Acclaimed action directorXavier Gensreturned to the festival circuit this year in stylish fashion with his new French-language action thrillerMayhem!(Farang). Starring former MMA fighterNassim Lyes, the film earned plaudits from critics in attendance at this year’sFantasia Film Festivalfor choreography and sequences that earned favorable comparisons toThe RaidandJohn Wick. Now, Collider is excited to exclusively share a new trailer for the film ahead of its release next year that shows off the brutal action eye-candy interwoven with a classic tale of vengeance.
At the heart ofMayhem!isthe story of a father and ex-convict named Sam (Lyes) whose past catches up with him in the worst way possible. After getting wrapped up with a local crime lord before the end of his prison sentence, Sam flees to Thailand to start a new life. Several years later, he’s finally found freedom with a loving wife (Loryn Nounay) and a young daughter in their idyllic beachfront home. Everything is suddenly ripped away from him again, however, when the ruthless crime boss Narong (Olivier Gourmet) forces him back into the criminal underworld. When Sam wants out, Narong attacks him and his family, forcing the ex-con to fight for his life against his would-be executioner and get back his daughter in aTaken-style revenge plot.
The trailer isalmost all actionset around the context of Sam’s pursuit of his daughter. From dingy hallways full of thugs to neon nightclubs in the heart of Thailand,Mayhem!spreadsits breathtaking actionaround a variety of settings where the environment plays a part in the violence. Each melee issnappy and remarkably brutal, as Sam breaks bones and smashes faces with ease. He’s nothing if not a fighter, but he’s also found a few common allies ready to aid him in taking down Narong and saving his family. Even they seemingly begin to fear, however, thathe’s becoming a monster amid his lust for revenge.
‘Mayhem!’ Is Xavier Gens’s Bloody Return to Action Filmmaking
Brutal hand-to-hand action is exactly Gens’s forte as a director, but his last action film came back in 2017 with theRay Stevenson-led horror actionerCold Skin.Mayhem!aims to return to his talents for ceaseless violence as demonstrated inhis 2007Hitmanadaptation and his episodes of the hit seriesGangs of London. Helping him pen the script areMagali RossittoandGuillaume Lemans, the latter of whom previously co-wrotePaul Haggis’s starry crime dramaThe Next Three DaysfeaturingRussel Crowe,Elizabeth Banks, andLiam Neeson. With a mix of brutality and heart,Mayhem!hopes to be a wild ride for genre fans everywhere.
Mayhem!will be released by IFC Films on June 07, 2025. Check out the exclusive trailer below:
