Maika Monroe’s New Horror Movie Is an ‘American Psycho’ Meets ‘The Shining’ Nightmare [Exclusive]

1 week ago 13

Published Oct 16, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Hannah covers horror, sci-fi, and games at Collider, where she writes news and features, reviews new releases, and interviews the people who make them. She’s helping build out Collider’s gaming coverage, with Pokémon as one of her specialties. If she isn’t writing about a monster, she’s probably watching one on a tape from her VHS collection.

Maika Monroe has spent enough time running from monsters. Between It Follows, Watcher, and Longlegs, Monroe has built a horror resume full of creatures and criminals who should never be allowed within 500 feet of her. Her next role gives someone else a reason to check the locks, although unfortunately for her employers, the threat already has a room in the house.

There are plenty of reasons to be suspicious of a new governess in a gothic horror movie, but in Victorian Psycho, Winifred Notty makes that list considerably longer. Teaching children and maintaining a respectable appearance are part of the job, but keeping her violent impulses to herself is apparently going to require a little more effort.

Collider can exclusively debut a new behind-the-scenes featurette for Victorian Psycho, the upcoming horror movie starring Monroe, Thomasin McKenzie, and Jason Isaacs. Directed by Zachary Wigon, the adaptation of Virginia Feito’s novel follows Winifred as she enters the service of the wealthy Pounds family in 1858. Their remote estate, Ensor House, gives her a fresh start, provided she can control the urges that make her a particularly questionable choice for childcare. The featurette introduces a woman with a considerably warmer relationship to her worst instincts than anyone around her would probably appreciate. “Most fear their darkness. But I feel tenderly towards mine,” Winifred says, offering an early indication that the household’s hiring process could have used another round of interviews.

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring

Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.

😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)

🧸Chucky(Child's Play)

📞Scream(Ghostface)

🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)

FIND YOUR NIGHTMARE →

Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.

ASomebody falling asleep when they really should not. BA toy that has moved, and nobody touched it. CA phone ringing in an empty house. DA child talking to somebody who is not there.

NEXT QUESTION →

You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.

AI am exhausted and my mind is playing tricks on me. BSomething in this room is not where I left it. CSomebody is in here with me. DThis house has never felt entirely right.

NEXT QUESTION →

Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.

ANever fall asleep. BNever leave it out of your sight. CNever answer the phone. DNever go down to the basement.

NEXT QUESTION →

Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.

AConvince myself I imagined the whole thing. BTell someone, and brace for them not believing me. CWork out which person I know could be behind it. DGet everybody in the house into one room.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.

AFine during. Wide awake at two in the morning. BShouting at the screen that nobody is listening. CCalling the twist out loud before it lands. DThrough my fingers, holding on to something.

NEXT QUESTION →

Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.

AFall asleep in a room I have never been in before. BKeep an old doll on the shelf facing my bed. CAnswer every unknown number that calls after midnight. DSpend one night alone in a house with a history.

NEXT QUESTION →

Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.

ANot wanting to turn the bedroom light off. BNot trusting one particular object in my house. CLooking twice at people I have known for years. DFeeling like something came home with me.

NEXT QUESTION →

Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.

AThat I am still asleep, and it knows it. BThat the thing nobody believed me about is here. CThat somebody with a key is downstairs. DThat something is in the doorway, watching us sleep.

REVEAL MY NIGHTMARE →

The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…

Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.

Elm Street

Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.

Freddy is horror's cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this does its damage.
These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.

Chucky

Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.

Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You know that feeling from real life too.
The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you have met those adults.
By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.

Scream

Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and 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 the mask off and turns out to be somebody who was at the party.
You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch films.
The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.

The Conjuring

Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.

The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one standing in the hallway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

‘Victorian Psycho’ Takes Inspiration From Two Very Different Jacks and Patricks

The preview also names two useful reference points for the madness awaiting the Pounds family: Jack Nicholson’s performance in The Shining and American Psycho. Both suggest that maintaining appearances will only get Winifred so far. The featurette specifically draws a connection to the latter movie's central antihero and descent into madness, placing Monroe’s governess in some deeply unpleasant company. That combination leaves plenty of room for humor alongside the bloodshed. The featurette describes the movie as “a very violent, bizarre, grotesque tale,” while the footage lets Winifred’s disturbing behavior collide with the manners expected of her. One particularly chilling exchange has a child telling her, “Miss Notty, you’re scaring me," and for someone whose continued employment depends on concealing exactly how dangerous she is, that hardly qualifies as a glowing performance review.

Monroe’s ability to move between apparent innocence and something much nastier is another focus of the preview. Horror fans already know how convincing she can be when her characters are terrified, and Winifred gives her the opportunity to provoke 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’re gonna be wildly entertained.”

Victorian Psycho premieres in theaters November 13. Stay tuned at Collider for more.