Obsession, Suspense, and Digital Darkness: A Review of ‘Red Rooms (Les chambres rouges)’ (2023)

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From its opening moments, Red Rooms (Les chambres rouges) is a true nail-biter, with suspense so thick it can be severed only with a knife. Filmed in Montréal, Québec, this mostly French-language film, crafted by writer-director Pascal Plante (Fake Tattoos), delivers a chilling exploration of obsession, voyeurism, and the darker corners of our digital culture.

The film plunges into society’s fixation with true crime and the way real victims are reduced to mere entertainment fodder. It paints a world where brutal murders are consumed with the same detachment as streaming content, or a Netflix series, and where empathy is replaced by morbid curiosity. In this universe, the boundaries between justice, fetishism, and entertainment blur until they’re indistinguishable.

Central to the story is Kelly-Anne, played with unnerving restraint by Juliette Gariépy. Kelly-Anne is a fashion model by day but becomes increasingly consumed by the trial of a serial killer and the rumors of a missing snuff tape tied to his victims. Gariépy delivers a muted, matter-of-fact performance that simmers with cold detachment. That is until her obsession cracks through. In one of the film’s most unforgettable sequences, she appears in court as a courtroom observer on the killer’s birthday dressed like one of his victims, complete with braces and full school uniform. Her silent eye contact with the accused which bursts into external elation is as disturbing as it is revealing, which finally exposes the depths of her fixation.

Laurie Babin shines as Clémentine, a fragile fellow trial “groupie” who becomes both counterpart and companion to Kelly-Anne. Their uneasy relationship mirrors the hybristophilia (a paraphilia in which a person experiences sexual attraction to individuals who commit crimes), often found in true-crime fandoms, a phenomenon the film analyzes with surgical precision.

The director weaves in unnerving modern realities: the concept of “red rooms” streaming via Tor and onion sites, cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) as potential funding, and the disturbing ease with which anonymity fuels depravity. These elements are not sensationalized, nor gruesome, but is presented with a matter-of-fact realism that makes them feel terrifyingly plausible.

Beyond the dark web and courtroom drama, Red Rooms also examines our cultural hunger for instant gratification, the dopamine rush of obsession, and the lengths people will go to satiate their cravings for proximity to violence. It’s a meditation on disassociation and how easily a society can consume brutality without acknowledging the human cost.

Shot with precision with an unusually tight aspect ratio of 1.50:1, this adds to the film’s intimate, unsettling atmosphere. With a cold stylishness, the film positions itself as one of the most haunting examinations of digital-age voyeurism to date. It is a flawless exploration of the proverbial snuff film: not in gratuitous depiction (with pseudo-snuff like August Underground’s Mordem and Tumbling Doll of Flesh), but in its chilling dissection of obsession, anonymity, and utter detachment.

Red Rooms is a stunner of a film. It’s an overlooked Canadian gem that deserves to be talked about alongside the very best psychological thrillers of recent years. For horror devotees and those fascinated with the concept of snuff films, it is essential viewing. Red Rooms is tense, uncompromising, and disturbingly relevant.

At the time of this review Red Rooms is available to steam on Prime Video.

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AKA: Les chambres rouges

Directed by: Pascal Plante
Written by: Pascal Plante
Produced by: Dominique Dussault
Cinematography by: Vincent Biron
Edited by: Jonah Malak
Music by: Dominique Plante
Cast: Juliette Gariépy, Laurie Babin, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Elisabeth Locas
Year: 2023
Country: Canada
Language: French (English Subtitles), English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 58min

Studio: Nemesis Films Productions
Distribution: Entract Films, Utopia, Prime Video

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