{"id":833755,"date":"2026-07-30T16:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833755\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T16:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:11:09","slug":"victorian-psycho-trailer-maika-monroe-goes-unhinged-in-zachary-wigons-ultra-violent-gothic-horror-world-of-reel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833755\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Victorian Psycho\u2019 Trailer: Maika Monroe Goes Unhinged in Zachary Wigon\u2019s Ultra-Violent Gothic Horror \u2014 World of Reel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s the trailer<\/a> for Victorian Psycho by Zachary Wigon, which I saw at Cannes this year.<\/p>\n

This is an over-the-top, ultra-violent, preposterous film. There is absolutely zero reason to take this film seriously while watching it. <\/p>\n

Set in Victorian England, the story follows an eccentric governess who arrives at a remote Gothic manor, only to stir suspicion that she is not quite what she seems. Maika Monroe stars in the lead role, replacing Margaret Qualley, who suddenly bowed out due to a scheduling conflict. The cast also includes Jason Isaacs as the patriarch and Thomasin McKenzie as the daughter. The screenplay is adapted from the novel by Virginia Feito, who also penned the adaptation.<\/p>\n

Monroe is completely unhinged here. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other way to describe her performance. She plays a woman who is absolutely turned on by blood. Beware of anyone who describes herself as \u201cthe sanest person I\u2019ve ever met.\u201d She goes to 11 with her acting. No subtlety whatsoever.<\/p>\n

The visual style is also outlandish. The humor ranges from absurd visual gags to gooey violence. There are tilted frames, upside-down shots, and restless camera movements \u2014 all of which are meant to represent her psyche. This is basically a Victorian version of \u201cAmerican Psycho,\u201d and right before the screening, Cannes chief Thierry Fr\u00e9maux mentioned that Brian De Palma had emailed him, proud that the film was being screened at Cannes \u2014 I can see his influence here as well.<\/p>\n

Did I like the film? Well, it\u2019s certainly not boring, but it\u2019s a little too much. It\u2019s the kind of film that tries its damnedest to shock, yet ends up feeling far less subversive than it imagines itself to be.<\/p>\n

Monroe has turned into a sort of scream queen, building a considerable filmography of frighteners, including \u201cLonglegs,\u201d \u201cIt Follows,\u201d \u201cWatcher,\u201d and \u201cThe Guest.\u201d She is set to shoot an \u201cIt Follows\u201d sequel this summer.<\/p>\n

Wigon, who directed the indie chamber piece \u201cSanctuary,\u201d originally had \u201cVictorian Psycho\u201d set up at\u00a0A24, but the indie studio later dropped the film, which eventually landed at\u00a0 Bleecker Street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s the trailer for Victorian Psycho by Zachary Wigon, which I saw at Cannes this year. This is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":["post-833755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}