★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Written and Directed by Karim Ouelhaj
The Butcher of Mons was a real life serial killer who terrorized women in Belgium in the 1990’s and left a literal trail of body parts in trash bags along the Rue Emile Vandervelde and to this day has never been caught. In Megalomaniac, filmmaker Karim Ouelhaj imagines that the butcher had two children, Felix (Benjamin Ramon) and Martha (Eline Schumacher) who are now carrying on his terrifying legacy.
Martha spends her days on social media and her nights working as a cleaner in a factory where she is mercilessly bullied and assaulted (TW: rape) by the men who work there. However, she longs to enter Felix’s world where he murders and mutilates women and as she descends into madness parts of her dreams come true.
Megalomaniac is a dark, depraved and challenging film but not one you’ll want to pull out for a group movie night. It is stark and brutal but strangely beautiful; definitly not for the faint of heart. It had its world premier at the Fantasia International Film Festival where it was awarded the Best Feature award in the Cheval Noir competition! The Scariest Things will keep you up to date on where this film is going next.