There Will Be Blood: Maika Monroe is a Troubled Governess in ‘Victorian Psycho’ Period Horror
No one is who they seem to be in Zachary Wigon’s period horror film Victorian Psycho, which dropped its first trailer Thursday, coinciding with the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
In Victorian Psycho, Maika Monroe tries on a British accent as she plays Winifred Notty, a young woman who takes the governess position at the remote gothic manor of Ensor House sometime in 1858 to teach the children of the estate’s owners, Mr. and Mrs. Pounds.
In books and movies of this nature, the governess is the one who has to fear for her safety, alone and unprotected among people wealthier and more connected that she could ever be. But in the trailer, we see that it’s Winifred who gives off dangerous vibes.
Soon after Winifred starts looking after the children, other household staff begin to vanish under mysterious circumstances, and Winifred is not above suspicion. In the trailer, set to the tune of “Throw Yourself to the Sword” by non-Victorian band Die Spitz, Monroe gives an unsettling monologue about the meaning of evil, which we find out is being delivered to her young charges.
“But what is evil? Can you touch it? Can you smell it? Can you taste it on your tongue? Can you feel it rolling around inside you? Squeezing hard?” she asks the children, who sit wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the end of her narration.
Throughout the course of the trailer, we see Winfred find a human ear under a bed, dip her hand in a bowl full of blood, and get her head measured by a phrenologist who compliments her “organ of lust.”
Jason Isaacs, Ruth Wilson and Thomasin McKenzie also star in Victorian Psycho, along with Jacobi Jupe, the young star of Hamnet and Evie Templeton as the children.
The film is based on the 2025 novel of the same name by author Virginia Feito, who adapted the novel to write the screenplay. Producers include Dan Kagan, Liz Siegal, and Sebastien Raybaud, who part of the team who brought us Longlegs, which also starred Monroe.
Image courtesy Bleecker Street.
Victorian Psycho and star Monroe received a seven-minute standing ovation at Cannes when the film played on Thursday. Bleecker Street will release the film in the US on September 25th.
