Some thrillers play for shock value, but Red Rooms is a more subtle, nastier option. Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy), a luxury hotel model, becomes compulsively addicted to the publicity trial of a serial killer. Hers starts out as a macabre fascination but turns into an all-consuming obsession. More specifically, she’s suddenly taken with the trial of Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), the accused who brutally murdered three young girls. What unsettles her the most is the missing video of the third victim’s murder — a girl who has a striking resemblance to her. Her need to watch it leads her down a dangerous path, blurring the lines between observer and participant.
While it may seem that way, the movie is not about chasing the killer, it’s about what drives a person to watch, obsess, and insert themselves into such an atrocious scenario. As Kelly-Anne becomes more involved, she’s removed from reality, and needing to see the truth becomes paramount. It’s above everything else, including keeping herself safe. Red Rooms is not flashy or fast-moving, but that’s what makes it so painful. It gets under your skin and asks some tough questions about obsession, true crime culture, and how far someone will go just to feel anything.
‘Red Rooms’ Weaves the Disturbing Reality of the Dark Web Into Its Unsettling Plot
One thing Red Rooms will have viewers asking is how far curiosity goes before it becomes something sinister? As mentioned earlier, the film is about Kelly-Anne, a young woman fixated on the media-drenched trial of Ludovic Chevalier. She isn’t your run-of-the-mill spectator, she’s in court every day, soaking in gruesome details, but her fixation doesn’t stop here. Because she was good with computers, she easily dug up one of Chevalier’s snuff films, a film with proof that he’s guilty. Kelly-Anne’s cold and detached approach to all this makes watching her borderline unnerving, yet as the movie progresses, it’s clear that she has a connection with the case beyond mere curiosity. Her sleepless nights, haunting rituals, and the frenzied quest for a piece of footage that cannot be are inexplicably chilling questions about her past and what drives her.
But what is most unsettling about Red Rooms is how much it immerses its audience in the dark web, where the lowest and most squalid depths of vice exist at the click of a button. Kelly-Anne becomes more and more fixated on the dark web as well as snuff movies. So much so that she places a bid on a luxury auction, eventually purchasing the film by outsmarting others through a game of poker. Watching it, she falls into a trance-like euphoria, her fascination with the dark web escalating into a dangerous obsession. This isn’t about chasing voyeuristic thrills — Kelly-Anne transcends the status of observer to participant in the horror she’d initially wanted to observe from the sidelines.
This Underrated Thriller Delivers a Creepy Dive Into Dark, Sadistic Desires
There’s a morbid fascination humans have with the forbidden, whether it’s a true crime documentary or some sick conspiracy theories that capture attention. It’s human nature to be drawn to what we should not. Red Rooms pulls this off, yet never allows the viewer to simply remain an observer. Instead, it draws you into a world where voyeurism and obsession become something far more sinister. Like Hard Candy or The Voyeur, this psychological thriller explores the way harmless curiosity can turn into an obsessive fixation. As the film follows Kelly-Anne’s descent into darkness, it becomes clear how easily curiosity can be entangled with darker, sadistic desires.
Sure, films like The Voyeur toyed with the notion of spying on others, but Red Rooms takes that to far sicker places, showing us just how easy a careless glance can become. Similarly, The Circle examines how society is trapped in surveillance, constantly watching but never participating. However, Red Rooms delivers this a sinister twist — Kelly-Anne’s interest in snuff films is not curiosity; it’s all about getting a vicarious thrill out of other people’s agony. Each time she clicks, she pulls herself deeper into a world where watching other people hurt is habit-forming. The film reminds us that venturing into dark corners has a moral cost. The deeper a person descends, the more they become removed from the simple concept of right and wrong.
If you’re ready for something seriously unsettling, Red Rooms is available to stream on Shudder.
