All the bad things we’ve heard about the dark web are confirmed in this Quebecois thriller that, in direct contrast to most Quebec made films, was strong enough to interest distributors outside Canada. RED ROOMS (LES CHAMBRES ROUGES; 2023), a multi-award winner on the festival circuit, is one of the finest Canadian films in some time, with star-making work from lead actress Juliette Gariépy and writer-director Pascal Plante.
Gariépy plays Kelly-Anne, a fashion model and crime groupie who lives on the upper floor of a luxurious Montreal high rise. Her main hobby is observing the nearby trial of the “Demon of Rosemont,” a.k.a. Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), a man accused of filming himself killing three teenage girls and streaming the footage on the dark web. Kelly-Anne isn’t the only person harboring an unnatural fascination with Chevalier: Clementine (Laurie Babin), a young homeless woman and fellow groupie, makes her feelings about Chevalier known when she calls into a TV talk show and passionately argues in favor of his innocence.
The two women strike up a friendship, with Clementine taking to living in Kelly-Anne’s apartment. Yet Clementine becomes increasingly suspicious of her new friend upon learning of Kelly-Anne’s borderline-psychotic competitiveness and the fact that she spends a lot of time on the dark web. She’s actually downloaded a video of the killings, which she uses to prove Ludovic’s guilt to Clementine. This of course calls into question the true nature of Kelly-Anne’s obsession with Ludovic.
The freaked-out Clementine elects to take off, leaving a solitary Kelly-Anne to wallow in obsessions that grow increasingly all-consuming. Kelly-Anne may be attempting to help out the victims’ families, but her true motives aren’t made clear until the end.
A sense of documentary-like naturalism, of a type that tends to distinguish all the finest Canadian films, pervades RED ROOMS, which also generates a great deal of suspense. The performances are impeccable, particularly that of Juliette Gariépy as Anne, a notably complex portrayal whose mysterious nature generates much of the tension.
The film is a directorial tour-de-force by Pascal Plante (NADIA BUTTERFLY), marked by slow, sinuous camera movements and unnerving sound design; the wailing wind that accompanies the scenes of Kelly-Anne on her computer makes for a most appropriate aural accompaniment. Plante’s presentation of the dark web is horrific, and horrifically convincing, while the violence, in another example of wizardly sound design, takes the form of unseen screams in a film that allows its viewers to glimpse—or better yet, hear—our online heart of darkness.
Vital Statistics
RED ROOMS (LES CHAMBRES ROUGES)
Nemesis Films Productions
Director: Pascal Plante
Producers: Dominique Dussault
Screenplay: Pascal Plante
Cinematography: Vincent Biron
Editing: Jonah Malak
Cast: Juliette Gariépy, Elisabeth Locas, Laurie Babin, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Natalie Tannous, Pierre Chagnon, Guy Thauvette, Charlotte Aubin, Sebastien Beaulac, Frédérick De Grandpré, Rémy Deloume, Stanley Hilaire, Vitali Makarov, Rebecca Makonnen, Maxim Martin, Peter Meltev, Marie-Gabrielle Ménard