While this isn't the first feature from writer-director Karim Ouelhaj, Megalomaniac feels like the announcement of an incredible talent worth keeping an eye on. It's dark, grim, and very uncomfortable, but there are also moments of macabre beauty that serve to both interrupt the bleak plot and highlight the impressive eye of Ouelhaj.
The film follows the difficult life of Martha (Eline Schumacher), a young woman who spends time in her workplace being mistreated and abused (and her abuse includes sexual abuse, with Ouelhaj managing to show this in a way that is disturbing without ever being too graphic). When she is at home, Martha spends time in the company of her brother, Félix (Benjamin Ramon). Félix is a killer, and their home also currently houses his latest victim (Hélène Moor). As things start crumbling around her, Martha starts to become more envious of her brother's "skillset".
One of the most impressive discoveries I have stumbled across in recent times, thanks to randomly picking it on Shudder without knowing anything about it, I fear that I've already said far too much to other people who may have otherwise had a similar experience. This isn't just a great film. It's astonishing. Powerful, dark, unsettling, it keeps you alongside a very unpleasant central character that you end up rooting for, and explores the idea of people being shaped by their environment and the main events of their lives.
Schumacher is excellent in the lead role, rarely doing too much during the many scenes in which her character remains passive, but always with the potential to lean into a darkness that surrounds her at all times. Ramon also makes a strong impression, although he's onscreen for far less screentime. His killer is unnervingly calm and composed throughout, which allows him to continue his sadistic lifestyle for such a long time. Moor has to be bloodied and distressed, which she does convincingly, Raphaële Bruneau is a concerned social worker, and Wim Willaert, Pierre Nisse, and Quentin Laszbazeilles play Martha's work colleagues (either participating in abuse or enabling it by not intervening). There's also a small, but vital, role for Olivier Picard, playing Iblis, the late patriarch of the family AKA "The Butcher Of Mons".
Part of me suspects that I will never want to rewatch this, but another part of me thinks that it's something that I may want to own one day. It easily stands alongside some other towering titles in this grimy sub-genre (yes, I think it comes close to being as good as "Henry") and it constantly moves between the darkest horror and the macabre beauty of moments that look like they could have been painted by a freshly-awoken-from-a-nightmare Caravaggio (or maybe Goya, but with more black paint available to him than any other colour).
Ouelhaj has taken something that could have easily been turned into easy exploitation and made something unique and highly disturbing. I doubt that many people will respond to it in the same way that I did, but I hope it starts to develop a reputation that it deserves. Because, as unpleasant and painful as it is, and even I (despite enjoying thinking of myself as a hardened horror fan) had to look away once or twice, this is art.
9/10
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