Megalomaniac cuts deep and twists the knife. It’s complexly layered, blends moral lines, and contains visceral violence and cruelty. It’s an unflinching film with coldly delivered performances, and a Cheval Noir award from the 2022 Fantasia International Film Festival.
“It was from the real case, a good start for the fantasy,” explained Karim Ouelhaj, director of the film. Megalomaniac focuses on Felix and Martha, children of Butcher of Mons, a Belgian serial killer in the 1990s. Felix follows in the footsteps of his father and picks up killing where he left off. Martha works nights as a janitor and is sexually abused by a coworker. Other coworkers are aware but refuse to do anything to stop it.
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Unable to face her abuser at work, Martha adopts the world of her brother and holds a woman hostage in their gothic home by a chain fastened to her collar. She shames the woman for her appearance, how she’s presumed to behave around men, and more. Felix provides the greatest level of care for his sister that you would expect a serial killer whose father was also a serial killer can provide; he kills for her.
Megalomaniac Official Teaser
Megalomaniac depicts Martha as both the victim and executioner, something that Ouelhaj explained, “was to avoid the cliché that we usually have between the victim and executioner… we wanted to dig deep and break the intention of the victim.” When abused at work, her initial impulse is to behave as a conduit of such evil, subjugating her hostage to patriarchal convictions akin to her own experiences. Pair that with a growing desire for direct revenge, and we can understand why she persecutes others, knowing it is in the vein of evil that breeds evil. A cycle that is reflected in Felix’s character, too, though more literally as he is a serial killer just like his father. The characters are wronged or traumatized into further wrongs that take shape in a cycle of gore, captured in a brutal fashion.
“When you are doing scenes like this, you have to be professional… when you’re well-prepared, you don’t need to push the cast. Especially because we had a wonderful cast,” said Ouelhaj, “we tried to have two or three takes, not more, so we could find the moments of truth. After three takes, it’s too much because the actors get tired.”
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Questions of Morale
Umedia
Although there’s plenty to take away from the film, Ouelhaj explained that he didn’t want to impose the message that viewers receive and is more so interested in having provided any questions that may come from watching.
“It’s not for me to say, it’s really for the audience to decide. I don’t want to impose morale… I made a proposition about the state of the world, and because we have a tendency in society to sanitize… the world is in a state, and we can’t deny it, but I’m not here to give a lesson. I’m just asking the question, and if the movie brings some debate, we’re very happy about that.”
Viewers of Megalomaniac will surely be faced with mystical elements of horror, brutal violence, mental health, revenge, and questions of morale. It is a production of Les Films du Carré, Okayss Prod., and Umedia. It is performed in French with English subtitles.
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