Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: MEGLOMANIAC [Fantasia International Film Festival 2022 - Virtual]
The context of control and power is a two-faced demon depending on the trauma it comes from. With “Meglomaniac” [Cheval Noir], writer/director Karim Ouelhaj tries to examine the percolation and proliferation of the myth of Mons Butcher, one of the more brutal serial killers in Europe in modern times. The reality of the personification of brutality versus intention is reflective in a dark descent of the characters. Martha (Eline Schumacher) and her brother Felix (Benjamin Ramon) are stuck in a darkness created by their father Mons Butcher who seemed to make the hell of his work part of their childhood in a way. The context of the demons are bathed in dirt writhing, struggling to get out. They may be nothing more than corners of their psyche peeking through but that is the character's reality. The film is bathed in dark blacks and blood. Martha is terrorized at work but her reticence to fight back leads to her eventual revenge but it sort of dictates that the circle keeps moving around. The build is cyclical.
Felix kills as he kills because it is part of his nature though the reasoning of his darkness is both genetic and environmental. He will protect his sister to the end but even that is completely bathed in a sense of wrong, balanced by both terror, dependency and isolation. Martha goes to work until she cannot take it anymore. He wants to her keep going but doesn't have the perception to maybe understand what is happening (which is ironic in itself). But being around her brother brings her more into his lower orbit. For her that is her only sense of connection. It comes across a bit pithy but when she takes her power in relation to one of his victims. it is more mimicry then necessarily her want of action, though it is brutal. The film makes a perception of what society condones but also ignores in the name of its own self righteousness. The final image placates to this in a almost Roman or Dark Age bloodbath of what might be considered grotesque while the characters probably see it as a victory with a chorus watching them from the background. C
By Tim Wassberg
