In 1858, pre-Freud times, a castle in the Yorkshire moors of Northern England by the name of Ensor House becomes the new dwelling place for young governess Winifred Notty (Maika Monroe, on a horror streak from Longlegs). What awaits her is a predictably stilted family of huge wealth, the Pounds, comprising Mrs. Pounds (Ruth Willson), Mr. Pounds (Jason Isaacs), the heir Andrew (Jacobi Jupe), and their teenage daughter Drusilla (Evie Templeton), but the script—based on Virginia Feito’s novel of the same name—has more than a few surprises in store for all. By following the erotic thriller Sanctuary with a period piece and a mysterious premise, director Zachary Wigon makes the most of this turn towards gothic horror: the delightfully wacky Victorian Psycho can be a testament to both his adaptability and commitment to genre.
Once in the manor house, Mrs. Notty (funnily homonymous to “naughty”) is tasked with educating the children on anything from table manners to family history, all the while bestowing a sense of her exemplary moral compass, at least in theory. At the same time, Winifred’s confessional voiceover pierces the film’s dramaturgy with sarcastic remarks that allude to her psychopathic tendencies, metaphorically winking at the audience. “My name is Winifred Notty and I’m the sanest person I’ve ever met,” she declares during the opening scene, evoking laughter and empathy––not least because the viewer is much more educated on the predicaments of Victorian women than these characters. Even though it’s not said out loud, Victorian Psycho agrees with the psychoanalytical provocation that hysteria and pathology are perhaps the only sane responses to an insane world.
Monroe’s face is framed in frequent close-ups and a slightly tilted angle to enlarge her ever-present, eerie smile, the camerawork of Nico Aguilar quite literally embodying the twisted inner workings of the main character’s mind. We’re talking canted angles, flipping the frame upside-down, and anxious, breathy camera movements that create a jarring sense of excitement. Victorian Psycho is aware of its debts to Brian De Palma and American Psycho while treating its female protagonist with a curiosity that’s not fetishistic. It also toes the line between identification and criticism very skillfully, employing a good amount of humor to diffuse any accusations of either. Mrs. Notty is also hilariously honest even as she admits to committing crimes or gives the children a lecture on evil. Even when she’s cruel enough to smash the head of an innocent animal to prove a point, her wackiness, à la Poor Things‘ Bella Baxter, is hard to resist.
At the same time, Victorian Psycho deserves praise for not making an alluring character out of her: the script (like the novel) makes sure we and the rest of these characters are aware of her dark past early on. Still, she admits to “feeling tenderly” towards her darkness and externalizes it with an elegance unmatched in recent female-led horrors. Ariel Marx’s deviant score accompanies Winifred’s character on her descent towards madness—not only by incorporating the whispers and screams haunting her, but with the help of strings and dramatic arcs that accentuate the theatricality and delight she takes in every act of cruelty.
More than a well-crafted thriller, Victorian Psycho proves a rousing comedy, its trio of great actors never missing the mark with a stoic line delivery. Like Monroe, Wilson and Isaacs are a perfect match when they try to outperform each other’s ridiculousness without concealing, for even a second, how cold-hearted their characters are. An award for Best Inanimate Object Cameo should go to the pineapple (perhaps a throwback to that one line in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite) happily acquired by young master Andrew, itself one of the film’s mildest jokes. Even if you don’t normally show that much appreciation for the kind of dark humor Victorian Psycho employs—slightly misandrist, at times anti-natalist, but always anti-classist—Wigon and his collaborators might convert you to that darker side, if only for the film’s duration.
Victorian Psycho premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival and opens on September 25.