Red Rooms (Les chambres rouges)

One thing that is clear from Red Rooms is that you can’t just stumble on the ‘Dark Web’. You can stumble on some very unpleasant stuff but for the truly repellent, it takes some know-how.

Which is what Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) has. A successful model and online poker player Kelly- Anne has constructed a sophisticated home computer system that lets her view her work, keep-fit and play, in relative isolation. Her ‘Siri’, Guinevere perfectly tuned to her needs.

All ultra-high tech yet Kelly-Anne is enraptured by the trial of alleged serial murderer Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos). A person who never says a word, is charged with kidnapping, torturing, and murdering three young teenage girls. Abhorrent acts that were recorded and distributed over the ‘Dark Web’ via red rooms.

Sleeping rough when the court is in session to guarantee herself a place in the room, it’s never very clear why Kelly-Anne is so obsessed with the case, or the man, though there are some possible clues placed during the film.

Writer and director Pascal Plante also throws the viewer a line with the introduction of Clementine (Laurie Babin). A conspiracy theorist convinced that Chevalier has been set up, with an answer to all the evidence against him. It becomes an unlikely friendship which disintegrates as they get closer, and then deeper into the case.

The direction, sets, lighting and sound design are, outstanding, clinical. The court room is pure white, its sterility surgical in keeping with the formality of the process though stifling with the raw emotion of the families suffering as the case unfolds, and the watch the videos of their children.

The horror is psychological as the viewer is only given a fleeting look at case photos and one of the videos. The reaction on the red washed faces of those watching the videos tells all.

Moving slowly Kelly-Anne’s complex character is the heart of the film. Gariépy is sublime as someone in the public eye yet almost unknowable. She appears to have very little empathy with much of what is going on around her. Her career and poker playing demanding a level of discipline that enable her to take logical decisions.

That mental control however is twisted around in the third act which is satisfying up to a point and at an emotional level but still leaves plenty of questions.

Nevertheless Red Rooms is an engrossing story that will play on people’s fears of base human behaviour and what seems to be the ever-increasing power and sophistication of the online world, and peoples ability to manipulate it.

Red Rooms will be in UK cinemas from 6 September 2024.