The Oldest View

  1. Home
  2. Wiki


The Oldest View
Genre
Created byKane Parsons[a]
Written byKane Parsons
Directed byKane Parsons
ComposerKane Parsons
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes4[b]
Production
AnimatorKane Parsons
Original release
NetworkYouTube
ReleaseMarch 18, 2023 (2023-03-18) –
April 11, 2024 (2024-04-11)

The Oldest View is a mystery thriller web series created by American YouTuber and filmmaker Kane Parsons. Production on the series began in January 2023, shortly after his Backrooms series entered a temporary hiatus. The series debuted in March 2023 with the episode "Renewal," which has over 3 million views as of September 2025. In April 2024, the latest installment, "Dispersal," was released, as Parsons went on to continue production on his Backrooms series.

The series is related to a real life mall called Valley View Center, which was completely demolished in May 2023, except the mall has somehow manifested underground, with the only entrances to it being holes in the ground with concrete stairs leading down to the mall. The main protagonist of the series is a character named Wyatt, who ventures through the mall, recording on his phone to uncover its mysteries, with a giant rolling puppet within that tries to catch Wyatt and presumably kill him.

Premise

[edit]

Set primarily in May 2023, the series follows Wyatt, a young YouTube vlogger who documents his exploration in the Valley View Center, which is mysteriously found a mile underground via a tunnel containing concrete stairs, all while a giant rolling puppet is in pursuit of him.

Development and themes

[edit]

During an interview with photographer Desolar, Parsons recalled that the conception for the series began in the summer of 2021, after he wrapped up work on his Attack on Titan shorts and before he began working on his Backrooms videos. During this time, Parsons began to view images of places that striked a strange familiarity with him, while eerie music was being played in the background. Then, he came across an image of a bizarre uncanny statue located in a dead mall. He decided to download and save it onto his computer.[1] Parsons revisited the downloaded image in December 2022, while he began to write his 19th Backrooms video, "Damage Control." Out of curiosity, he decided to search the origins of this image and ultimately found that it was apart of archive photos of the real Valley View Center located in Dallas, Texas. The image sparked a childlike feeling of both fear and curiosity.[2]

Parsons then got on a Discord chat with his friends and shared the image. He was also constantly talking about the uncanny and unnerving feeling that came with it, which they found annoying. At the same time, they realized the statue, which was a Julien Reverchon giant, was real since there were similar photos scattered all over the internet. They were thinking about meeting with the artist behind it, Kevin Obregón, but ultimately decided not to since Parsons didn't want to kill the mystery surrounding it. In January 2023, the group began to get together on weekend chats to search all over the internet specifically for images that had the Julien Reverchon giant, which they found entertaining.[1] Parsons was trying to figure out how this could fit with his Backrooms series since it was built on liminal horror. The limitations he found was that people would think he was just "shoehorning something in," something he tried to avoid with his work. Realizing this can't fit with the series, Parsons decided to start production on a separate series surrounding the giant that was true to reality.[2]

In February 2023, one of his friends, Corrupt, began to recreate the mall using Blender, after gaining an obsession with the image Parsons showed him.[3] He would replicate the geometry of specific sections of the mall – such as the food court and fountains, while Parsons would texture and detail everything.[2][4] What they found frustrating was that they had to use reference images of the real Valley View Center and line everything up with the camera movements.[3][5]

During the interview with Desolar, Parsons stated that it was a personal project just to fulfill his desires and interests while entertaining himself. He said: "There's some truth to it, but I feel like it's also a crutch to lean on when your work is sort of relying on vagueness and ambiguity." Initially, Parsons didn't have high hopes for the series on YouTube, as people saw that he was being too vague with his vision. He said that despite these videos being less popular than his Backrooms series, it has had the best reception out of any of his previous projects.[2]

Parsons stated that it was "the scariest thing I've made." Within the first few hours of the video, "Renewal," people began sharing their accounts of visiting and working at the Valley View Center when they were younger.[6][7] Parsons said: "It's just so cool to see how it's reaching back to all of these real people who interacted with this real place." Parsons intended the series for this audience in mind, seeing that even if some people never went to the mall in their lives, these places would resonate with their memories very quickly.[2] Parsons aimed this project to not take place in an alternate universe, but instead, be represented as a dramatized realization of real places that existed and will never be seen again.[8][9]

Reception

[edit]

Reception for the series has been largely positive. Many viewers and critics have been praising it as a creative and ambitious leap foward for Parsons, temporarily moving from a government conspiracy thriller aesthetic to something more abstract and existential. The series' antagonist, the Rolling Giant, has generated a point of fascination, with many viewers describing it as one of the best antagonists in the analog horror genre due to its ambiguous nature and unsettling design.[6]

The series' connection to real-life locations and historical figures, such as the Valley View Mall in Dallas and botanist Julien Reverchon, has also sparked a lot of community-driven analysis and theorizing, as discussions have been revolving around the series' deeper meanings as well as the themes of liminality, impermanence, history, and memory.[10]

Episodes

[edit]
No.TitleDirected byWritten byLengthOriginal release date
1"Renewal"
Kane ParsonsKane Parsons4:05March 18, 2023 (2023-03-18)
During the spring of 1857, Julien Reverchon begins to study the local plant life in La Réunion, Texas. Julien comes across and sits on a fallen log by a water stream and takes out a book from his pocket to read, the film then starts to look towards the sky through the trees and the screen slowly gets darker. The video cuts to the spring of 2012, where Kevin Obregón begins to craft the Julien Reverchon giant by measuring and cutting cardboard for an elongated head. One scene shows a view from inside the craft showing flowers being carried by who is believed to also be Obregón. A view is shown of the completed craft, being the same as shown on the drawing as the video ends.
2"Beneath the Earth"Kane ParsonsKane Parsons12:08May 14, 2023 (2023-05-14)
Wyatt, a YouTuber, records a video in a mysterious park, which he keeps unnamed as it's private property. He finds a tunnel under an oak tree, with stairs lit up, leading deep underground. At the bottom, he finds an old, handle-less wooden door, a rusty locked fence gate, and hears mall-like music. Crawling under the gate, he discovers an empty mall behind roller fence gates. He then questions if he should upload this exploration to YouTube, and the video ends.
3"The Rolling Giant"Kane ParsonsKane Parsons46:18October 8, 2023 (2023-10-08)
After an initial trail camera expedition, Wyatt returns to an abandoned underground mall, determined to investigate. A door slams, but he pushes deeper, discovering art studios and a large puppet before the mall's lights and music suddenly activate. Trapped by a collapsed staircase, he finds an exit sign that confirms the mall is underground. Returning to the main area, Wyatt is unsettled by flickering lights and a statue that moves and then disappears. A gate leads him to Midtown Artist Studios, where he finds a dark forest. He flees noises, but a giant puppet pursues him. Realizing it's autonomous and aggressive, he retreats as it relentlessly chases him through maintenance corridors, smashing windows. In an office, Wyatt finds a map with an emergency exit on the AMC Level. As he heads toward it, the giant blocks every path. Finally, at the emergency roof exit, he finds dead bodies and horses, and the giant appears again. Wyatt dodges its attack and escapes to the roof, but a metal beam breaks, sending him to his death. The video ends with a shot of his body and the giant's face in the forest.
4"Dispersal"Kane ParsonsKane Parsons9:34April 11, 2024 (2024-04-11)
After the muffled screams of Wyatt are heard, a wooden door at the entrance to an underground mall retreats into shadows. The scene shifts to a dark forest with a staircase leading to a glowing light. Suddenly, Wyatt’s lifeless body is shown on the grass, and an image of the Rolling Giant’s back flags appears in the cloudy sky. The video then returns to the end of the previous installment, but this time Wyatt escapes the mall, running through a field and forest, appearing injured and in pain. Eerie music plays as text states, "Anatomically modern humans have existed for approximately 300,000 years," and "Recorded history accounts for roughly 1.6% of this time." Wyatt is then shown safely in his car, taking a deep breath and turning on music. He notices his maps are offline, but a passing car confirms he's back in reality. The video concludes from the Rolling Giant's perspective, showing it rolling along surface roads, obeying traffic laws, and looking around as the sound of its wheels fades and the video abruptly ends.


See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Known online as "Kane Pixels".
  2. ^ There are 2 other videos in Parsons' series playlist that mostly serve as tribute videos to Valley View Center.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Parsons, Kane (August 3, 2024). A Monster of Memory: The Oldest View. YouTube. Interviewed by Wendigoon.
  2. ^ a b c d e Parsons, Kane (November 11, 2023). The Rolling Giant Interview With @kanepixels & Corrupt - The Oldest View. YouTube. Interviewed by Desolar.
  3. ^ a b Kane Parsons (December 14, 2023). The Oldest View - Making Of/Behind the Scenes Content. YouTube.
  4. ^ Corruption [@corruptcorrupt15]; (April 18, 2023). "mall🏢" – via Instagram.
  5. ^ Corruption [@corruptcorrupt15]; (May 19, 2023). "You find yourself in an abandoned shopping mall" – via Instagram.
  6. ^ a b George Cheal (April 15, 2024). "The Past Is A Zombie (UPDATED): Rambling about THE OLDEST VIEW by Kane Pixels". Medium.
  7. ^ Hall, Jacob (2023-11-29). "The Scariest Movie Of 2023 Isn't In Theaters – It's On YouTube". SlashFilm. Retrieved 2025-07-20.
  8. ^ SmoshAlike (November 27, 2024). The Truth About THE BACKROOMS ft. @kanepixels. YouTube.
  9. ^ Williamson, Samuel (2023-12-24). "2023's Creepiest Horror Release Is a 12-Minute Short Film". Collider. Retrieved 2025-07-20.
  10. ^ "The Oldest View - Review". Five Star Journal. November 28, 2023.
[edit]