GUILLOTINE (2025)

Available On Demand on Amazon!
Directed by Ray Izad-Mehr.
Written by Ray Izad-Mehr, Nabor Cabanillas, Lisa Molenda, Melinda Molenda, Sara Vahabi.
Check out the trailer here!!

GUILLOTINE tracks the strange, offbeat, and often grotesque history of the implement of death known as the guillotine through the ages; from its invention during the French Revolution all the way up to the Fall of Saddam Hussein where an antique guillotine was still used. The film is told in five short stories that span decades and occur in numerous parts of the world.

This is a strange little nugget of a movie. Instead of focusing on a central protagonist, the film instead follows the guillotine as it is used through the ages, showing how this instrument of death represented different things to different regimes, seeing to the death of a variety of walks of life. This is a fascinating POV to follow as it gives a cross-section of how crime, law, sin, and punishment has or in some cases hasn’t evolved through the ages.

The five segments really highlight the range of Iranian-American filmmaker Ray Izad-Mehr as the narrative bounces through the ages in a sometimes jovial, yet occasionally more poignant way, starting with the French Revolution where a group of political advisors search for a kinder, gentler form of capital punishment when a drunken axe man ends up gorily decimating someone’s head during an execution. From that gruesome and whimsical entry point, the segments follow religious and political executions through the years. Adding to the whimsy of GUILLOTINE is a modern soundtrack, rather than one using music apropos to the era it takes place in.

It all adds up to a very odd film that keeps you on your toes as to whether it wants to make you laugh, puke, or even learn a little about this truly horrifying death device. GUILLOTINE is less of a horror film than it is a macabre educational film, though it doesn’t hold back on the gore and is downright funny at times. It’s a strange one and won’t be for everyone, but I was never bored with GUILLOTINE.