In 1997, the Butcher, one of world’s most notorious serial killers, strikes and abruptly vanishes. Now his children must carry on with his brutal legacy. They take over his wrath and fall into a world of absolute darkness. A film by Karim Ouelhaj, starring Benjamin Ramon, Éline Schumacher, Wim Willaert, Pierre Nisse, Hélène Moor, Raphaëlle Bruneau, and Olivier Picard.

A psychological thriller film inspired by the true unsolved multiple murder cases committed by the same killer, known as the Dépeceur de Mons (Butcher of Mons), an unidentified serial killer who preyed on five victims between January 1996 and July 1997 in or near the Belgian city of Mons. The killer’s meticulous dismemberment of the victims’ bodies earned him the infamous moniker “Butcher of Mons” given by the media. The victims’ remains were then callously discarded in plastic bags, conspicuously left by the roadside or on a channel embankment.

A chilling enigma haunts the tranquil countryside of southern Belgium, where the gruesome discovery of 15 garbage bags containing the dismembered remains of women sent shockwaves through the region. Beginning on 22 March 1997, these grim findings were made over a period of six months. Five victims, all women between the ages of 21 and 43, were attributed to this merciless perpetrator. As abruptly as the killings began, they ceased on 18 October 1997, leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions.

Despite two decades of relentless investigation and the pursuit of over 1,700 leads, the killer’s identity remains shrouded in mystery. The motive behind these heinous acts and the reasons for their sudden cessation continue to confound investigators to this day.

In the opening scene, we are thrust into the heart of a horrific narrative, where a woman with bloodshot eyes struggles through the throes of childbirth. Standing beside her, a bald man, presumably the Butcher himself, watches with an unnerving intensity. The Butcher (Olivier Picard) gently hands the baby girl to his son Félix (Romain Housen).

The film cuts to the present, where adult Félix (Benjamin Ramon), now a man consumed by darkness, finds himself haunted by the specter of his father. As he sits in his car, cloaked in the shadows of a desolate alley, Felix awaits his next prey, his eyes scanning the periphery for any sign of vulnerability. When his target arrives, he strikes with ruthless precision, the echoes of his father’s brutality reverberating in his every move. With a chilling efficiency, Félix quickly hoists the victim’s body into his car.

Matha (Éline Schumacher), Felix’s younger sister, is a nightshift janitor at a nearby plant where a male employee named Luc (Pierre Nisse) endures persistent harassment. Every now and then, their supervisor Jerôme (Wim Willaert) comes to her rescue. Eventually, Luc rapes her in the restroom, while his friend Remy (Quentin Lasbazeilles) stands watching . Fearing for his safety, Jérôme listens in on the incident from the other side of restroom stalls but does nothing to intervene, allowing the rape to go on and repeat again and again.

Martha often awakens in the darkest hours of the night, jolted from her slumber by the clutches of a recurring nightmare. She keeps the incident at the factory from Felix, its horrifying details locked away in the depths of her mind. In the stillness of their manor, she wanders the halls, her ears attuned to the ghostly whispers of the women her brother brings home for his twisted pleasures. When Félix is absent, Martha’s eyes dart to the shadows, where demonic figures seem to lurk, watching her every move with an unsettling intensity. She yearns to join Félix on his hunts, to escape the confines of the factory and the haunting memories that bind her. But Félix adamantly refuses, dismissing her as she is not cut out for such a life. He insists she must continue working at the factory, maintaining a façade of normalcy, a role she plays with a heavy heart.

The film plunges viewers into a psychologically unsettling atmosphere, where extreme grotesque imagery of brutal torture and killings reign supreme. This disorienting blend of reality and illusion leaves the audience grasping for a sense of coherence, struggling to make sense of a plot that seems to defy logic. Despite the film’s graphic violence, it remains elusive in its portrayal of Félix’s ability to evade capture for an extended period, as he sometimes brazenly carries out his acts of violence in broad daylight.

The film’s final moments are marked by a visceral and impressive fight sequence, though its predictable ending strains Félix’s established code of conduct (he has exclusively targeted women throughout the film) in the pursuit of revenge for his sister. While I anticipated Martha taking on the role of the executioner this time around, she ultimately remains on the sidelines. The ending mirrors the film’s opening scene, as Martha gives birth, leaving the viewers with a lingering sense of ambiguity and a profound reflection on the cyclical nature of violence.

MEGALOMANIAC premiered at Fantasia International Film Festival on 22 July 2022, where it won Best Feature (Meilleur Film). The film received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 8 September 2023, by Dark Star Pictures.