Megalomaniac is a Belgian horror film inspired by the true crimes committed by The Butcher of Mons, a serial killer who murdered 5 women in Belgium between 1996 and 1997. While the real Butcher of Mons has yet to be identified, in Megalomaniac he bore two children, Martha and Félix, who seem doomed to carry on his legacy of violence. Megalomaniac follows closely in the footsteps of French Extremist films like 2008’s Martyrs.
The pair of siblings live in an enormous house together, where Félix has rooms to himself to torture and kill his own victims. He has already completed his descent into violence and madness, to be just like his father; Martha is on her way there. While she hasn’t yet embraced her lineage in the same way her brother has, she is strange, lonely, and unwell. Martha lives her life through social media; the only human contact she has besides her brother is from a social worker and her cruel coworkers. Already an outcast, Martha abandons her attempts at normalcy after she is brutally assaulted at work.
Martha is a custodian at a factory, and what begins as inappropriate and rude teasing from her coworkers escalates to violence and rape. Writer/director Karim Ouelhaj does not shy away from showing us this incident; the scene is far crueler and longer than need be to get the point across and to understand what has happened to Martha. It is gut wrenching, and the violence against women shown in Megalomaniac does not stop here.
While the rape scene was needlessly excessive in its brutality, the scene does mark a drastic shift in Martha. She has decided that she wants to be like her brother and father before her. The men who assault her, of course, don’t know anything about Martha’s lineage.
Martha’s coworkers at the factory continue to harass her, with actions ranging from belittling to torturous. Martha’s boss at the factory does nothing; he stands by and overhears. This is one of the most frustrating parts of Megalomaniac; his addition to the already brutal scene ultimately serves no point but to add insult to injury. Ultimately, the most frustrating thing about Megalomaniac is the extreme violence against women. There is nothing cathartic to be found here for Martha; it is bleak and unrelenting.
Félix escalates in his violent acts; bags of women’s body parts are beginning to litter the streets. As Martha’s social worker is on her way to visit, she listens to a radio report about this new killer who is clearly taking after The Butcher. The social worker begins to worry about Martha, who is beginning to exhibit even stranger behaviors. The social worker’s dynamic with Martha makes for some interesting scenes; more dialogue between the two of them could have given us more insight into how Martha became who she is today.
Dark Star Pictures
Eline Shumacher’s performance as Martha is the real standout of Megalomaniac. She’s terrifying in her own, quiet way, and as the film progresses, she becomes more horrifying. Scenes that confuse reality, from Martha’s fractured psyche, begin to build upon each other. At first it’s unclear if these moments are dreams or visions, or if Martha is hallucinating, but what begins as confusing glimpses become full-fledged hallucinatory nightmares. There’s a striking scene about halfway through, where a number of dead people, presumably victims of Félix and the Butcher, stalk Martha.
Following this potent visual experience is one of the most graphic and shocking scenes in Megalomaniac. Félix has kidnapped and tortured a woman, and the audio of him brutalizing her is just as disturbing and repulsive as the visuals are. Martha, who has been asking Félix if she can join in on the “family business”, becomes obsessed with this captive, who she calls Kitty. She goes back and forth between caring for her, and torturing her. It’s sad, to watch this scene of two women who have both been tortured; watching one woman torture the other.
Martha is made to feel crazy by those around her, and it seems she is doomed to live a violent, depraved life like her father and brother. To say that Megalomaniac is sad is an understatement. The points made in the film, though, could have been made without all of the extreme misogynistic violence; the victims in this film are barely characters and more like props to be used by Félix and, eventually, Martha.
Dark Star Pictures
Megalomaniac begins with a horrible birthing scene, as the Butcher watches a red-eyed woman who is covered in blood give birth to Martha. A young Félix watches the horrific birth quietly. Megalomaniac ends with a birth, too; there’s commentary here on the cyclical nature of trauma and inherited mental illness but it’s almost entirely buried by the sheer amount of violence. The term “torture porn” doesn’t quite encompass the terror that Megalomaniac shows.
Cold, bloody, and relentless, Megalomaniac is a “feel-bad film” through and through. Certainly not for the faint of heart, it’s not the most extreme of brutal films out there, but it comes close in certain moments. While a few scenes of violence against women are much more graphic than need be, Megalomaniac succeeds in maintaining a dark atmosphere and providing terrifying nightmarish visuals, but it fails to really tell an interesting story about hereditary violence.
Megalomaniac is available on VOD
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