Vigilante: When Justice Turns Into a Trap

What happens when someone loses faith in the institutions meant to protect us — and decides to take justice into their own hands? Belgian director Olivier Pairoux’s new thriller Vigilante follows a lonely man hunting alleged child predators online, played in his first major cinema role by singer Eddy de Pretto. Before its Belgian release on 9 September, the film screens in preview at Cinema Sauvenière in Liège on Monday 7 September, with Pairoux and actor Damien Chapelle present for a post-screening conversation.

A hero with no clean hands

Morville is tired. A solitary thirty-something who feels abandoned by the system, he has stopped believing that official institutions can deliver justice. So he creates his own mission.

Under the name Vigilante, he tracks alleged paedophiles on social media, exposing them and attempting to destroy their lives. The premise immediately puts the audience on unstable ground. The crime at the centre of his anger is horrific, and the desire to protect vulnerable people is understandable. But who gets to investigate, accuse and punish? What happens when suspicion becomes a weapon?

When one of Morville’s fellow vigilantes is brutally attacked, he pushes further into this dark online world. His search for revenge brings him into contact with former targets and police officers who dismiss people like him. The film follows the damage that spreads from his actions — and the moral contradictions he can no longer avoid.

Eddy de Pretto steps into the dark

Known for music that has often challenged narrow ideas of masculinity, desire and social expectation, Eddy de Pretto takes on his first major feature-film role as Morville. It is a sharp departure from the stage persona many fans know: here, he plays a man whose isolation, frustration and need for control become increasingly dangerous.

Pairoux’s decision to cast De Pretto is intriguing. The singer has built much of his public work around emotional honesty and resistance to macho posturing. In Vigilante, those qualities are distorted through a character who is wounded, fragile and convinced that his anger gives him the right to act.

The film also stars Damien Chapelle, alongside Roxane Mesquida, Johan Heldenbergh, Zacharie Chasseriaud and Léontine Clerbois. Chapelle will attend the Sauvenière preview with Pairoux, offering audiences a chance to hear directly from the people behind the film.

Beyond the revenge fantasy

Vigilante stories often offer an easy fantasy: an individual cuts through the failures of the police, courts and bureaucracy, then delivers a satisfying punishment. Vigilante appears more interested in what that fantasy hides.

The film asks a difficult but necessary question: when institutions fail — or are perceived to fail — how far can an individual go before “justice” becomes another form of violence? Its noir atmosphere and carefully constructed visual world do not make self-appointed punishment glamorous; they place Morville’s choices under pressure.

That question lands in a culture shaped by social-media call-outs, online investigations and viral accusations. Digital platforms can expose real abuses that powerful people and institutions have ignored. But they can also flatten complex cases, reward outrage and make room for harassment, misinformation or irreversible harm.

For queer audiences, this ambiguity may resonate in more than one way. LGBTQIA+ people have often had good reasons to distrust institutions that failed to protect them from violence, discrimination and abuse. At the same time, queer communities know too well how quickly moral panic, public accusation and “protecting children” rhetoric can be turned against marginalised people — especially trans people, drag artists and queer educators.

Vigilante does not offer a comforting answer. That is what makes its ethical terrain worth exploring.

A Belgian thriller with bite

This is Olivier Pairoux’s second feature film after SpaceBoy, but it moves into a radically different register. Where his earlier film leaned towards science-fiction drama, Vigilante embraces a dark, tense and socially charged thriller format.

The film is a Belgian-Canadian co-production, runs for 91 minutes and is in French. Its arrival also comes during a strong start to the autumn cinema season, with its Brussels International Film Festival preview listed on 5 September before the Liège screening and the wider Belgian release.

Practical information

What? Preview screening of Vigilante, directed by Olivier Pairoux
When? Monday 7 September 2026, 8pm
Where? Cinema Sauvenière, Liège
Guests: Olivier Pairoux and actor Damien Chapelle will be present
Film: Belgium/Canada, 2026; 91 minutes; French-language thriller
Cast: Eddy de Pretto, Damien Chapelle, Roxane Mesquida, Zacharie Chasseriaud and Léontine Clerbois
Belgian cinema release: Wednesday 9 September 2026
Tickets and further details: Les Grignoux / Cinema Sauvenièregrignoux

Dark, tense and ethically uncomfortable, Vigilante promises a thriller that leaves its hardest questions deliberately unresolved.

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