‘Victorian Psycho’ is Delightfully Obscene and Showcases Maika Monroe at Her Very Best [Cannes 2026 Review]
For a prestige period piece with impeccable attention to detail, Zachary Wigon‘s Victorian Psycho is a surprisingly entertaining, low-lift experience. The nasty mayhem that quickly bursts through the gates stays simmering in the realm of fun thanks to the film’s refusal to take itself or its form too seriously. Even life and death themselves are things us human types tend to take far too seriously, unable to fathom the planet without us, individually or as a whole. Victorian Psycho is prepared to imagine it. Life is a low-rent commodity and can be expelled without much consideration or regret. There’s a wonderfully nihilistic sense here that, like ants or single-cell organisms under a microscope, humans, too, shouldn’t be taken too seriously. And that our suffering, joys, lives, and deaths are just casual events no one will remember. So why not muck things up a little?
The setup here concerns Winifred Notty (Maika Monroe), who arrives at Ensor House, a remote gothic manor on the Yorkshire Moors, where the Pounds family has hired her to look after their two children. She seems generally poised, somewhat soft-spoken, and at least outwardly suited to the role. But it’s mere moments into the film when Winifred admits directly to the audience that she’s got some self-work to do. And then the children she instructs are just as quick to bear witness to her eccentric sensibilities, tied to her powerful and kinda silly deep internal desire to perpetuate carnage and harm. Uh oh…
Thankfully, Mr. and Mrs. Pounds (Jason Isaacs and Ruth Wilson) see no surface reason for concern, and the household carries on as it always has. Then a member of the staff disappears. Then another. The remaining help begin to whisper, the children behave in ways that no longer feel like simple mischief, and the master and mistress of the house find themselves wondering far too late.
This is a career-best performance from Maika Monroe. After It Follows and Longlegs established her as one of the most magnetic faces in modern horror, Winifred Notty gives her the kind of role that actors wait years for: a woman who is performing femininity, performing competence, performing sanity, and slowly losing her grip on all three. While many of my peers have previously found themselves spellbound by Monroe, I was always under the impression that the energy was on the low side, no matter the role. Victorian Psycho has proven me wrong. This is Monroe on full buffoon levels of outrageous. It’s big, energetic, and likely won’t appease everyone. Sure, Monroe leans heavily into exactly what the title here suggests, but as it clearly spells out, this is a maximalist horror show unafraid of hurting feelings or offending sensitive viewers. It’s out for blood, and it’s here for a good time. Monroe’s dual performance, of sorts, highlights this attitude just fine.
While Monroe is explosive and unleashed, Wigon’s direction is stylish, confident, and refreshingly controlled. The compositions are patient when they need to be and brutal when they need to be. He is clearly a filmmaker with a vision of where the genre can go, and Victorian Psycho announces him as a name worth tracking.
Another talent demanding attention is Ruth Wilson, who represents a different terror engine of the film. As Mrs. Pounds, she is downright frightening in a different register than Monroe, all glacial composure and unspoken cruelty, the kind of woman who has weaponized propriety as a means of control. She is the perfect counterbalance to Monroe’s unraveling, and their scenes together are the spine of the film. She’s cruel, bloodthirsty, mildly insane, and has the resources to ensure she’s capable of causing harm at any given moment. Isaacs and McKenzie do strong supporting work around them, but the picture belongs to its two women.
There are sequences here that will be talked about for the rest of the year. This is not a politically correct film, nor is it the world’s most nuanced experience, but all that seems to be floating nearby the point. Instead, Victorian Psycho is a vicious, funny, beautifully made swing from a director and a star who are both operating at a new level.
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Victorian Psycho
Summary
Victorian Psycho is a nasty, happy little surprise with grotesque kills and a staunch refusal to pull back on the promises of its title.