kane Parsons' Series ‘The Oldest View’ About?
Given thatThe Oldest Viewis, so far, a vague and sprawling narrative, there’s no way to clearly and honestly report on what this series is about so far just yet. As of late December 2023,The Oldest Viewis made up of four videos, with only a few elements tying them together. There’s afound footage aesthetic and narrative devicethat is used in large portions of the project, a mall-like setting, some sort of commentary on the relationship between nature and man-made structures, and occasional appearances of a giant masked figure. While the entirety of this series is worth checking out, nothing is more effective than its second chapter,Beneath the Earth.
What Happens in ‘The Oldest View - Beneath the Earth’?
The film follows a videographer, Wyatt (Parsons), as he ventures a few miles out into the woods. The opening is filled with quiet, beautiful shots of Wyatt’s surroundings, but something is clearly off. This becomes apparent when he arrives at a large tree, where he has recently discovered a hole at its base. At first glance, this revelation will just leave you thinking, “Okay, so what?” Wyatt knocks some rubble out of the way and clears his view down into the hole, only to discover that there is a deep staircase leading far underground. As far as we can tell, the staircase is sparsely lit, with dark little stretches covering the ground between the lights. From the surface, the stairs seem to stretch for an eternity. As Wyatt begins his venture down into the hole, this initial impression cements itself as reality, and what first seemed like a lengthy and bizarre structure now feels like there’s something much greater going on.
Wyatt’s venture goes from that familiar feeling of running across something strange in the woodsto an almost Lovecraftian brainbender. How far does this staircase go? Why would someone put this in such a remote location? Who built this? What built this? And most of all, where do these stairs lead to? Well, they do leadsomewhere. Where that is, you’ll have to see for yourself. All I will say is that somehow, Parsons made it scary to spend several minutes walking down a flight of stairs. It’s worth the journey. The short excels in the familiarity andrelatability of the analog horrorand found footage subgenres.Beneath the Earthis a grainy look through one person’s point of view as they take a hellish journey into the unknown. We all have smartphones, so we’ve all taken videos that look like this film, and at one point or another, have stepped into a location that just feels… off, yet we still look further. In that, it’s a short film that we can both relate to and alsonever fathom the horrors of.
‘The Oldest View - Beneath the Earth’ Is One of the Best Horror Releases of the Year
While2023 hasn’t been horror’s greatest year, there have still been a few standout releases.The Outwaterssimilarly tookfound footage to a remote location, where we would also have our minds shattered by unimaginable terrors.Talk to Mesaw other successful YouTubers, like Parsons, get picked up by A24 to create a spooky supernatural picture. That said, the most unsettling and innovative horror movie of the year has to beSkinamarink,Kyle Edward Ball’s (also a YouTuber)minimalist, experimental, analog horror masterpiece. Emphasis on the wordmovie, when it comes toSkinamarink, becauseBeneath the Earthjust might have it beat as the scariest horrorreleaseof 2023.
By hardly doing anything, Parsons creates the most unbearable sense of dread that you will feel watching anything all year. Both Ball and Parsons excel at crafting a picture that you just want to shut off, and I mean that in the best way possible. Their films are so unsettling that you want to crawl out of your skin, yet you’re able to’t look away.Ball’s feature clocks inat an hour and 40 minutes long.Beneath the Earth, on the other hand, is only 12 minutes and eight seconds long, and in that time alone,it just might ruin your night. It’s not that this is all a competition, though. Horror, filmmaking, and art in general, should not be summed up by who did what best.The Outwaters,Talk to Me,Skinamarink, andBeneath the Earthare all just as valuable as the next, whether you’re looking at the ways that they challenge and innovate their form, or in the way that they make us shriek.
Beneath the Earthis not “better,” per se, thanSkinamarinkor any of the other aforementioned films. But is is a shot of adrenaline in the arm of cinema’s prevailing genre from a filmmaker that just graduated into adulthood. Parsons is 18 years old! He’s just a kid, andhe’s already this good at making movies! For horror fans, that’s (hopefully) a promise that we have many decades ahead of watching, analyzing, theorizing, and celebrating his current and future works. Parsons is one to keep an eye on, andThe Oldest View -Beneath the Earthis the greatest proof of that.
The Oldest View - Beneath the Earthis available to watch for free on YouTube.
