‘Victorian Psycho’ Is a Bloodthirsty Treat

“I’m the sanest person I’ve ever met,” insists Winifred Notty, the title character of Victorian Psycho, as the movie begins. That’s the start of a conversation with the audience that allows us to peek inside Winifred’s splintering mind through the power of voice-over—which is just one way Zachary Wigon’s film inspires us to root for a character who almost instantly starts committing an array of gruesome crimes. Victorian Psycho—screenwriter Virginia Feito adapts her own 2025 novel—is both stomach-turning and fantastically entertaining. It’s macabre but also hilarious, subverting the idea of a stuffy Victorian drama with body parts, splatter, some incisive observations about class, and a sly feminist message. Anchoring this stylized nightmare is Maika Monroe (The Guest, It Follows, Longlegs), whose performance as Winifred further cements her place in the horror pantheon. From our very first glimpse of Winifred’s face arranged in a greatly unnerving expression beneath her proper bonnet, starkly contrasting her proclamation of sanity, we know something isn’t right with this eccentric governess. “This won’t be like the other times,” she vows as she marches up to Ensor House, the country mansion where she’s been hired by the unsuspecting Pounds family. We’re left to wonder briefly about those other times, but it’s not a mystery that needs explanation once we get to know Winifred a little better. Bad things happened. Things with a body count. © Courtesy of Bleecker Street But as her affirmation suggests, Winifred is determined to make a go of it at Ensor House. In a time long before references could be checked and qualifications properly vetted—and very, very long before the invention of the multi-part true crime documentary—she has no trouble sliding into her new role at first. Keeping her demons quiet, however, proves challenging, even if the adult Pounds (a note-perfect Jason Isaacs and Ruth Wilson) let her off-kilter behavior slide, mostly because they’re too self-absorbed to clock the chaos in their midst. The kids, Drusilla (Evie Templeton) and Andrew (Jacobi Jupe), start to pick up on the strangeness when, the day of their first lesson, Winifred brains a deer with a rock and informs them that it was a kindness, because “all living creatures are in pain.” In these early days, she manages to reign in her impulses enough to fake being an almost normal person—and when she can’t, she’s amazingly adept at covering her tracks. One big reason she’s able to get away with so much is that nobody—not the snooty Pounds, nor the children’s kind but ditzy nurse, Miss Lamb (Thomasin McKenzie)—could imagine a governess capable of stepping out of line so horrifically. Everyone in this society has a role to fill, and governesses are supposed to be prim, meek, and obedient. Victorian Psycho has a delightful time skewering all the characters in Winifred’s orbit; most are atrocious human beings, though there’s only one serial killer afoot. We do learn some key details about Winifred’s backstory that explain a bit about why she turned out so murderously, which add some welcome depth to her story. And thanks to that voice-over—and the way director Wigon uses unnerving music cues and sound effects, including the demonic whispers inside her head—we’re treated to an insider’s perspective on Winifred’s unraveling. © Courtesy of Bleecker Street Granted, she’s already quite unraveled to begin with. The violence only gets more operatic as Victorian Psycho progresses, and as much as Winifred tries to get a grip on her “flights of fancy,” you can’t help but find yourself eagerly awaiting to see what happens when she really lets herself rip. “Perhaps this will be like the other times,” she sighs when she finally realizes the inevitable. But as it turns out, Ensor House provides the most spectacular time yet, with a final act that unfolds from two wildly divergent points of view in the most creatively improbable way. And if that weren’t already its own gleefully grim reward, we also get a coda that somehow allows our favorite new ghoul to have something resembling a happy ending. Victorian Psycho opens in theaters November 13. Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books that should be on your radar.