Before ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms,’ ‘Lights Out’ Blazed the Trail From YouTube to Studio Hit

The horror short by Swedish director David F. Sandberg went viral 10 years ago thanks to a Reddit post that New Line turned into a blockbuster. How YouTube shorts like ‘Lights Out’ paved the way for hit films by creators like Kane Parsons, Markiplier & Curry Barker. This year, audiences flocked to features by filmmakers who cut their teeth on online shorts, like Curry Barker (Obsession), Kane Parsons (Backrooms) and Markiplier (Iron Lung). But they follow in the footsteps of David F. Sandberg, whose 2016 Lights Out was the first studio-backed horror movie to originate as a YouTube short. The Swedish native’s two-and-a-half-minute film starred his wife, Lotta Losten, as a woman stalked by a mysterious figure when the lights go out.

After making the short on virtually no budget, Sandberg entered it in the Bloody Cuts Horror Challenge, winning best director. Months later, a Reddit post linked to it, page views skyrocketed from 8,000 to more than a million and Hollywood came calling. The couple credits the short’s global appeal to its lack of dialogue: “It just floated around the world because I don’t say anything,” Losten tells The Hollywood Reporter. Sandberg heard from producer Lawrence Grey, who wanted to collaborate with James Wan on a big-screen version. Sandberg worked with screenwriter Eric Heisserer (Arrival) to turn it into