Megalomaniac (2022) Review

Megalomaniac (2022) Review

Martha and Félix are the children of the Butcher of Mons, a notorious Belgian serial killer from the 1990s. Unstable and riddled with insecurities, Martha lives vicariously through social media. Her brother, crushed by the family legacy, takes over their father’s killings. Harassed and violently assaulted at work, the docile Martha falls into madness and goes through the looking glass into the strange and terrifying world inhabited by her brother.

MEGALOMANIAC is a mixed bag. The acting is flawless, Laïos Hendrickx’s production and set design are exquisite and François Schmitt’s cinematography is exceptional. Visually writer/producer and director Karim Ouelhaj’s latest film is suitably grubby, however, and despite some brief and occasional startling artistic images, this otherwise dull film purports to be questioning the invisible line between victim and executioner, the weight of patriarchy and the illusion of Manichaeism. That’s all very nice but is it really offering up anything new? Not really.

For the most part it looks to be violence for the sake of shock value and little more, but the trouble is, it’s not shocking at all, just relentlessly one-note and dull. Anyone that’s sat through many of the movies that I have as a film reviewer over many years will be desensitised to such violence and consequently that robs MEGALMANIAC of its power.

When a movie is all about subtext and meaning behind the actions played out onscreen it becomes less appealing It’s not like the subtext is unique anyhow as everything nowadays – films, TV, books – tend to be an indictment of the patriarchy. A recent example of this would be TV series THE POWER rammed home on all levels just how bad men are (and I agree), and did so without ever becoming boring, which unfortunately MEGALOMANIAC is, and did so more sophisticatedly and more layers too.

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