- Directed by Karim Ouelhaj
- Written by Karim Ouelhaj
- Stars Eline Schumacher, Benjamin Ramon, Helene Moor, Wim Willaert
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 58 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBbeM5E5OU0
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
There are heavy themes at work behind this story of two damaged siblings. They inherited a big creepy house and a truckload of emotional baggage from their serial killer father. The film is dark, atmospheric, and artsy with great acting and direction. We give it a strong thumbs up.
Synopsis
We are told that in 1997, fifteen garbage bags full of various womens’ parts were found dismembered. We cut to a filthy woman running down a road with no pants. The case of the Butcher made the headlines. Five women were found, and in over 20 years of investigating, the Butcher was never identified. We cut to a very messy, painful-looking birth, with the Butcher delivering a woman’s baby. A young boy is there to take the crying baby. Credits roll. We cut to another man beating a woman unconscious and kidnapping her.
Martha works in a factory, and her coworkers aren’t very nice people. She goes home to her big, creepy house and bakes a cake while playing on hookup apps. She then smashes the cake with her fist before eating it all. We see a photo on the wall of the Butcher and his son.
That night, Martha hears a noise downstairs and wakes up her brother, Felix, the kidnapper we saw earlier. They are the Butcher’s grown children. The next day, Felix goes to church and follows a woman home to stab her to death. We later see him disposing of garbage bags on the side of the road.
Martha goes downstairs to find a jet-black woman crawling around, making cat noises. She goes to work and suffers more abuse and gets raped at the hands of her coworkers. When Felix asks later if something happened, she says nothing happened today. The next day, Martha gets raped yet again, and Felix kills another random woman.
Felix reminds Martha that she’s not allowed in his room or “the other room,” but she wants to participate. “Do you want to get locked up?” “Dad would have let me have one.”
There’s a news report that the Mons Butcher’s case is being reopened since so many new garbage bag-women have been found.
Mrs. Connecci, the new caseworker, comes to see Martha. Martha tells her that her coworkers are all really nice. They have an awkward conversation, and she says she’ll be back next month.
Felix comes home and says he’s brought her a present. She hallucinates a bunch of black animal-people again. There’s a burlap sack with an injured woman inside; it’s just what Martha’s always wanted! Felix cuts out the woman’s tongue as Martha watches. After that, it’s up to Martha to take care of the woman whom she calls “Julie.”
Martha goes to work, leaving Julie chained to a pipe in the house. Julie hears at least one other woman screaming and crying in the house. Later, Julie hears Martha having a conversation with herself. Then, it’s time for more torture and feeding. Suddenly, Mrs. Connecci, the caseworker, knocks on the door for a visit. Martha’s tests are back, and she’s pregnant.
Felix comes home that afternoon and says his work is done; he’ll take care of her and the coming baby. Then, it’s time for a little incest as Julie watches through a crack in the door. Things get weird, even for incest. Afterward, everyone is fully clothed, and it’s not clear whether that really happened or not.
Martha tells herself, “We have to do something, Martha.” Martha goes to work, and she doesn’t look happy. Everyone pretends to be happy to see her, and she invites the whole crew to her house tomorrow night for dinner.
Mrs. Connecci comes by unannounced and finds Julie chained to the wall. She cuts the woman loose as Felix comes downstairs. Felix closes in on Connecci as Julie runs across a field; she’s the woman we saw in the pre-credit sequence.
Martha beats the social worker to death, berating her the whole time. Felix catches up to Julie on the road and recaptures her.
Then it’s time for Martha’s dinner party! The three men from work show up, and they all eat dinner. She tells them she’s pregnant and wants to know if they want to guess who the father is. Jerome knows his two coworkers have been raping her, and he didn’t do anything about it. Luc gets a funny look and falls over. Soon, so do the others.
Martha goes into labor as Felix dispatches the coworkers. They put up quite a bloody fight, but Felix comes out the other side. Meanwhile, down in the basement, their long-dead father climbs back up out of the dirt…
Commentary
It’s visually excellent and stylish. The sets, costumes, and locations are all really good. Still, it’s very slow-moving, taking almost an hour before we get to anything, particularly interesting. It definitely focuses on the mental illness side of a serial killer, as both Felix and Martha are seriously messed up.
It’s very weird. Artsy-Fartsy to be sure, but I overall did like it.