In a recent masterclass chat at Malta’s Mediterranean Film Festival in Valletta last week, Dutch actress Famke Janssen spoke about the recent successes of YouTuber-directed movies like Obsession and Backrooms.

It’s paradigm-shifting. These are two young guys who … built their own audiences on YouTube. They had a vision and didn’t go to a studio with their cup asking for money. They just took their own careers in their hands and for very little money created movies that are incredibly creative, entertaining and found huge audiences. I’m so thrilled to see that. And they’re analog, they’re not AI driven or CGI heavy films.

Famke Janssen shared a particular fondness for Backrooms and its director, Kane Parsons, quipping, “Backrooms is like Stanley Kubrick on crack.” Janssen, whose most notable role was playing Jean Grey in the early 2000s X-Men movies, was also asked whether she thinks Kane Parsons would be a good fit to direct a future X-Men movie, which she answered with an enthusiastic “Absolutely.” She also said,

[Their success] just opened a door, not just for them, but for other people to say, ‘We don’t have to go with this old-fashioned system where we make a movie for $300 million.’

Obsession is still playing in theaters. It was also recently released on digital platforms and is now available to rent or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. Backrooms, on the other hand, is still playing exclusively in theaters, with an extended “Everything Must Go” version releasing this weekend.