Maika Monroe has been a scream queen for about a decade, from her early starring role in “It Follows” to her turn as an FBI agent in Neon’s “Longlegs.” Now she’s trading serial killer horror for something a bit more “Crimson Peak” with “Victorian Psycho,” a new gothic horror movie. Bleecker Street released the first teaser trailer for the film on May 21, the same day the film premiered in the Un Certain Regard category of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
The trailer, set to the anachronistic needle drop of “Throw Yourself to the Sword” by punk band Die Spitz, introduces the audience to Monroe’s character, Winifred Notty, a young governess who arrives at the remote gothic manor of Ensor House sometime in 1858 to teach the children of the estate’s owners, Mr. and Mrs. Pounds. Soon after she arrives, staff begins to disappear from the manor under mysterious circumstances, and suspicion soon starts to turn towards the eccentric new governess. Not helping her case is the rather unhinged monologue she gives that narrates the trailer, in which she instructs her young charges on the meaning of evil.
“What is the most important thing in life? Knowing good from evil,” Monroe says at the top of the trailer. “But what is evil? Can you touch it? Can you smell it? Can you taste it on your tongue? Can you feel it rolling around inside you? Squeezing hard?”
“Victorian Psycho” comes from director Zachary Wigon, who is best known for his 2022 sophomore feature film “Sanctuary,” starring Christopher Abbot and Margaret Qualley; Qualley was initially tapped to lead the film, before exiting the project in 2025. The film is based on the 2025 novel of the same name by author Virginia Feito, who adapts her own work and penned the screenplay to the feature. As the trailer proudly advertises, the film comes from several producers involved with “Longlegs,” with Dan Kagan, Liz Siegal, and Sebastien Raybaud producing alongside Wigon.
Aside from Monroe, “Victorian Psycho” also stars Thomasin McKenzie, Ruth Wilson, and Jason Isaacs. Following its Cannes premiere, the movie will release in American theaters sometime this fall. Watch the full teaser trailer below.
