Maika Monroe’s Victorian Psycho Looks Like A Gothic Horror Movie Slowly Losing Its Mind
There’s something deeply uncomfortable about the trailer for Victorian Psycho — and not in the loud modern jump-scare way most horror marketing operates now.
The first teaser released ahead of the film’s Cannes premiere introduces Maika Monroe as Winifred Notty, a young governess arriving at a remote 1850s gothic manor where staff members begin mysteriously disappearing. But the trailer doesn’t really play like a traditional haunted-house setup. It feels more like watching somebody quietly unravel while pretending to remain perfectly polite.
And Monroe’s performance already looks unsettling in a way that’s hard to explain cleanly. She smiles too long. Speaks too softly. Moves through scenes like she already knows something terrible is about to happen.
The Trailer Feels Closer To Psychological Decay Than “Prestige Horror”
A lot of modern gothic horror leans heavily on atmosphere while forgetting tension. Victorian Psycho actually looks tense.
The teaser shows Winifred teaching children manners inside the isolated Ensor House manor while blood, disappearing servants, severed body parts, and violent outbursts slowly start bleeding into the imagery. The trailer barely explains what’s real and what isn’t. That confusion seems intentional.
At moments, the movie almost feels less interested in ghosts than repression itself. Everybody in the manor looks emotionally trapped. The politeness feels fake. Even the cinematography has this suffocating stillness to it, like the film is waiting for someone to finally snap.
Which, based on the trailer, may already be happening.
Maika Monroe Keeps Becoming Horror’s Most Reliable Presence
One interesting thing about Monroe’s career lately is that she rarely chooses horror projects that feel interchangeable. It Follows, Longlegs, and now Victorian Psycho all approach fear very differently.
This role might be the strangest one yet.
Director Zachary Wigon reportedly described the film less as straightforward horror and more as entering the mind of somebody trapped between madness, rebellion, and violent impulse. That emotional instability is all over the teaser. Monroe’s Winifred doesn’t fully behave like a victim or a villain. She looks like someone performing sanity because society demands it from her.
And That makes the trailer creepier than obvious monster reveals.
Cannes Horror Usually Gets Weird — This Looks Even Darker Than Expected
The film premieres in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section before releasing theatrically September 25. The cast also includes Jason Isaacs, Thomasin McKenzie, and Ruth Wilson.
But what’s really making horror audiences pay attention is tone.
A lot of horror movies today still feel designed around internet reactions: giant twists, loud scenes, memeable imagery. Victorian Psycho looks slower, meaner, and emotionally stranger than that. The teaser almost feels like a period drama infected by something rotten underneath.
And weirdly, that’s probably why it’s working.
Because the trailer doesn’t feel desperate to convince viewers it’s scary. It already seems confident that something is deeply wrong inside that house.
