Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are checking out a movie that hit the festival circuit in 2023 before seeing a mainstream release in early 2024. Red Rooms (Les Chambres Rouges) follows the story of a young woman who develops an obsession with the trial of a man accused of murder. Attending the courtroom every day. Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) begins to realise that she is in too deep when her everyday life starts to fall apart.
I keep seeing this movie appear in Best of 2024 lists. Something that I found kind of surprising due to the 2023 release and the wide festival circuit showing throughout that year. Still, I suppose it makes sense. Especially, given the fact that it wasn’t all that easy to find until early last year. With that being said, for me, the 2023 release date disqualifies it from appearing in my own, personal, top 10 of 2024 which is something of a shame. This is a pretty damn good, slow burn, horror movie.
Writer, Director, Pascal Plante was fascinated by the groupies that tend to form around convicted killers such as Chris Watts and Ted Bundy. He wondered what made them tick and what was the motivation for their obsession. Deciding to bring the concept into the modern age via the medium of online crime. He put together Red Rooms.
The Dark.. Dark Web
There’s been a lot of horror movies focused on the dark web, in recent years. It’s a pretty popular topic. Especially with younger people who seem a little confused as to what, exactly, the dark web is. Sure, illicit stuff happens there but, make no mistake, illicit stuff happens on the regular internet, too. The only difference is the idea of anonymity that comes from the use of TOR browsers and the collection of websites designed to never appear on the surface web.. Oh, and all the unlisted admin pages and general crap that comes from running a website, as a whole.
Red Rooms keys in on a couple of those particular dark web concepts; the idea of anonymity and the idea of the red rooms themselves. Red Rooms are, supposedly, live streams featuring kidnapped people. Viewers can bid on what happens to the person and, ultimately, decide their fate.
This is something that has long been believed to exist on the dark web. The reality of TOR browsers, at least up until the recent past, being far too slow to actually accommodate this type of activity tends to be swept under the rug. With theorists, instead, keen to believe in the worst case scenario, wherever possible.
That’s not to say that depravity doesn’t exist on the dark web. There have been many criminals caught engaging in both human trafficking and the sharing of illicit material featuring minors. As groups of people, acting with assumed impunity afforded to them by the anonymous nature of TOR and the dark web. Underestimated the scope of detective work and the digital footprints left by their actions.
A Familiar Story
Red Rooms, basically, weaves a tale very similar to those we have seen before related to the dark web. A murderer shared material online, believing himself to be anonymous. Detectives found him via his digital footprint and video clips and a trial is set to prove his guilt. It’s a story you have seen a million times before, just with a bit more of a modern twist. The case, itself, isn’t the focus of the movie, however. It is our protagonists obsession with the case.
Red Rooms taps into the phenomena of Hybristophilia. In other words, the supposed killer, here, has a few fangirls. Whether Kelly Anne is one of those fangirls, or not, is left unclear until the end. She is a stoic and disconnected character who holds her cards close to her chest. But she is, most definitely, obsessed with the case. To the point, in fact, where it is impacting her everyday life. Red Rooms follows her as she attends the trial, plays online poker, works out and attends her modelling job.
It all sounds pretty dull and, almost, like it shouldn’t work but it really does. Kelly Anne is a fascinating character and brilliantly portrayed by Juliette Gariépy. She has a rather atypical personality. She’s a poker dynamo, a tech whiz and is deeply involved in the dark web herself. She doesn’t feel like your usual horror movie protagonist and you never quite known what her motivations are.
Genuinely Compelling
Red Rooms acts as a character study of Kelly Anne while, also, acting as an exploration into the human psyche. Why do people become obsessed with the macabre and what is the impact on their everyday lives? Kelly Anne is damaging herself with her fixation on the case. Brief moments of exposition hint as to her motivation but it is, ultimately, left unclear.
A secondary character, Clementine (Laurie Babin), is introduced to offer a contrasting, altogether more traditional, take on the events. But Kelly Anne remains the focus. It’s fascinating stuff and the slow, deliberate, pace never gets in the way of, what is, a genuinely compelling story.
It helps that Red Rooms is utterly gorgeous. Opting for a 4:3 aspect ratio that offers the movie something of a Sunday night crime drama appearance. The clever use of slow focusing, static shots, and a very deliberate and patient style of cinematography, and editing, afford the movie a very unique and enjoyable aesthetic.
A Minor Complaint
One thing I find hard to ignore when it comes to Red Rooms is how thin the narrative, actually, is. This could have been a short, really. There is a lot of padding and most of the plot points are stretched to breaking. Those expecting a well formulated story with depth and nuance will probably be left disappointed. This is a character study in a very slow form with no rush to get anywhere. With that in mind, it’s not particularly satisfying.
The whole tech genius, web sleuth, hacker thing is pretty fantastical and very overdone, as well. Red Rooms dives into the whole world of the dark web, crypto-currency and hacking in a way that feels a bit remedial and just a little immature. It feels as though parts of the script were written by a 17 year old who spends too much time listening to dark web “let’s reads” and digging into the doldrums of Reddit to find their “true crime stories”.
Should You Watch Red Rooms?
Red Rooms is a fantastic movie that is well worth watching. You really need to have your expectations correctly aligned, however, as this movie is pretty hyped up. It is a slow character study that doesn’t really feature a ton of story and feels a little padded. For what it is, however, it is consistently compelling, thoroughly engaging, gorgeous to look at and brilliantly acted. It’s quite a tense look into a rather disturbing subject that is fascinating, despite its somewhat fantastical presentation of the dark web. Excellent stuff.