RED ROOMS (aka LES CHAMBRES ROUGES, 2023)

Streaming on Shudder!
Directed/Written by Pascal Plante.
Check out the trailer here!!

Kellie-Anne (played by Juliette Gariépy) is a French fashion model who becomes obsessed with a case involving a serial killer (played by Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) who broadcast his killings online for paying customers, also known as a Red Room. She meets Clementine (played by Laurie Babin), a homeless woman who is equally obsessed with the case. But the reasons why both women have taken such a great interest in the case is very, very different.

Hands down, RED ROOMS is one of the most compelling films of the year. It deals with the celebrity status given to serial killers and the strange, but common tendency for those killers to have a kind of fandom attributed to them during high profile trails. It delves into what it means to be obsessed with killers and how people form their own realities, ignoring damning evidence, and instead attaching some kind of sympathetic story wrapped around what seems to be heinous crimes by most people. It’s about how some people can look at a painting and see one thing and another can look at the same and see something completely different. RED ROOMS is a broad, yet intimate look at complex perspectives that’ll have you talking about it long, long, long after it’s all said and done.

Now, RED ROOMS is a slow burner. It smolders for long periods of time, allowing the viewer to get to know Kellie-Anne and Clementine, mainly showing their similarities in terms of their fascination with the case. But the more we get to know them, the more questions I found myself having, as really, the longer we get to know these two very twisted people, the more I found I didn’t understand. There’s an awesome fugue around these two characters for such a long time and even when you think you’ve figured out what kind of perversity is being played around with, it turns things on end again.

To say I was riveted to the screen while watching RED ROOMS is an understatement. There are scenes in RED ROOMS that are so intense, you’re going to need to pause it for a second just to walk off the creep that you find yourself entombed in. This is an intense film about some morbid shit, but the thing is, you never really get to see what is going on in the Red Rooms. You see the faces of those who have seen the footage. You hear the gasps and see the tears. Simply seeing the reactions from the courtroom is enough to know you really do not want to see that footage. RED ROOMS does such a good job of sliding the viewer into the uncomfortable shoes of Kellie-Anne and Clementine, two people who have such twisted personalities, that it’ll make you want a few showers after viewing.

But RED ROOMS also plays with those perceptions, those preconceived notions we all have, judging people even though we don’t know the entire story. In many ways, RED ROOMS plays like a film version of the story of the blind men and the elephant, where each man feels a part of the elephant and believes he knows for sure what it is, never really understanding what it is because of the limited way we look at things. Just when you think you’ve figured out this twisted puzzle box of a movie, it pulls the final blindfold away and knocks you over with a thunderous gut punch out of nowhere. This film is one surprise after another, delving into depths few films dare to tread.

One of the reasons RED ROOMS is so effective, above and beyond the genius way it reveals secrets and the phenomenal performances by the two main characters, is the use of sound. There’s a particular scene in the courtroom involving Kellie-Anne and the serial killer that is mesmerizing as it counters the actions with unnatural music and unnerving sounds ripped from a nightmare.

Actresses Juliette Gariépy and Laurie Babin bring to life some amazing characters in Kellie-Anne and Clementine. Gariépy has this stare that makes you wonder what kind of twisted shit is going on inside her head. She is a blank slate, never letting on what exactly it is she is up to until the very last minute. It’s a riveting performance that gets better upon re-watch. As closed up as Gariépy’s Kellie-Anne is, Babin is an open book as Clementine, who has a naïve view of the world and an even more naïve way of looking at this case. Seeing what this case does to her, though, is un-measurably heartbreaking. With these two serial killer groupies, director/writer Pascal Plante approaches the celebrity of cases such of these from two very distinct and very detailed angles.

While much of the violence is described in the cold confines of the courtroom, RED ROOMS is absolutely hypnotizing from beginning to end and filled with feelings and notions that will stain the soul. Mainly because you are forced to live this case through the eyes of people who may not have the best intentions. RED ROOMS is a comment on our overwhelming fascination with death and other taboo subjects. It teases that urge to look at the car crash when you pass by on the highway, hoping you’ll see something and then cursing yourself if you actually do. In the early oughts, French filmmakers reinvigorated the world of horror with its new wave of horrors such as MARTYRS, FRONTIERS, HIGH TENSION, INSIDE, and CALVAIRE. Add RED ROOMS to that short list of uncannily fascinating French films you can never un-experience and add filmmaker Pascal Plante to my list of directors I will follow from here on out.