A “Red Room” for those not in the know, is an urban legend or an online scam if you will about the snuff film equivalent to a webcam, where for the right price, you can watch people not only tortured, but killed. I say scam, because it’s the equivalent to broadcasting your crimes on the internet and while there has been some compelling evidence about the legitimacy of the offline version (Gods of Death, Yaron Svoray), the online version has never been proven to have existed, other than a Rotten.com. The name Red Room itself, comes from an extreme Japanese film series from the 90s about a game show where contestants are forced to kill or be killed for a million dollars.
The concept of the Red Room is something that is not out of the realm of mainstream horror, since the Hostel series also flirted with this concept. Red Rooms, currently in theaters looks to lean out of the more sordid and terrifying things that happen in front of the camera and instead focus on the aftermath and what happens to those affected by these streams after the fact. The film by Pascal Plante takes place during the trial of the “Demon of Rosemont” (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) who allegedly killed 3 young girls, 13, 14 and 16 years old on stream and there is more than enough substantial evidence to tie the killer to the crime, except his face was always obfuscated in his streams.
This is where the film diverges from most takes on the material, as we follow Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy), a tech savvy model, constantly clad in corporate goth, who attends the trial religiously. While the film takes its time allowing us to crawl into Kelly-Anne’s mind, she meets another woman Clémentine (Laurie Babin), who is essentially a kind hearted serial killer groupie, and swears because the killer is never unmasked in the video, that he has to be innocent. This is something eerily similar currently playing out with Florida killer Wade Wilson, who got life for strangling two women along with a disturbingly dedicated fan base thanks to his handsome, yet nearly inhuman facade.
The two women strike up a strange bond as Kelly-Anne develops a morose fixation with the video of the girl that’s still missing and unseen by the court and is thought to be where the killer exposes his face and his identity beyond a shadow of a doubt. As the trial progresses Clémentine’s devotion is tested as the evidence begins to stack up and that affects the relationship between the two women. It’s here the film finally shows its true colors, and to be honest it’s not what I was expecting. This thrusts Kelly-Anne down a chilling downward spiral as she will stop at nothing to track down the missing video as she begins even dressing like the deceased girl in court to the shock of her parents.
While we have seen this descent into madness, due to an obsession with murder hundreds of times from a male POV. Here its gender swapped with the romantic dynamic removed (at least for Kelly-Anne) and also through the eyes of a character who’s definitely on the spectrum. Kelly-Anne is a non-traditional character study, while the object of her fascination feels completely unrelatable to most, it’s still fascinating to watch her work her way through it. The case is her hyperfixation, as we see evidence of previous hobbies and deep dives, thanks to her impressive skill sets displayed. There is also a lack of recognition for social cues or actual empathy, that amplifies her otherness and makes her the kind of person that would scare Lisbeth Salander.
While I thoroughly enjoyed Red Rooms, it’s a hard film to recommend, due to the film’s subject matter, protagonist and rather unconventional narrative that would be unsatisfying to most, while there is an ending, it’s thankfully not the uplifting story of growth most would expect. There’s not a lot for normal folks to grab onto either, but if you’re looking for an engrossing character study of a fractured human, Juliette Gariépy delivers a masterclass here, that’s as engrossing as any courtroom serial killer story arc we’ve witnessed. Instead of the serial killer, Pascal Plante’s film explores the dark recess of someone equally fractured, who is fascinated by the killer as much as their victims and aftermath pondering if there is any redemption for this muse.
