‘Red Rooms’ Movie Review [Fantasia 2023]: An Unnerving Snapshot of Serial Killer Obsession
Photo from Fantasia International Film Festival
From Jeff Nelson
True crime entertainment is a pop culture phenomenon, drawing major attention in the form of movies, television shows, documentaries, podcasts, books, and more. However, their widespread interest can harm the people these real-life crimes impacted, transforming criminals into celebrities. Writer/director Pascal Plante interrogates the serial killer obsession in Red Rooms in a complex thriller that will rattle you to the bone.
Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) stands trial for the crime of torturing and murdering three teenage girls, which he allegedly broadcast on the dark web. Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) develops an unhealthy obsession with the trial that has everybody talking. However, the final footage capturing the death of a 13-year-old girl resembling Kelly-Anne is the only missing piece in the investigation, leading her into a desperate mission to find it herself.
Plante’s Red Rooms tackles remarkably disturbing subject matter that is enough to make your blood run cold. He opens the story on Kelly-Anne’s early morning journey to the courthouse for the first day of the trial, as the story switches between a court drama and the thriller elements that exist in the outside world. Kelly-Anne’s downward spiral impacts each segment, progressively demonstrating how this crime consumes every part of her life, including her career as a model.
The questions of motive and intent extend far beyond Ludovic’s trial, persistently existing within Kelly-Anne’s personal attachment to the killings. Plante’s screenplay leaves us questioning her intent, as the lengths she goes to become increasingly malicious in nature. She’s a complicated protagonist, never safe from the suspicion and judgment of both the audience and the supporting characters.
Many horror films strive to trick our brains into believing that we’re seeing much more violence than we actually are. Plante actually achieves this incredible feat without feeling like it’s censoring itself, keeping the film clear of snuff territory. Rather, he utilizes sound to traumatize and terrorize, allowing our minds to run wild with images that are much more gruesome than anything he could have put on screen.
Dread oozes from the screen thanks to an eerily icy performance from Gariépy as Kelly-Anne. She holds confidence and composure in her body language, while expressing waves of emotion with her eyes. Her performance is an utter enigma, further muddling the moral lines drawn in the sand.
Red Rooms falters a bit in its third act, but it’s not for the obvious reasons. It remains tense and disturbing for its entire 118-minute runtime, although Plante takes Kelly-Anne to a place that makes us further question the character in a payoff that doesn’t entirely feel earned. Even so, I appreciate Plante’s commitment to such an unforgiving perspective character.
Red Rooms is an unrelenting and bone-chilling nightmare with its finger on the pulse of true crime obsession. This thriller isn’t for sensitive crowds, but those who can stomach its subject matter on such extreme violence are in for a brutal journey that’s just as captivating as it is harrowing.
Rating: 3.5/5
Red Rooms played at Fantasia 2023 on July 20th, 2023.
