RED ROOMS (2024) – Filmmaker Pascal Plante's French Canadian thriller sets up masterfully. An accused serial killer, Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), is on trial for the murder of three young girls, broadcasting his abominable crimes on the internet. Plante's screenplay begins with the Prosecutor (Natalie Tannous) delivering her opening statement in clear graphic detail. The viewer is on edge, apprehensive of what they are about to witness – the Prosecutor promises that the heinous videos will be played in court.
Plante's screenplay has a clever reversal: Instead of mainly being a courtroom drama it becomes more about two women who attend the trial. They meet while waiting in line before dawn to be sure they get one of the precious few seats open to the public. Clementine (Laurie Babin) is a murder groupie, convinced that Chevalier is innocent. Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariepy) is an edgy fashion model who doesn't tip her hand easily but is clearly consumed with the case. The relationship between the two women turns into an examination of how sensational criminal trials are filtered and absorbed in the social media age. Each actress is effective in their roles, but it is Gariepy's Kelly-Anne who dominates both their relationship and the audience's attention. She's a numbers and tech whiz who plunges deeper and deeper into the darkest corners of the web. Her compulsion endangers her professional career and creeps out Clementine to the point that she can't take it any longer.
Kelly-Anne's self-destructive mania is genuinely unnerving. Is she a a dark angel obsessed by the case, or the devil incarnate? Garipy's performance has an intensity that never wavers, nor gives away her bleakest inner thoughts.
RED ROOMS is particularly disturbing because it never provides easy answers – only graver and more dreadful questions. Amazingly, Platte achieves this without showing the gory details (although the soundtrack is itself plenty horrific). That's what makes the set-up so ingenious – nothing that could be shown is as soul-sucking as what YOU imagine. He powerfully demonstrates that suggestion, acting and filmmaking (framed in an unusual 1:50 aspect ratio) don't have to devolve into 'torture porn' – which, ironically is what the movie is all about. Except this is real, and not some Friday night fun fright flick. And, that's what gnaws at the soul long after the final credits fade.
RED ROOMS is currently available on Shudder and AMC+ and as a streaming rental. It's on DVD and Blu Ray.
Plante's screenplay has a clever reversal: Instead of mainly being a courtroom drama it becomes more about two women who attend the trial. They meet while waiting in line before dawn to be sure they get one of the precious few seats open to the public. Clementine (Laurie Babin) is a murder groupie, convinced that Chevalier is innocent. Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariepy) is an edgy fashion model who doesn't tip her hand easily but is clearly consumed with the case. The relationship between the two women turns into an examination of how sensational criminal trials are filtered and absorbed in the social media age. Each actress is effective in their roles, but it is Gariepy's Kelly-Anne who dominates both their relationship and the audience's attention. She's a numbers and tech whiz who plunges deeper and deeper into the darkest corners of the web. Her compulsion endangers her professional career and creeps out Clementine to the point that she can't take it any longer.
Kelly-Anne's self-destructive mania is genuinely unnerving. Is she a a dark angel obsessed by the case, or the devil incarnate? Garipy's performance has an intensity that never wavers, nor gives away her bleakest inner thoughts.
RED ROOMS is particularly disturbing because it never provides easy answers – only graver and more dreadful questions. Amazingly, Platte achieves this without showing the gory details (although the soundtrack is itself plenty horrific). That's what makes the set-up so ingenious – nothing that could be shown is as soul-sucking as what YOU imagine. He powerfully demonstrates that suggestion, acting and filmmaking (framed in an unusual 1:50 aspect ratio) don't have to devolve into 'torture porn' – which, ironically is what the movie is all about. Except this is real, and not some Friday night fun fright flick. And, that's what gnaws at the soul long after the final credits fade.
RED ROOMS is currently available on Shudder and AMC+ and as a streaming rental. It's on DVD and Blu Ray.
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