Viral tweet, horror meme, video game: Hollywood's biggest blockbusters aren't coming from books, they're coming from the internet

Hollywood has long been a film industry that embraces experimentation, ranging from interactive storytelling (Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Memento) and multiverse adventures (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) to cyberpunk sci-fi (Blade Runner 2049, Upgrade) and time-loop narratives (Palm Springs, Edge of Tomorrow).

Audiences have largely welcomed these unconventional ideas, turning many of these films into major box-office and cultural successes. Now their latest movie inspiration is tied to internet cultures, gaming lore, viral threads, and social media trends.


Like always, Hollywood is once again cooking up a new trend, with internet culture. Unlike the movies The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Forrest Gump, The Avengers and The Dark Knight inspired by books and comics, Hollywood is now obsessed with internet culture. For decades, Hollywood's biggest adaptations came from bestselling novels, comic books and historical events.

Today, studios are increasingly looking elsewhere, to Reddit threads, YouTube videos, gaming culture, online horror legends, and viral social media stories. These stories already come with dedicated fanbases, built through years of online discussions, reposts, and viral buzz.

The trend is particularly effective in attracting younger viewers, for whom social media comes in handy. Today's generation is more into social media compared to books and comics, hence making internet culture a relevant feature in the film industry.

Backrooms movie crossing millions of dollars at the box office is the biggest proof of the success of such movies. This horror film, directed by 20-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons, is grabbing attention worldwide. The Backrooms story originated in May 2019 on a 4chan thread that asked users to share unsettling images. One such image featured an empty space with yellow wallpaper, later identified as a furniture store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.


An anonymous user commented that if you are not careful, you can "no-clip" (a video game term for passing through solid objects) out of reality and become trapped in an endless, maze-like void spanning 600 million square miles and smelling of damp carpet.

The unsettling simplicity of the post allowed thousands of internet users to contribute their own interpretations, turning it into one of the web's most recognisable horror myths. By the time Hollywood arrived, the audience had already spent years building the universe. The film is directly connected to Parsons’ viral found-footage YouTube series, which helped turn the internet urban legend into a mainstream horror phenomenon.

The horror film follows a group of teenagers who become obsessed with the mysterious slender man, a tall, faceless entity said to stalk and abduct children. The character did not originate from a book or comic but from a 2009 Photoshop contest on the online forum “Something Awful”. What began as a digitally altered image soon evolved into one of the internet's most famous creepypastas, with users expanding the myth through stories, videos and games.


The film centres on a night security guard who discovers that animatronic mascots (robotic characters with motors for movements and communication) at a family entertainment centre come alive after dark. It is based on the indie video game created by Scott Cawthon, but its popularity was largely driven by YouTube creators and fan communities who turned the game's hidden lore into an internet obsession through reaction videos, theory breakdowns and online discussions.

A dark comedy-drama, Zola follows a waitress who joins a chaotic road trip that spirals into increasingly bizarre situations like shootouts and sex trafficking. The film is adapted from a viral 148-tweet thread posted by A'Ziah King in 2015. The story captivated millions online and became one of the earliest examples of a social media narrative being transformed into a feature film.

The adventure comedy is based on the hugely popular sandbox game Minecraft, where players can build, explore and survive in a block-based world. This movie follows four real-world misfits: a former 1980s gaming champion, two orphaned siblings, and a quirky real estate agent. They are pulled through a mysterious portal into the cubic “overworld”. The movie is followed by their adventures and survival. The game was taken globally by YouTube creators, livestreamers and online communities who generated billions of views through gameplay videos.


The horror film follows siblings investigating a terrifying creature believed to be responsible for a series of mysterious deaths. The Rake originated as an internet creepypasta in the mid-2000s, spreading through forums and horror websites via fake eyewitness accounts, fake case files and fictional reports. The collaborative storytelling helped transform the creature into one of the web's earliest viral monsters.

The success of Backrooms, Slender man and Zola proves that Hollywood’s next successful genre has not emerged from the bestselling books or comics, but instead from the internet cultures. It could come from a creepypasta shared on a forum, a viral TikTok mystery, a gaming theory or a social media thread that captures the internet's imagination. The technologically advanced and aware audience is the future of movies like Backrooms.