The Reel Review
A Montreal fashion model with a knack for computer hacking risks her career when she takes a morbid interest in the gruesome murder trial of a man accused of torturing, killing and dismembering three teenage girls and recording it live to an audience on the dark web. She becomes obsessed with finding the third snuff video that could convict him. Juliette Gariépy stars in this psychological crime thriller.
Red Rooms, named for the sickening dark web sites where people can view snuff films, is both a crime thriller and an indictment of the public’s lurid fascination – and in some cases, obsession – with true crime stories. Our protagonist Kelly-Anne, who makes most of her fortune playing online poker, behaves increasingly erratically, prompting the question – is she somehow involved? The scene where she provokes a reaction out of the accused killer in the courtroom is shocking, showing the depths of her obsession with the case.
Writer/director Pascal Plante maintains a stylish, noiry edge to his slickly produced film, with an effectively chilling score and Gariepy (Home Turf, Boost) bringing a chilly aloofness to her role as the emotionally distant fashion model/amateur crime sleuth. Laurie Babin is one of the accused killer’s groupies who Kelly-Anne befriends during part of the trial and Maxwell McCabe-Locos is appropriately creepy as the accused killer. That ending – wow.
REEL FACTS
• Red Rooms won Best Quebec movie of 2023 by the AQCC, the Quebec association of film critics.
• Juliette Gariépy is a Canadian model and actress from Quebec. She won the Quebec Cinema Awards’ Revelation of the Year prize for Red Rooms. Quebec-born Laurie Babin won the Best Supporting Actress prize.
• Red Rooms was filmed in Montreal, Canada.
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