Megalomaníaco

I read a review which compared this film to the Canadian version of Martyrs and so I took a shot at it.

I gave Martyrs a 9/10 and it is my #1 horror movie of all time. Megalomaniac does not come close. I was bored throughout the silliness of the story and the lack of clarity with flashbacks that made no sense to this viewer.

Felix and his sister Martha are the offspring of a notorious serial killer and the siblings carry on in the family tradition. Felix abducts women and murders them and then leaves them at the side of the road. His sister lives with him in their gothic house and works at a factory where she is harassed by her co-workers.

A social worker pays monthly visits to the home for unexplained reasons while a young woman is chained to a wall in a nearby room.

The ending is a bloody mess and I do not recommend this film.

Kenny's Movie Review

"Megalomaniac" (2023)

Premieres in select theaters 9/8 and On Demand everywhere 9/26

I'd like to thank the Great people at Dark Star Pictures for allowing me to screen this for my readers

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.

Okay, first off this movie is not for everyone but darn this is a EXCELLENT film. "Martha" played wonderfully by Eline Schumacher lives with her brother "Felix" who also is terrific Benjamin Ramon, are brother and sister living in the HUGE Victorian style house literally in the middle of nowhere, "Martha" has a job working Graveyard shift at a factory and is picked on by the other workers and they do really mean things to her including a rape scene which is not graphic but you really have a idea what's happening.

Meanwhile her brother is carrying on the father's tradition of being a serial killer and he said to "Martha" you have the whole house do not go into these 2 rooms, well "Martha" being on medication who has a social worker come over every month (is thst scene crazy) and evaluates her.

Well one day "Martha" goes into one of the rooms and sees one of her brothers victims chained up and starts calling her "kitty" these scenes are absolutely creepy and really disturbing.

I'd go into more but man I really want you to see this film. Martha played by Eline Schumacher is the star of this film, you feel terrible for her but she's as ruthless as her brother. This is a French film and has subtitles but the acting and action on the screen really gives you all the things you need to follow the film. The director Karim Ouelhaj sets a really dismal and disturbing tone for the film and might I add it's bloody.

This is the best film I've seen all year, I will add this to my collection when available for purchase.

5 Whoppers out of 5 Whoppers 🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔.

Seriously check this out.

Once again thanks to the great people at Dark Star Pictures for allowing me to share my thoughts.

Wow. This movie is definitely not for everyone, but it is for me. Well acted, beautifully shot, and I could really feel what she was feeling. Looking at them both, I can understand how they got where they were in life, and partly, it shows nature and nurture coming together. I did not find it in anyway pointless or the violence glorified. More like a character study. No matter how much she tried, everything and everyone was against her so ultimately she found herself beside the rest of her family. I feel that the last 5 seconds of the film are quite symbolic.

If you like films that delve deep into the darkest depths of the human soul, don't mind a slow pace (which I think is deliberate) graphic violence, and are not adverse to a story that is utterly bleak, then give it a watch!

Trying to adjust to everyday life, a woman and her brother who are the children of an infamous serial killer manage to find themselves forced into exploring the same barbarian means of their father when society causes them to revert to his old methods of torture and depravity to deal with their problems.

This was a generally fine if somewhat one-note piece. What works out for this one is purely the film's excess that comes off far more than simply gore, bloodshed, and depravity for the sake of it. Wallowing openly in the brutal antics dealt to the victims of the rampage including being bashed with hammers, sliced with knives or much worse, the rape of several victims, or even going through her psychological breakdown employed here serves to generate an oppressive feeling of brutality and madness that is all the better due to the squeamish effects-work during these scenes. That has a lot to do with the effectiveness of the story here as well due to the two-pronged setup that's employed. The first feature, about the lives of the two children living together under the shadow of their father who's an infamous, uncaught serial killer in the community, gives this a distinct relationship that's explored rather well. Her living under his domineering touch while trying to adjust to normality in the company of others is a nice bent that manages to provide a great insight into her meek and fragile exterior that contrasts loudly with his brutish and maniacal serial killing ways. Moreover, that mindset gets brought into play with the gradual extent of her descent into madness that echoes the same trajectory of their father. Realizing that he's attempting to replicate the same type of vicious killing spree against her desire for normality, the snap and eventual recognition that she's become something similar through the antics of those around her due to the sexual assaults and torment she receives makes it feel all the more earned which helps to sell it even more. Aided along by the nightmarish visions of past victims running around the house that take on a supernatural bent, this has a lot to like overall. There's not much to hold it down as it's mainly hurt by the aforementioned one-note setup. That is how the film spends the middle part of its running time engaging in the same type of stereotypical treatment of most serial killer films by not doing much differently with the idea of the emotional build-up to the killing. Rather than doing something new, going back to the familiar well sexual abuse and fractured family relationships are at the heart of everything and it's not that impressive so it leaves long stretches of time where very little is interesting. It's not a huge negative but this does bring it down somewhat.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and Rape.

It's not terrible, but a film about serial killers shouldn't be this boring for such a long period of time. It's also uncomfortable and keeps that line for the entire duration of the film which turns out to be repetitive and very single-note. I also need to mention the stupidity of some characters (I wouldn't see someone chained and stay in that place for even 5 seconds; I can't understand the mind of rapists but it's difficult to think they would accept that invitation too...).

I like some technical aspects of it. I like how artsy some shots and directional choices look. Great score too and good acting. It's just not enough in terms of storytelling, engagement, or what it is trying to say (besides trauma and influence).