Red Rooms (Les chambres rouges) is a 2023 French-Canadian film written and directed by Pascal Plante. It's about a mysterious model, Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) who becomes obsessed with the trial of Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), a Serial Killer accused of torturing and murdering three schoolgirls and distributing the videos online in Quebec.
Tropes:
- Catholic School Girls Rule: Played for horror. Chevalier's last victim is a high school student, Camille, who was kidnapped (and presumably murdered) in her school uniform. At the climax of her obsession, Kelly-Anne wears a somewhat revealing school uniform to court and makes sure that Chevalier sees her, getting thrown out and devastating Camille's already-grieving family.
- Creepy Loner Girl: Kelly-Anne has a privileged existence because she's very intelligent and beautiful, but she has no friends or family. She obsesses over the Chevalier trial, has an extremely rigid and structured life, and is only ever shown speaking to her agent or Clementine, who is a more overt example of an Ineffectual Loner from a rough background, while Kelly-Anne isn't given such an easy explanation.
- Cruel to Be Kind: It's suggested that Kelly-Anne plays the Snuff Film for Clementine so that Clementine will realize Chevalier is guilty and go home, which is what happens.
- Cunning People Play Poker: Kelly-Anne is suggested to be very intelligent and, while she makes money from modeling, her Infinite Supplies are implied to come from the poker games she bets on.
- The Ending Changes Everything: Deconstructed. The movie asks how much the ending does change anything. Kelly-Anne has secured Chevalier's conviction, and seems to have been working towards that goal all along. However, her behavior is still shown to have been deeply traumatizing for the victims' families and, while Kelly-Anne has secured Chevalier's conviction, it was likely he would have been found guilty already. Does the end justifies the means or not?
- Law Procedural: Played with. The Courtroom Antics are viewed by Kelly-Anne and Clementine, but the main drama is Kelly-Anne's own reactions and her strange responses to the case.
- Monster Fangirl: Invoked numerous times as the reason Kelly-Anne and other women are at the trial. Subverted by Clementine, who genuinely believes that Chevalier is innocent, and deconstructed by Kelly-Anne. While she's ostensibly working towards a different and more noble goal, her motivations remain unclear and she seems obsessed with Chevalier even if she was trying to put him in prison and find Camille's tape.
- Morality Pet: While Kelly-Anne resists any attempt to open up about herself, she shows kindness to Clementine, paying for her squash racket and her food, and giving the squash racket to her.
- Moral Sociopathy: The most likely explanation for Kelly-Anne's behavior. She has some traits of The Sociopath: she appears devoid of empathy; she has no strong emotional reactions even to otherwise very distressing content and feels nothing about worsening a grieving family's pain; she is capable of detaching and is highly intelligent, thriving under high-pressure circumstances; she behaves in a way that most people around her find repellant. However, she is ultimately revealed to be using these traits for some form of good or at least not evil, though it's left ambiguous. She's looking for Camille's Snuff Tape so that Chevalier will plead guilty to her murder. This means that she ensures Camille gets justice, but she still watches the tape herself and breaks in and gives it to Camille's mother rather than to someone else, and it's heavily implied that she keeps her own copy of it afterwards.
- Mysterious Past: We learn hardly anything about Kelly-Anne, and she refuses everyone's attempts to question or understand her.
- Pet the Dog: Kelly-Anne is extremely patient and supportive when teaching Clementine squash, not getting annoyed with her even when Clementine herself gets frustrated.
- Pubescent Braces: The thirteen-year-old Camille wore braces. It's played for horror when grown woman Kelly-Anne dresses up as Camille, and is revealed to even wear braces to complete the illusion.
- Shout-Out: Kelly-Anne's Screen Name is LadyOfShalott.
- Snuff Film: Chevalier is accused of making these. Kelly-Anne buys and watches the video of his final victim, Camille, in the closing minutes.
- The Voiceless: Though Kelly-Anne watches him obsessively, Chevalier is never heard speaking.
