Intensity: 🩸🩸out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Pascal Plante
In the techno thriller Red Rooms, a model obssesses over a sensational murder trial, and searches for clues about the killer on the dark web. This French Canadian film explores society’s voracious and voyeuristic desire for the darkest of true crime details, and the lengths some will go to find out the juicy, nasty details.
Red Rooms are something of an urban legend. Rumor has it that these are the darkest corners of the dark web, where you can pay for snuff films, watch torture live, and satisfy the most heinous desires you might have. To date, no large public arrests have been made on any Red Room operations. The legend would have it that these shady operations are super stealthy, and only the well-connected and those with lots of Bitcoin know how to find them. However, most in the tech world believe these are far-fetched ghost stories of the internet. But what if they could? Up-and-coming director Pascal Plante explores what would happen if one of these operations got busted.
In his film Red Rooms, Plante provides a trial as the opening frame of this what-if tale. Someone killed and dismembered three Montreal teenage girls, and left their remains buried in a park. The FBI found evidence in a home belonging to a mousy individual. Video recordings found on the site show the torturous and vile acts. On them, a man in a mask can be seen but not clearly identified. Two young women have been attending the trial gallery. One is a fan girl obsessing over the defendant, believing him innocent. The other is a successful model, who is more interested in the mechanics of the dark web and how this puzzle went together.
Red Rooms is a hugely ambitious film. It investigates conspiratorial thinking and the means of obtaining the unobtainable. It also examines the court system and whether the Canadian justice system can convict the right person. As with any good courtroom drama, the verdict remains “flexible” throughout the film.
The Cast of Red Rooms:
- Juliette Gariépy plays Kelly-Anne, a model with a tactical mind. She is an observer and a gambler and knows enough about the dark web to have seen the videos of the killings.
- Laurie Babin plays Clementine, a groupie for the defendant, and is convinced that he is innocent. Unlike the much more reserved Kelly-Anne, she wears her emotions on her sleeves.
- Maxwell McCabe-Lokos plays Ludovic Chevalier, the man arrested for the deaths of the teenagers.
- Natalie Tannous plays Maitre Chedid-Couronne, the lead lawyer for the prosecution.
- Pierre Chagnon plays Maitre Fortin, the lead lawyer for the defense.
- Elisabeth Locas plays Francine Beulieu, the mother of one of the slain girls.
A Short Synopsis of Red Rooms:
The Trial:
We follow Kelly-Anne as she goes through the security for the trial of the Canadian century. The Courtroom is austere, a cold modern room of white laminates and tempered glass. The movie presents the entire opening statements from both the prosecution and the defense. On trial is Ludovic Chevalier, the suspect of killing, torturing, raping, and dismembering three teenage girls. He has the man’s physique seen in the videos, and his eyes look like those of the masked killer in the video.
There is evidence strewn about his home that would indicate that he did it, but the case is not bullet proof. There are no eyewitnesses. Chevalier has a clean record without any previous arrests or any behavior to indicate that he has the character to do such things. And, most importantly, there is no money trail of a digital windfall for doing the snuff films. Both presentations are convincing and compelling.
The Curious Duo
Kelly-Anne and Clementine observe the trial from the gallery. The two are opposites. Clementine is enthralled by Chevalier and her admiration leans toward idolatry. Clementine’s life on the streets has her pulling for him as an underdog, and that the wealthy and powerful are making a show of this. In contrast, Kelly-Anne is as statuesque and inscrutable as Clementine is excitable and bubbly. Her rationale for attending the trial is less clear. Where Clementine expresses her feelings out in the open, Kelly-Anne speaks with her actions. She takes Clementine in to stay in her luxury high-rise apartment, but the two of them met sleeping in an alley. Why would someone with all the luxuries available to her play homeless?
Clearly, there’s something a little off with both women.
Kelly Anne has a plethora of fancy technology at her disposal. She can hack into the dark web, and has accumulated a bounty of Bitcoin. With that she is determined to find the missing video of the youngest of the three girls. This is evidence that was not discovered as evidence, but she believes she can find it through her connections in the Dark Web. It’s a dangerous game. She has seen the other snuff videos and is remarkably outwardly unfazed. These same recordings were reportedly so awful that the trial gallery was sent out of the chamber when the evidence played. Eventually, Clementine reaches a breaking point, and finds some inner clarity, leaving Kelly-Anne alone in her pursuit of justice.
Kelly-Anne’s behavior becomes more erratic, and is drawing attention from law enforcement. Her online adventures get more daring and risky, and the results will be either heroic or tragic. As the trial approaches its close, so does the circle around Kelly Anne.
Awards:
This was a hot property on its arrival and was very buzzy at Overlook. One of the things I like to do at festivals is to quiz the other people in line as to what their favorite film in the festival was. Red Room was on a lot of people’s lips for those in line awaiting other shows.
After winning the Cheval Noire (best-in-show) prize at Fantasia, the prestigious Montreal genre film festival, this film arrived at The Overlook Film Festival. Red Rooms arrived as a hot property. Also at Fantasia, Pascal Plante won for best director, and Juliette Gariépy won for Outstanding Performance.
Evaluation of Red Rooms:
It is easy to see how it earned the awards. The movie is starkly beautiful. It is sleek, cool, and makes Montreal very exotic. The acting is powerful, and the pairing of Clementine and Kelly-Anne is delightful. I admired this film, it is very well crafted. But admittedly, I was wanting the movie to do a little more exposition. Given that the story has a central theme of crime and punishment, it felt like the story wandered away from its core idea too often.
I would have also have been interested if it stayed with the courtroom drama. The courtroom first act was riveting. I felt like a member of the jury, being presented a fascinating case. When the story left the courtroom, I felt something missing. The dark web to me is perhaps a blind spot in my horror vision. It feels like a distant threat, and an insular one, left to the dregs of society who trade in kiddie porn and Bitcoin. While that is perhaps THE central force in this movie, I don’t think it makes for great horror.
It is difficult to pull for our two main protagonists. Clementine is irrational and immature. Kelly-Anne is cold and calculating. Interesting? Yes. Appealing? Not so much. I often felt Kelly-Anne was a bit sociopathic. Her motivations are unclear. As her behavior gets more erratic in the third act, it suggests that she has spent too much time with the trial. It’s getting to her.
The horror of the killings, as sensational as the lawyers in the opening would suggest them to be are done audio only. I suppose that is for the best, as the audio was plenty horrific. If Red Room showed the acts, it would have probably been unwatchable.
Conclusion:
There is some real substance to this movie. Often times, particularly early in the film, you feel the weight of what is at stake. The lawyers did a very good job at that in the trial scene. The movie also sparkles when Clementine and Kelly-Anne are there to play off each other, but once Clementine departs at the end of the second act, and we are left with Kelly-Anne and her solo consipiracy busting, I was less compelled.
Plante mentioned that he intended this movie to be about the audience, the society taking in sensational trials. (Like a certain presidential candidate, perhaps?) The audience has been broken into these two women as avatars. So perhaps Kelly-Anne’s ambiguity is something of a reflection on us and our voyeuristic desire for tawdry trials. Maybe? Again… it’s not an easy read.
Pascal Plante will be heard from again, I am sure. I wonder if he would ever follow in the steps of another French Canadian film, Martyrs, which also dealt with weighty materials, but pushed it to the extreme. Could he do it? I think so. Despite my misgivings, his writing and directing skills are formidable. He can make a beautiful film, and though there is little action in the film, the cinematography crackles with potential energy.
Red Rooms is unrated by the MPAA. The adult themes and the sounds of torture and death would certainly merit an R-Rating. It never shows the violence or gore but is strongly implied. This is not the type of movie that an average teenager would likely enjoy, but for those who like court room dramas and techno thrillers this would be appropriate for older teens. There isn’t a streaming date set yet.
Review by Eric Li
