Belgian horror film and Fantasia winner Megalomaniac, from writer-director Karim Ouelhaj (Le Repas du Singe, Parabola), has been selling widely: it’s now been acquired by Dark Star Pictures for a North American cinema release in 2023, as well as by Factoris Films in France and Njuta Films in Scandinavia.

Per the synopsis, Megalomaniac centres on Martha (Eline Schumacher) and Félix (Benjamin Ramon), 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.

The film has been garnering critical praise over its festival run, having shown at Fantasia International Film Festival in July and at Grimmfest in the UK earlier this autumn. No release has been secured in the UK, but Dark Star Pictures’ acquisition of the film in the US is a good sign.

“Genre films allow the audience to accept the kind of reality that would be difficult to face otherwise,” Ouelhaj explained in an interview with Variety. “If it were a normal drama, it would have been too much – it would have felt too real. People need something else, especially when you talk about violence against women. I think that ultimately, this film is more about tension than violence. When it comes to violence, especially violence against women, we need to be responsible [as filmmakers]. But I believe that we need to show it, also in order not to forget about it.”

Watch the Megalomaniac trailer below.