Time for some thriller movies! Although Red Rooms is a movie from last year, it’s still worth watching. Plus, it was produced in Canada!
Red Rooms is a dark and intense movie from Quebec, directed by Pascal Plante, that follows a woman named Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) who becomes obsessed with a serial killer’s trial. The film doesn’t try to explain why Kelly-Anne is so interested in the case, and her reasons stay mysterious and unsettling throughout the story. Instead of offering simple answers, the movie lets her strange behavior speak for itself.
The film reaches a shocking moment when Kelly-Anne shows up at the courthouse one day dressed like one of the serial killer’s 13-year-old victims, complete with a schoolgirl uniform and a retainer. She looks almost exactly like the girl, and when the killer, Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), sees her in the courtroom, he waves. Kelly-Anne smiles back. The scene is disturbing, making it clear that her interest in the case goes beyond just curiosity.
Kelly Anne is a smart and quiet person. She lives alone in a high-rise apartment, plays poker online to make money, and models jewelry occasionally. But unlike many characters we know, she isn’t afraid to dive deep into the darkest parts of the internet. She hacks into accounts and even breaks into a dead girl’s house, taking photos of herself in the girl’s bedroom. Her lack of morals makes her stand out, and she goes far beyond what most people would ever do.
At first, we might think Kelly-Anne is one of those people who have a strange attraction to killers, like the women who follow Ludovic’s trial. Another character, Clementine (Laurie Babin), seems to be one of those “groupies” who believes Ludovic is innocent. But Kelly-Anne is much colder and more distant, and her lack of emotion makes her behavior even more disturbing.
The movie shows us a lot of close-up shots of Kelly-Anne’s face, where we can see her controlled emotions. She never shows us exactly what she’s feeling, which keeps us guessing. The film’s gray and cold colors match her emotional distance, and the intense music makes the atmosphere even more uncomfortable.
The filmmakers don’t show too much violence but instead let our imaginations fill in the blanks. We hear about Ludovic’s “red rooms” where he tortured and killed people, but we don’t see the gruesome details. This makes the film even scarier, as we are left to imagine the worst. In the end, the film leaves us with questions, but it successfully shows the dangerous attraction people can have to dark and violent things.