True crime is more in vogue than ever. On Netflix, in the many fiction series and documentaries on the lives and work of heroic serial killers, but also on Youtube, with channels dedicated to the genre now legion on the platform. But ifyou're unfamiliar with the urban legend of red rooms , you're not descending far enough into the depths of the Internet.
With this 2.0 myth and the prevailing fascination with the morbid as a backdrop, Pascal Plante unveils his third feature film, Les Chambres Rouges, due in cinemas on January 17, 2024.
Two young women, Kelly-Anne(Juliette Gariépy) and Clémentine(Laurie Babin), wake up every morning at the gates of the Palais de Justice to attend the high-profile trial of a serial killer they're obsessed with, Ludovic Chevalier(Maxwell McCabe Lokos). The killer filmed the deaths of his three young victims, all just teenagers, before publishing the snuff films on the dark web, where they are auctioned off in the notorious red rooms.
Immediately, we think back to the stir caused by the publication of the film of Luka Rocco Magnotta's murder of Jun Lin, posted online by the Canadian killer on the day of the young Chinese student's murder and viewed over 10 million times in 24 hours in 2012. But also to those women fascinated by serial killers; a paraphilia with a name: hybristophilia.
With Les Chambres Rouges, Pascal Plante attempts to understand the profound nature of these admirers of evil. What can this unhealthy exaltation of human nature, accustomed to the point of indifference to these ever more violent and accessible images, have to say?
While trial films are definitely in vogue this year(Le Procès Goldman, Anatomie d'une Chute), Les Chambres Rouges opens in a sterile white courtroom where experts and pedagogical lawyers are filmed in sequence as they plead their cases. Unlucky for the two groupies, the trial is held behind closed doors, leaving the video evidence of the abuse to our imagination, on the other side of the courtroom.
The power of the film lies in this frustration, shared or otherwise, with its heavy use of sound and visual off-screen effects, to the point of leaving the accused there, weary, in his glass-covered box, far from our gaze. The film distances itself completely from the killer's point of view - which we might have expected to be the starring character - and it's Kelly-Anne's complex psychology and her female point of view that Pascal Plante sets out to portray.
A genuine anxiety-inducing thriller that plunges us into the limbo of cybercrime brought to the forefront of the judicial scene, Les Chambres Rouges avoids the sticky aspect of films of the genre and opts for minimalist camera movements, favoring neat static shots and ethereal sequences. But as Kelly-Anne's condition (hitherto under control) deteriorates, the filmmaker's camera becomes more feverish, the editing and soundtrack intensify, and the already ambient unease becomes unbearable.
The climax is a sequence shot of Kelly-Anne's face transforming before our very eyes, crystallizing this escalation into paranoia and madness. A slow-motion scene of unimaginable terror. Les Chambres Rouges will certainly not leave you indifferent.
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