Movie Review: 'Mayhem' is Grossly Violent if Your Into that Kind of Thing

Mayhem (2024)

Directed by Xavier Gens

Written by Xavier Gens

Starring Nassim Lyes, Loryn Nounay, Oliver Gourmet

Release Date January 5th, 2024

Published January 3rd, 2024

Mayhem is an ultraviolent revenge thriller out of France. Directed by Xavier Gens, Mayhem follows a Mixed Martial Artist who is just out of jail and hoping to stay out of trouble. Naturally, trouble finds him instead and he ends up going on the run after accidentally killing the brother of a drug dealer. He picks up his life in Thailand but as stories like this one always go, the past is going to catch up with him leading to a final confrontation and a bloody, bloody end for most of the baddies.

Mayhem stars champion kickboxer Nassim Lyes as Sam, a reformed bad boy eager to rebuild his life after time in prison. Things are looking up for Sam as he gets out of prison and immediately earns a well paying job on a construction site. It's long hours and hard work but it's also a chance to rebuild his life on the right side of the law. Naturally, if that were allowed to happen then this would not be a bloody revenge action film so don't get used to this status quo.

In fact, it takes barely a day before Sam's past comes back to haunt him. A drug dealer who wanted Sam back in his employ has sent thugs to kill Sam. As Sam flees through the rugged streets of Paris, he ends up on a construction site where he ends up killing the man chasing and attacking him. This man happens to be the drug dealer's brother. This will force Sam to give up Paris in favor of going on the lam. Leaving behind all that he's known to go to Thailand and try to start over.

The story then picks up five years down the road. Sam has a wife and has adopted her daughter as his own. They have a baby on the way. They also have plans to buy a home, with money raised by Sam returning to fighting where he throws fights on behalf shady gangster types. Sam's wife may as well have a bulls eye on her forehead, she is not long for this movie. I'm honestly not sure we learned her name. She's only here to die and motivate Sam to become the ultimate killing machine.

And die she does. After Sam tries to take a shortcut toward buying their dream home by making a deal with a local gangster, he's nearly arrested and the gangster who hired him immediately sets the dogs on Sam and his family. Sam's adopted daughter is taken and, as mentioned, and very easily predicted, his wife and unborn child are killed in front of him. This leads to a roaring rampage of revenge that has its memorable moments, to be sure, but is little more than an excuse for a lot of bloody, bloody violence.

There is a scene in Mayhem that nearly made me vomit. At one point, Sam's arm is broken so badly that the bone is coming out of his skin. In an effort to keep fighting, despite this seemingly catastrophic injury, Sam uses his broken bone as a shiv. It's the single grossest thing I've seen in any movie in a long time and I am honestly, legitimately impressed by that. It's rare to see something I've not seen before in a movie. I see so many bloody, silly, fight scenes. It's rare when one stands out as much as this one does.

That said, I don't recommend Mayhem. The film is relatively by the numbers in all other aspects. There are few surprises so the only true selling point is the violence and if that's enough for you, you might enjoy Mayhem. I recommend skipping right to the final act. The final 20 to 30 minutes is almost nonstop blood and guts violence, including the scene I described earlier, and it's kind of entertaining in its skillful destruction of human anatomy. That said, if you're not into that kind of gross violence, Mayhem is not the movie for you.

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