2. RED ROOMS (aka LES CHAMBRES ROUGES, 2023)

Released on October 30, 2024, and streaming on Shudder from Nemesis Films Productions!
Directed/Written by Pascal Plante.
Check out the trailer here!!

Kellie-Anne (played by Juliette Gariépy) is a French-Canadian 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.

Easily, 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 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 prolonged periods of time, allowing the viewer to get to know Kellie-Anne and Clementine, 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 impressive 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 decent 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, 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.

Actors 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 incredibly 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 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. Add RED ROOMS to that brief list of uncannily fascinating films you can never un-experience and add filmmaker Pascal Plante to my list of directors I will follow from here on out.

Worth Noting: THE MOOR (2024)

Released on June 13, 2025, and available On Demand at Amazon Prime from Raven Banner Entertainment!
Directed by Chris Cronin.

Written by Paul Thomas.
Check out the trailer here!!

A young boy named Danny is abducted as a child and never found. Many years later, there’s still no clue as to what happened to the young lad, but his father Bill (David Edward-Robertson) contacts his son’s childhood friend Claire (Sophia La Porta), who was with Danny when he was abducted, with new knowledge of his child’s whereabouts. With the help of a psychic, Bill believes he has finally found the spot where his son’s body lay deep in the misty and dank moor.

Like the Moor itself, THE MOOR is a dark and dour little movie that really captures that sheer hopelessness feeling through its rich atmosphere. Filled with scenes of damp ground and foggy landscapes, this is one movie you’re not going to come out of feeling good. You can almost feel you’re your boots sinking into the ground and the cold creeping in under your collar with this one.

THE MOOR really grabs you right from its opening scene as we see a young Claire and Danny going into a corner store and then all of a sudden Danny is gone. This shocking scene sets the tone of the film as there really are very little clues other than we see Danny run into a person the camera never shows. It starts with a true mystery and because we are there with Claire for the abduction, we empathize with her because though we know something bad has happened, there is really no information provided as to where this boy could be. Its that lack of detail that serves as a persistent itch for both Claire and the viewer all through the film. Something happened to him, but really, no one has any idea why.

The film has some wonderfully comfortable performances from Sophia La Porta and David Edward-Robertson. La Porta’s Claire wants to move on with her life, but feels the obligation to help Bill try to find out what happened to Danny. We see and understand her frustration, though she really doesn’t have a moment where she really can express it. It’s all in the way she looks at Bill and begrudgingly goes on these wild goose chases through the moor to find Danny. David Edward-Robertson is equally strong as Bill, a man overcome with obsession to find his boy, even all these years later. It is heartbreaking to see play out, this man who has thrown his life away dedicated to finding his boy in a place that swallows up anything that enters it.

THE MOOR almost stumbles and falls on its face by the end. It is almost as if the film didn’t have an ending in mind while filming and there was a rash decision to change filming formats at the end to give it more of a shocker ending. The film was scary enough without the switch to found footage by the end, but I must admit, this immersive effect serves to grab the viewer and drag them into the mucky moor. The atmosphere alone worked for me and this shift wasn’t necessary. Still, being a fan of the subgenre, when it does switch to a more handheld POV, I found it equally unnerving. There are some very effective scares in the final reel of THE MOOR. I just don’t know if the shift in formats was necessary.

Nevertheless, THE MOOR is a depressingly effective deep dive into obsession and a life wasted on attempting to find out the unfathomable. It’s not a movie you skip away from with a whistle. This is one that will haunt you long after due to the solid performances and amazing atmosphere. Sure the final scenes set to found footage is a bold choice that may not work 100%, but I was impacted quite a bit by this sad, little movie.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2024-2025
#31 – GET AWAY (DARK MATCH)
#30 – PABRIK GULA (#MISSINGCOUPLE)
#29 – YULE LOG 2: BRANCHIN’ OUT (THE LAST VIDEO STORE)
#28 – FREWAKA (THE SURRENDER)
#27 – FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES (V/H/S/BEYOND)
#26 – ALMA AND THE WOLF (CUSTOM)
#25 – LOOKY-LOO (THE CREEP TAPES)
#24 – DANGEROUS ANIMALS (THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN)
#23 – THE MONKEY (THE DAMNED)
#22 – THE DEVIL AND THE DAYLONG BROTHERS (THE SEVERED SUN)
#21 – TERRIFIER 3 (CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD)
#20 – PRESENCE (HOUSE ON EDEN)
#19 – THE RULE OF JENNY PEN (GRAFTED)
#18 – PARVULOS: CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSE (AZRAEL)
#17 – MADS (A MOTHER’S EMBRACE)
#16 – STRANGE HARVEST (THE ASMA JOURNALS)
#15 – DEUS IRAE (SHADOW OF GOD)
#14 – TOGETHER (CANNIBAL MUCKBANG)
#13 – SMILE 2 (THE STRANGERS CHAPTER 2)
#12 – COMPANION (THE DEAD THING)
#11 – BEST WISHES TO ALL (DELICATE ARCH)
#10 – NOSFERATU (ABRAHAM’S BOYS)
#9 – FOUND FOOTAGE: THE MAKING OF THE PATTERSON PROJECT (ABOVE THE KNEE)
#8 – HERETIC (DEAD MAIL)
#7 – TRAUMATIKA (IT FEEDS)
#6 – SINNERS (PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT
#5 – THE UGLY STEPSISTER (BAMBI: THE RECKONING)
#4 – 28 YEARS LATER (THE SHROUDS)
#3 – WEAPONS (FALLING STARS)
#2 – RED ROOMS (THE MOORS)