Set in 1858 at the isolated gothic manor of Ensor House, Victorian Psycho follows an unusual governess, Winifred Notty, played by Maika Monroe, as she quietly hides her growing psychopathic tendencies amongst the estate’s children and staff. Directed by Zachary Wigon and based on the novel by Virginia Feito, who also wrote the screenplay, the project stems from an interest in how literary psychopaths are usually portrayed as male (and what changes when that figure becomes female). Feito was also drawn to the Victorian era itself, which she describes as full of violence, repression, and a lack of agency for women and children.
Monroe fully transforms into the character through costume, wig, and accent work, building a performance around a controlled exterior that slowly begins to fracture. Opposite her, Ruth Wilson plays Mrs. Pounds, bringing a sharp, controlled presence of her own while helping shape the film’s tension-filled dynamic of power, social rules, and repression inside the house.
“She’s fascinated by Winifred,” Wilson says of Mrs. Pounds. “She wants to kind of kill her and make love to her at the same time.”
The two stars may be at odds onscreen, but off set, it was a different story altogether. “We just had so much fun,” Monroe recalls, adding that filming with Wilson resulted in some of her “favorite scenes” she’s ever shot.
The ensemble also includes Jason Isaacs, Thomasin McKenzie, Evie Templeton, and Jacobi Jupe, rounding out the gothic world, which was filmed on location in Ireland inside a castle outside Dublin.
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