In case you didn’t know, the Cannes International Film Festival is nearing its close. But before the festivities come to an end, Bleecker Street unveiled a new trailer for those not fortunate enough to attend, showcasing scream queen Maika Monroe going completely ballistic in its upcoming period-piece horror movie Victorian Psycho.
Based on Virginia Feito’s novel of the same name, Victorian Psycho follows Winifred Notty (Monroe), a young eccentric governess who begins working at Ensor House, a remote gothic manor. There, her tasks are to rear the manor’s children in etiquette, table manners, education, and the like. But as the film’s title alludes, she’s also gotta do so while suppressing her own psychopathic predilections. Going off the disastrous vibes of her finding an ear under a bed, tasting blood on her hands, and hunting down the manor lords for sport, we’re not in for a Pride and Prejudice romp here. If anything, Monroe is twinning with Lily-Rose Depp’s stellar performance in Nosferatu. And if the teaser trailer noting Monroe is teaming up again with the producers of Longlegs is anything to go on, we’re in for a trippy time.
Victorian Psycho was first announced way back in 2024. However, instead of having Monroe head up the film, it was initially planned to have The Substance‘s Margaret Qualley star in the psychological horror thriller, according to Deadline. However, Qualley dropped out of the film the following year. Nevertheless, director Zachary Wigon (Sanctuary) and Monroe’s costars Thomasin McKenzie, Jason Isaacs, Amy De Bhrún, Ruth Wilson, Jacobi Jupe, and Evie Templeton look like they’ve cooked up a delicious horror movie where its characters and audiences alike will be debating whether there’s something truly amiss with Winifred or if she’s been possessed.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Monroe revealed that despite her status as a bona fide scream queen, she was a little taken aback by her role as Notty in Victorian Psycho.
“It terrified me. I knew that it would be the hardest role that I have ever done—and so incredibly different from anything I’ve ever done,” Monroe told THR. “There’s always a little part of me in roles that I do, something that I can ground it with or connect it with within my own personal life—but this role was really a departure from that. It was working from the ground up, creating this character where I couldn’t rely on my own self. It really, in the most magical way, took a toll on me. I felt it every day.”
Although Victorian Psycho is premiering at Cannes, the rest of us will have to wait for the movie’s nationwide theatrical release later this year. Regardless, we can’t wait to witness Monroe reminding everyone why she’s a scream queen worth making a trip to the cinema to see.
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