I uploaded an analysis of the movie Red Rooms (2023) recently. As I’ve done previously, I’m going to include the original script below if you would rather read it than watch the video. I probably altered the script while recording and you get to see my “silent notes” as well.

Analysis Essay

HORROR IS IN THE MIND

Intro

Major Spoilers: Red Rooms Minor Spoilers: Red Dragon, American Pyscho

The Gore Films

The rise of gore in the early 21st century attracted as much audience attention as it did controversy.

Final Destination, Hostel, Saw, and even the recent Terrifier films all became successful as franchises by leaning in to the horror of the death sequences, many of which include nearly unimaginable bodily harm.

Films about these subjects that avoid showing them in detail tend to evade such criticism, even if the subject matter being discussed is equally as (if not more) disturbing. A well done psychological thriller, such as Basic Instinct, can do more harm psychologically to a vulnerable mind than any of the Hostel films could ever dream to.

Not that I’m calling for any kind of censorship: I just want to point out that the reason this is the case is because psychological horror is difficult to quantify. Seeing a car crash in a film makes it easy to point to where the violence occurs. Watching a scene where a mother describes the horrific things she felt while inside the car can be equally as disturbing to sit through but is drastically more evasive to identify as a horrific moment that innocent minds must be protected from.

Why Are We Looking At Red Rooms?

This brings us to the topic of today’s discussion: Red Rooms, from 2023.

Red Rooms is a movie almost entirely about violence. The twist, however, is that violence doesn’t appear at all in the film. There isn’t so much as a bruise visible in Red Rooms. However, it remains one of the most violent and horrific films I can remember from 2023. Red Rooms disturbs you in a way that none of the aforementioned gore franchises achieve, raising the question: How?

Red Rooms completely disconnects the viewer from violence in the film, but uses a well-crafted narrative from the perspective of a highly-intelligent, non-violent sociopath to create a suffocating atmosphere of constant tension, making every moment up until the horrific conclusion a nightmarish view of the world: These people exist. They are out there. And some of them collect victims as a hobby.

In this analysis of Red Rooms, I want to present some subtextual aspects from the film that add to its disturbing nature but could have easily been missed. Many of the elements that make the film haunting are readily apparent, but here I want to discuss, mainly, Clementine’s relationship with innocence and Kelly-Anne’s relationship with violence.

Analysis

What The Film Shows On The Surface

Red Rooms, as presented, tells the story of the tech-savvy, burgeoning model Kelly-Anne and the vagrant-esque, sympathetically naive Clementine attending the trial of an accused serial killer. We see their journey throughout the trial and how they react to the evidence, culminating in Kelly-Anne becoming involved in the court case so intimately, the proceedings are declared a mistrial and must be re-conducted.

The “alleged” killer these women are so taken with is named Ludovic Chevalier, whose “alleged” crimes earned him the media-prescribed moniker: The Demon of Rosemont. Chevalier was accused of kidnapping three, young, affluent girls from the Rosemont community (hence, the name). For two of the girls, Red Room video tapes were discovered (A “red room” tape being equivalent to a “snuff” film except that “red room” videos typically include torture for the entertainment of a paying audience). The only girl without a red room tape (and, therefore, the only one not confirmed dead) is Camille, who becomes a major plot point of the film despite her never making an actual appearance.

The Significance Of The Crimes

The Demon of Rosemont – Chevalier – targets young, blonde, blue-eyed girls from well-to-do families. Immediately, the film presents it’s artistic decision to keep the violence off camera by detailing the horrific crimes in the opening statements of both the script and the prosecutor.

The prosecutor gives us jarring details of the horror the killer inflicted upon the Rosemont girls. Genital mutilation. Limbs, not cut, but torn off. Exacto knives used to slit their eyes. These descriptions are revolting. Wince-inducing. The type of horror only the most evil of what we unfortunately must still call mankind could carry out simply for pleasure. Already, the film presents off-screen violence that gets you squirming in your chair. Though, just how it’s more difficult to quantify violence in a film when it isn’t on-camera, Clementine will not find these descriptions convincing.

Clementine

Motivation

As mentioned before, Red Rooms is partially about innocence. The victims of The Demon of Rosemont represent innocence corrupted by violence in that the girls were chosen randomly from a pool of qualifying victims. Similarly, Clementine represents innocence in the story. An innocence that itself becomes corrupted when it encounters violence face-to-face as opposed to at a distance.

Clementine earnestly believes Chevalier is being framed. This detail is crucial. Clementine doesn’t advocate for violence. She doesn’t find violent men attractive. She isn’t into “bad boys”. She looks at Chevalier and doesn’t see The Demon of Rosemont, but a small, timid, gentle man abused by a system designed to get convictions instead of seeking justice.

The more Clementine stares at this man inside of his tiny, glass cage, she looks directly past the pictures of the murdered girls and sees Chevalier as the only true victim before her.

She naively lives a drifter-esque lifestyle moving from city to city and likely relying on the care of strangers (like Kelly-Anne) to eat and sleep. This is something any woman of Clementine’s stature who had been jaded by the real-world experience of encountering evil would avoid at all costs. She lives in an ideal world her innocence-clouded-mind has built for her.

Her innocence shields her from Chevalier’s nature, despite almost everyone else, including Kelly-Anne, finding whatever evidence presented, circumstantial or otherwise, to be absolutely convincing.

Friendship With Kelly-Anne

Just as Clementine is unable to see through to Chevalier’s true nature, she is equally incapable of seeing Kelly-Anne for who and what she is – a dangerous sociopath. After meeting at the trial, Clementine even begins to view Kelly-Anne in an enviable light – high society, “only drinks champagne”, an elegant fashion model on the rise, highly intelligent, and, most importantly, Clementine whole-heartedly believes Kelly-Anne sees Chevalier the same way that she herself does – another victim of a corrupt system.

The poetry of Clementine’s arc is that, while it is Chevalier who ripped the innocence away from the Rosemont victims, it is Kelly-Anne – not Chevalier – who corrupts Clementine’s innocence.

A live talk-show discussing current affairs has a segment on Chevalier. Seeing this, Clementine decides to share her innocence with the world by calling in to convince the panel of the show that Chevalier is the true victim here. Kelly tries to convince her not to. By now, we as the audience are somewhat if not fully aware Kelly is aware of Chevalier’s guilt, but Clementine still has no clue.

Like a child who has never thought about an answer to the question “Why do you trust your parents?”, Clementine becomes frozen when faced with any push-back whatsoever on her default belief that no one could act in the way Chevalier is accused of. She is ridiculed and offered a free consultation by the therapist on the panel.

Shaken by the shame of learning the country at large views her as a brainwashed sycophant, it is then Kelly-Anne who finalizes the destruction of Clementine’s fantasy. Clementine, still clinging to her innocent view of the world, accepts Kelly-Anne’s challenge to watch the Demon of Rosemont’s Red Room tapes, betting that her unwavering faith in Chevalier would remain in tact.

However, when she sees firsthand the horror of the violent acts, we see in her eyes her world is collapsing. A commentary on how proximity to violence effects our thoughts on the act (which is exactly how the film presents violence to us – from a distance), seeing the morbid details on screen destroys Clementine’s belief in the world being anything but a cruel and dangerous place. After this moment, she even becomes wary of Kelly-Anne – unsure of who in the world, if anyone, is worth trusting.

Conclusion of Clementine

Clementine’s journey, both metaphorically and literally, ends with Kelly-Anne. She doesn’t want to remember anything about her life during the trial. She tries to return the racket Kelly-Anne gave her, which Kelly convinces her to keep. It’s unclear if Clementine realizes prior to this moment what Kelly-Anne truly is, but she certainly no longer trusts her by default.

In the end, Clementine “grows up” to the realities of the world, like we all have to eventually. She responds to the call the therapist on the panel of the television show seen earlier put out to her. She sees her past self as childish, naive, in need of a hopeful truth, like so many of us are in youth – just like the victims of The Demon of Rosemont.

Whether or not Kelly-Anne intended to test Clementine with the Red Room tapes or she meant to teach Clementine a woeful lesson to keep her from Kelly’s own dark path is never revealed. But, we know for certain whatever veil of innocence that protected both Chevalier and Kelly-Anne’s true nature from Clementine was lifted during that moment. She finally joins what we sadly must call “reality.”

Kelly-Anne

Motivation

Meet Kelly-Anne. Young, intelligent, beautiful, disciplined. Armed with a budding modelling career destined for success and a well-earned spot on the fast track to high-society, Kelly finds herself fascinated by a local trial concerning an alleged brutal killer. But, as we soon learn, this is no coincidence.

A complete soul-mirror of Clementine, Kelly-Anne leans in with bated breath as she watches Chevalier in his small, glass cage completely aware of and fascinated by his guilt. At this point in the film, we haven’t learned this yet, but we find later that Kelly has seen the Red Room tapes that are the central evidence to the trial. She has already passed the point where Clementine’s journey ended and she remained un-phased.

Kelly-Anne isn’t a violent sociopath herself. She’s simply obsessed with violence. The film gives us reasons to believe Kelly-Anne never experienced innocence, even in youth. We can speculate as to why, but the “why” isn’t important. She becomes driven by the desire to be seen by Chevalier at any cost. To be recognized by anyone at all for who she truly is beneath the modelling career.

And, she starts with Clementine.

Friendship With Clementine

Throughout the film, we see hints that Kelly-Anne is aware her mind is broken and that she longs to be rescued from her from her isolation. Her job as a model, for example, seems to be the only thing she cares about in her normal, everyday life. This gives her something resembling the attention she wants: Having someone look at you and think that your life is perfect just the way it is – that nothing is wrong with you. That you are innocent.

Kelly-Anne sees Clementine as a potential candidate for the deeper recognition she truly desires.

She invites Clem into her home, albeit as a last resort. She introduces Clem to her hobbies, though, that doesn’t so well. Clementine ribs Kelly-Anne about her peculiarities: her distaste for avocados and the caloric precision with which she determines what alcohol to drink, but Kelly doesn’t seem to mind.

Kelly-Anne just hope this will be the connection she’s longed for. She does all of the things she thinks are right for making a friend, but to truly be seen by Clementine, Kelly-Anne must show her why she’s so fascinated by Chevalier and gauge Clementine’s reaction.

Showing Clementine The Red Rooms

As said before, the scene where Kelly shows Clem the Red Rooms tapes is a sort of self-test Clementine wants to take to show she truly believes in Chevalier’s innocence. But, in a way, it’s a test by Kelly-Anne as well. In this moment, all doubts we may have about Kelly-Anne’s darkness are completely removed.

We learn that Kelly-Anne already possesses the Red Room tapes. It’s implied she’s had them for quite some time, maybe even from before the trial started, meaning she’s had to go out of her way to find them. She has kept up with The Demon of Rosemont. Perhaps because he was a serial killer from an area near her home. Perhaps because she was fascinated by his choice of victims. Or, perhaps she does this type of thing all the time.

We then learn that she has watched the tapes numerous times. Kelly-Anne is prepared to point out what occurs in what order to Clementine – something that would be highly unlikely from just one viewing as we learn earlier that each Red Room tape is approximately 30 minutes long. She highlights the moment Chevalier shows his eyes directly to the camera before it occurs.

Kelly-Anne doesn’t just know the tapes. She revels in them. She longingly watches the murder tapes for the who-knows-how-may-ith time, awaiting Clementine’s response – hoping to find someone who can observe the complete decimation of an innocent human and come out the other end exhilarated instead of disturbed.

Our hero basks in the red glow of the tapes as the Rosemont girls are torn apart while Clementine show’s us she is just like us – a normal, empathetic human. While Kelly-Anne would have been happy to continue her new friendship with Clementine, we see the “break up” of these two and understand this has probably happened to Kelly dozens if not hundreds of times in her life. She made someone afraid of her and she perhaps isn’t exactly sure what she did wrong. Clementine leaves forever and Kelly-Anne continues her journey searching for a kindred spirit.

Kelly’s Desire To Be A Victim

One of the more subtle and haunting aspects of Red Rooms is Kelly-Anne’s self-revelation that Chevalier is her last hope of connecting to someone. We see this play out in many ways, but, before we discuss that, let’s focus on what we are shown that tells us Kelly-Anne’s isolation is becoming too much for her.

Thoughts Of Suicide

We meet Guenievre, Kelly-Anne’s locally hosted AI Assistant. Guenievre is readily available, informative, and funny – all features we would want in such a thing.

But, we learn that Guenievre didn’t come that way. Kelly tells us that the AI used to give racist responses, which she had to fix. But, next, Kelly says something revelatory: She tells us that she used to ask Guenievre if she should kill herself and the AI would tell her “yes.”

The phrasing of this is important. Kelly is either unhappy with her plight or the loneliness has become so unbearable she can no longer stand it. We aren’t told how long Guenievre has been around, so it’s hard to know how long Kelly has struggled with these thoughts. But, just the knowledge she’s asked the question is enough.

She Wants To Be One Of The Victims

In Kelly-Anne’s morbid journey to find someone like herself, she finally comes to the conclusion that she must conform to be accepted. But, not in the way you may think. Earlier in the film, Kelly-Anne and Clementine share a brief moment together that, as it occurs, seems like nothing. Clementine tells Kelly that she’s so beautiful, if only she was younger and blonde, she might be the killer’s type. We as an audience know this hurts Kelly-Anne because of her struggles with isolation, though it clearly doesn’t occur to Clementine. In this moment, Clementine still thinks Kelly-Anne has the perfect life.

This gives Kelly an idea: If she can’t get Chevalier to see her as a similar soul, then perhaps she can get him to see her as a potential victim. Maybe not because she wants to die, as shown before, but because her life-long journey to be seen by someone for who she truly is has failed. She’s at the end of her rope. She’s now willing to sacrifice her only legitimate source of income, her modelling career, for a few brief seconds of attention from a fellow sociopath.

There are two other interesting angles to this as well: The first is that the film previously set up the idea that Chevalier has female super-fans trying to attend the trial, meaning that, once again, the world will misunderstand what Kelly-Anne is. She will, yet again, be seen as something she’s not. Additionally, the idea that the victims are so different from Kelly-Anne, as pointed out before by Clementine, pushes her over the edge. To be a victim of The Demon of Rosemont means you must be young. You must be beautiful. You must be blonde. But, most importantly, you must be innocent. Something Kelly-Anne was never able to experience. She’s able to kill two birds with one stone: Finally end her journey of finding connection – ever so briefly – with someone like herself. And finally get to pretend, even in this moment of horror, that she’s someone else: Someone the world accepts as their own. An innocent.

But, arguably, the most horrific moment of the film is yet to come…

The Final Red Room

In the end, Kelly-Anne resigns herself and every dollar she has left to gambling for money to buy Camille’s Red Room tape. Ironically, she wins the money by doing exactly what she told Clementine to never do in poker: she relies on luck. We see Kelly-Anne spiral into paranoia after she is caught by news cameras at the trial and the Red Room tape seller on the Dark Net get her to send a photo of herself to confirm her identity. As a side note that may be interesting to some, the name of the Red Room tape seller is Ching Shih. Ching Shih is the name of a female pirate ship captain from the 18th century. This is notable in two ways: The first is that the motif of pirates and pirate names being associated with the Dark Net was a thoughtful and realistic add-in. The second is that, Ching Shih is the name of a woman from pirate lore, making the moment Ching Shih comments on Kelly-Anne’s beauty in a juvenile way both meaningful and ironic: She will clearly remember Kelly-Anne given her striking appearance and how rare it likely is to see another woman in the Red Room tape auctions. And, Ching Shih very well may have been exactly the type of friend Kelly-Anne was looking for. But, just like the violence in the film, something about the proximity of this person makes this harder to identify.

Either way, Kelly wins the auction, excitedly sets up the tape and she, again, basks in the red glow of Red Room tape: This one of Camille’s tortured end. She has accepted who she is and that civilized society will never be home.

Throughout the film, Kelly has been collecting evidence of Chevalier’s guilt, which she takes to Camille’s family home. She’s able to access the home using other information we see her collect throughout the film, as well. As another analytical side-note, there is evidence in the film that the disappearance of Camille broke her parents up. We see them distant unless they need each other in the court room and, in this scene, Camille’s mother has an oversized bed, clearly for two.

Either way, Kelly-Anne breaks into the home and, she – still dressed up as Camille – sits on the girl’s bed and takes selfies of herself mimicking moments from Camille’s social media. This moment is so striking, I had to watch it twice to make sure I understood what was happening. It’s haunting in a way that resonates deeply in your psyche. Kelly-Anne is admitting that she is, in fact, now dead. Not via suicide. She’s ended her life. She’s lost all of her money. She’s lost her job. She’s an outcast. The only life she has left to live is the life that was ripped away from this innocent girl: Camille’s.

After she received the attention she desired from Chevalier, Kelly-Anne is finished with him. She has no more use for The Demon of Rosemont. Her game – her life as Kelly-Anne – is finished. And she won. She tasted what it was like to be seen by a man as cold as herself.

She secretly delivers the evidence of Chevalier’s guilt to Camille’s mother. A mistrial is declared and a new trial starts which will guarantee Chevalier is in prison for the rest of his life. Kelly-Anne lost everything and she made sure the closest thing she ever had to a friend lost everything too.

Conclusion

There’s something juvenile about the gore-centered features such as Hostel, Saw, and Terrifier. Not that I’m passing judgement on them: I’ve enjoyed all of those franchises. But, one of the reasons they don’t haunt you (unless you are deeply triggered by gore) is they aren’t trying to touch something in you deeper than the surface-level. Everyone knows in the primal part of their brain to avoid pain. Something these films exploit.

In Red Rooms, Kelly-Anne’s treatment of Clementine, her dressing up as Camille, and her going to Camille’s home to pose in the girl’s bed are psychologically disturbing on an equally primal level, despite there being no on-screen violence. Your brain tells you “She’s sick. Stay away.” These moments have stayed with me for years while I can’t even remember the plot of the most recent Saw movie.

You understand there is something demented about Kelly, but, like Hannibal at the beginning of Red Dragon or Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, she lives among us – you and me – and has a job with status, causing everyone she meets to look right past her without a concern in the world.

In the end, she completely dominates both of Chevalier’s trials, ultimately ending his life as a free man and giving closure to Camille’s family, all without any possibility of reward. She couldn’t be a victim of The Demon of Rosemont, so, instead, she made The Demon a victim of Kelly-Anne.

She killed him without striking a single blow. Exactly how the film depicts violence: without a single blow. Red Rooms gives you everything you could want in a psychological thriller and, as far as its horror goes, it burrows in your mind. Corrupting your innocence.