The 2024 film Red Rooms is not for the faint of heart. I first watched this film at last year’s Seattle International Film Festival; of all the screenings I’d been to, this was the only one unmarked by audience applause. It left my stomach churning, my mind trying to purge the horrific images merely described in the film, but days later, unable to stop thinking of how good a film it was.
This French-Canadian thriller, directed by Pascal Plante, is about Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy), a young woman engrossed by the trial of a man accused of torturing three young girls and live streaming it on “red rooms” across the dark web. As she continues attending the trials, she forms a connection with another trial attendee, Clementine (Laurie Babin), who is a lot less subtle about her obsession with the case. The film is rooted in the similarities and differences between them; Kelly-Anne is a distinctly beautiful fashion model who keeps to herself, whereas Clementine is a tireless chatterbox of a girl, insistent on sharing her opinions with whoever will listen. As they receive more details of the trial, Clementine’s emotional responses compared to Kelly-Anne’s mysterious and intense internalization begin chipping away at the false normalcy we initially perceived Kelly-Anne with. Now, we start seeing the real story of Kelly-Anne—a woman fully disconnected from morality, whose infatuation for this crime has become an all-consuming hysteria.
While this film shows no violence or gore, everything from sound design to camera framing to characterization coalesces to make this an intensely unsettling watch. As we hear sound clips of girls screaming in pain, watching Clementine’s and the courtroom’s reactions next to Kelly-Anne’s stoicism as we conjure horrible images in our minds, we feel both devastated and repulsed thinking about the inhumane acts suffered by these girls and the inhumanity still suffered after their deaths.
What Red Rooms doesn’t deliver in horror, it makes up for in suspense. Once Kelly-Anne’s façade starts peeling away, the film begins taking one unexpected turn after another. And like any true crime story, we still want to see the trial reach a verdict. A lot can be interpreted from this film’s portrayal of news and media’s profit off tragedy, especially how desensitized society has become to violence. But rooted in the unease we feel from this film is sadness and empathy, a reminder of the humanity we must not lose sight of.
4.5/5 Stars
Side note: Red Rooms is now available to rent at Scarecrow Video!