Maika Monroe has spent enough time running from monsters. Between It continues, Guardsand LonglegsMonroe has built a terrifying resume filled with creatures and criminals who shouldn’t be allowed within 500 feet of her. Her next job gives someone else a reason to check the locks, although unfortunately for her employers, a room in the house is already in danger.
There are plenty of reasons to be suspicious of a new entrant in a Gothic horror film, but in Victorian Psycho, Winifred Notty makes that list much longer. Teaching children and maintaining an appearance of respectability is part of the job, but it seems like it takes a little more effort to keep her violent temper to herself.
Collider can only showcase a new behind-the-scenes feature for Victorian Psychothe upcoming horror film starring Monroe, Thomasin McKenzie, and Jason Isaacs. Directed by Zachary Wigonto change Virginia Feito The novel follows Winifred as she enters the service of the wealthy Pounds family in 1858. Their remote estate, Ensor House, offers her a fresh start, as long as she can control the demands that make her a particularly dubious choice for childcare. The featurette introduces a woman who has a much warmer relationship with her worst instincts than anyone around her might think. “Most are afraid of the dark; But I feel tenderly towards my father,” Winifred says, offering an early indication that the house’s hiring process could have used another round of interviews.
Collider Exclusive · 8 questions · 2 minutes what are you The biggest horrible nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring
Four awesome franchises. Four completely different ways to scare you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure that no one believes you. One of them is already in your friend group. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how horrible you really look, and find out what nightmare you’ve been made of.
😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)
🧸Chucky(Children’s Play)
📞Scream(Ghostface)
🕯️the conjuring(The Warren Files)
01
What horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic pictures. One is worse than the other for you.
02
You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everyone has one. It comes before you decide anything.
03
What horror movie rule did you break first? Everyone thinks they will survive. Almost no one does.
04
Something very scary happens. What are you doing? Not a movie. In your actual living room, tonight.
05
How do you watch a horror movie? Be honest about this one. No one is checking.
06
Someone offers you real money. What do you still refuse? The amount doesn’t matter. There is one on this list that you do not.
07
What feeling stays with you a week after the movie? Good horror doesn’t stop when the credits roll.
08
Something wakes you up at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that will decide your nightmare.
The Lights just went out You have a nightmare…
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting under your skin. This is the one that was built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.
A Nightmare on Elm Street · From 1984
Elm Street
Your nightmare is not waiting outside the door. He is waiting for you to close your eyes, which you will eventually have to do, because no one has ever won that particular argument.
Freddy is horror’s toughest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you can’t protect, can’t lock, and can never avoid.
You are the one who is well through the movie and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this will damage it.
These films understood fatigue as a terrible engine. The kids on Elm Street don’t lose because they’re weak. They lose because they are tired.
You can lock every door in the house. You still need to sleep.
Children’s Play · Chucky · From 1988
Chucky
The doll is definitely not your nightmare. It is the face of the person who tells you, and the way in which they decide, kindly, that you have thought of everything.
Chucky works precisely because it’s absurd. That’s the trap: the more accurately you describe it, the less anyone will believe you.
You’re the one yelling at the screen because the characters aren’t listening. You know that feeling from real life too.
The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are a real obstacle, and you’ve met those adults.
By the time someone finally believes you, you will have handled most of it yourself.
Scream · Ghostface · Since 1996
Scream
You have the nightmare number, you know your name, and it has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes off the mask and turns out to be someone who was at the party.
You are the one who says the twist above before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch movies.
The franchise made the horror rules part of the plot, which means that the survivors are the ones who care. You would pay attention.
Everyone is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.
The Conjuring · The Warren Files · From 2013
the conjuring
Your nightmare is not entirely about you. It’s about the people sleeping down the hall, and the feeling that nothing here wants to leave.
The Conjuring movies are domestic horror. The house, the family, the very ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
Your instinct is to get everyone into one room. Your fear is defensive rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
This is the only franchise where belief is a weapon. The people who come through are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
Whatever is here did not come for you. He came for the house, and you are the one standing in the hall.
‘Victorian Psycho’ takes inspiration from two very different Jack and Patrick
The preview also mentions two useful reference points for the madness that awaits the Pounds family: Jack Nicholson’s performance in The Clarity and American Psycho. Both suggest that keeping up appearances will only get Winifred so far. The feature especially draws a connection with the main antihero of the last film and descends into madness, putting Monroe’s manager in very unpleasant company. That combination leaves plenty of room for humor alongside the bloodshed. The feature describes the film as “A very brutal, strange, grotesque story,” while the film allows Winifred’s troubled behavior to defy her expected mannerisms. One particularly chilling exchange has a child say to her, “Miss Notty, you scare me,” and for someone whose continued employment depends on hiding how dangerous she is, that hardly qualifies as a glowing performance review.
Another focus of the preview is Monroe’s ability to shift between seeming innocence and something much more sinister. Horror fans already know how convincing she can be when her characters are afraid, and Winifred gives her the chance to inspire that reaction in everyone else. As for whether audiences should expect to laugh or be scared, the featurette offers a third prediction: “I think they’ll be wildly entertained.”
Victorian Psycho premieres in theaters November 13. Stay tuned to Collider for more.
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