RED ROOMS (2023)

Aka: Les Chambres Rouges

4 stars

Vertigo Releasing. In cinemas. Out Now

A gripping psychological thriller from Canada, written and directed by Pascal Plante, this stars Juliette Gariépy as Kelly-Anne, a model, who becomes obsessed with the high profile trial of a serial killer – one Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokas). Whilst at the courtroom she meets Clementine (Laurie Rabin) who is convinced that the murderer is actually innocent.

The seemingly emotionless Kelly-Anne is something of a loner, and also an expert hacker, plus an online poker player, which, alongside the modelling, pays for her lifestyle. Whilst they have differing views on the killers guilt she strikes up a friendship with Clementine and they visit the trial each day to watch as the evidence is presented. He is accused of brutally slaying three teenage girls and filming it – with these videos sent out on the dark web in ‘red rooms’ which people pay to watch.

The bodies of the teens have been recovered by the authorities and two of the three uploads have also been found as evidence – despite the killer not being revealed in the footage, there is enough there to point to Chevalier being the perpetrator. He sits quietly behind glass whilst the evidence is laid out.

This a film that is less about the killings and more about obsession – how far is Kelly-Anne prepared to use her considerable skills with a computer to try and either prove once and for all that the man in the dock, which the press are calling the Demon of Rosemont, is guilty as charged or even maybe show he is actually the wrong man.

Plante has managed to make a taut and suspenseful drama, despite the fact much of it takes place with Kelly-Anne at a computer. This works because of the often blank faced but committed and icy performance by Gariépy and the film, which doesn’t show the crimes themselves and is a slow burn, is often dark and disturbing, building tension through the central character and her obsessive ways.

Steve Kirkham