There’s “room” for more than just Lisbeth Salander in the world of cinematic cyber serial killer thrillers.
IndieWire premieres the exclusive trailer for Canadian filmmaker Pascal Plante’s “Red Rooms,” out September 6 in select theaters from Utopia. The thriller about a voyeuristic model (Juliette Gariépy) who becomes obsessed with a high-profile murder trial swept up four prizes at last year’s Fantasia genre festival in Montreal, including Outstanding Performance for Gariépy, Best Screenplay for Plante, Best Score for Dominique Plante, and Best Film. Last year, “Red Rooms” also competed for the Crystal Globe, the top prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in Czech Republic.
Here’s the official synopsis: The film “follows Kelly-Anne (Gariépy), a young woman who wakes up every morning to wait outside the courtroom to secure a seat at the high-profile trial of Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), a man charged with the murder of three teenage girls, with the gruesome videos of two of the crimes surfacing for sale online on the dark web. She finds herself bonding with a fellow voyeur, momentarily breaking her out of her loneliness, while also witnessing the emotional decline of the victims’ families. As the proceedings continue, it becomes increasingly difficult for Kelly-Anne to maintain the psychological and physical balance between her normal life and her morbid fixation with the accused killer, with her obsession reaching new lengths when the final piece of evidence reveals itself within reach.”
“Red Rooms” has been widely acclaimed throughout its festival run, with Mashable calling it an “austere giallo for our tech-detached age” that “out-Finchers Fincher.” High praise indeed to earn comparisons to the director of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Social Network.” Deadline called “Red Rooms” “a disturbingly brilliant psychological horror.” In a land where psychological horror à la “Longlegs” is topping the box office, we’re seated. “Red Rooms” gets its title from online rooms on the dark web, with this film centered on a fictional serial killer who speaks to our own times of cybersecurity-spurred panic attacks.
Plante’s previous films include 2020 Cannes premiere “Nadia” and 2018 Berlin Film Festival selection “Fake Tattoos.” Here, he works with cinematographer Vincent Biron and production designer Laura Nhem, who both worked on Matthew Renkin’s German Expressionist homage “The Twentieth Century,” which IndieWire loved according to David Ehrlich’s review.
“Red Rooms” opens September 6 at IFC Center in New York, with a national rollout to follow. Watch the trailer below.
