An early review of Pascal Plante’s Red Rooms claimed the psychological thriller manages to “out-Fincher Fincher” – a lofty statement that I can confirm has the goods to back it up.

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The French-Canadian crime thriller begins much like a standard courtroom drama, with a dead-eyed man named Ludovic Chevalier on trial for the brutal murders of three young girls which he broadcast for sickos on the dark web. Not much is divulged about the defendant, but his role in the film is incidental, anyway. The focus of this story is a young woman who shows up, day after day, and sits faithfully in the courtroom gallery.

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“Why?” is the obvious follow-up question here, and while we sort of get an answer, Plante’s cinematic sweet spot seems to lie in ambiguity.

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The girl’s name is Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariepy). She is a successful model who, between her good looks and savant-like online gambling skills, does quite well for herself. Kelly-Anne appears to be a bit of a recluse – spending hours in front of a giant computer screen in her swanky high-rise apartment. Her sole purpose seems to be funding her strange lifestyle. You can’t exactly work a 9-5 when you’re spending your days in court.

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Lining up outside early in the morning to make sure she gets a prime spot for the day’s testimony, Kelly-Anne hits it off with Clementine (Laurie Babin). Clementine is a wide-eyed groupie who, though she has no proof, is convinced of Chevalier’s innocence. The two women form a sort of toxic symbiotic relationship, one that unravels as new truths about the grisly criminal case are revealed.

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The main reason I dig Red Rooms so much is its use of slow, uneasy tension as opposed to gore and jump scares to make an impact. Plante finds a way to use a single shot of a girl sitting in front of a computer and turn it into a truly nail-biting moment. That’s a Fincher-like quality, no doubt.

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Dark, ominous, and expertly unnerving, Red Rooms paints a grim picture of toxic fandom culture, and the lengths people will go to live out their parasocial fantasies.