I am a massive fan of actress Maika Monroe and am repeatedly puzzled as to why she is not a huge star, or at least bigger than she currently is. She definitely has the talent and certainly has the looks, so I assume it is either because she, herself, doesn't want the lifestyle that comes with Hollywood fame or she has a crap manager who cannot get her into these bigger, more visible films. However outside of the mainstream fare, Monroe has made a name for herself with independent and horror hits. As such, I try to see most of the stuff Monroe makes and initially when the film was announced, I was very excited by the potential of “Victorian Psycho”. It seemed like it was going to be something completely different for Monroe, a film unlike any she had tackled previously. However when the first trailer for the film finally hit, my heart and anticipation sunk totally. It looked absolutely terrible. Actually, worse than that, it looked like a total disaster, like “worst film of the year” type bad! I hated the overly flashy look to it all and even Maika herself seemed totally wrong, hamming it up like I had never seen from her before. “Victorian Psycho” ended up playing at this year's MIFF, in their “Night Shift” sidebar (dedicated to films with a horror or sci-fi bent), so I decided to still check it out, even though I was convinced that I was going to hate it.
Well how is this for a plot twist, ladies and gentlemen, I ended up absolutely loving “Victorian Psycho”. Sure, the film is not perfect and has a few problems, but these are easily overlooked due to how much fun “Victorian Psycho” is as a whole. It was an absolute blast from start to finish, and another reason why you should never judge a movie by its trailer. One thing that did turn out to be true was that this is unlike any other film Maika Monroe has made before, it is absolutely out there, but it succeeds mainly due to the full investment of Monroe to both the madness of her character, Winifred, and the film as a whole. She totally understands the tone of the film and adjusts her performance to suitably fit this tone, which is slightly heightened, but then Winifred is totally mad from the opening minute of the film, and Monroe's off kilter performance highlights this beautifully and, at times, terrifyingly. Winifred is as mad as a hatter and stays that way until the end, it is only the level of delusion within her that changes as she tries to convince both herself and all those around her that she is very much sane. Monroe uses a combination of subtle facial ticks, raising one eyebrow higher than the other, talking with a demented, crooked smile and a stare that never appears to be making direct eye contact with the personal she is communicating with. She is always just a little “off”, even in her saner moments.
As most (all?) of “Victorian Psycho” is shown via Winifred’s worldview, director Zachary Wigon has used a number of methods to illuminate just how off centre this governess truly is. With a mixture of skewed angle framing and the use of wide angle lenses, Wigon effortlessly shows that Winifred does not see the world like everyone else. I am not sure if they have altered Maika Monroe's face digitally, or if it is just the use of angles, lenses and make-up, but her visage is never shown symmetrically. Like I keep saying, everything is just a little off with Winifred. I mentioned the eyebrows above, but they have given Monroe teeth that are not straight too, and her posture always has her leaning, sometimes slightly, other times in an extreme fashion like in the opening shot of the film.
This may shock you all, but I have not read the book this film is based on (incidentally, author Virginia Feito wrote the screenplay for the film, adapting her own book of the same title), so I was surprised that “Victorian Psycho” turned out to be a horror / comedy, as opposed to the Gothic horror film I had assumed it to be. Yes, you read that right, “Victorian Psycho” is a member of the dreaded horror / comedy club; a genre I often dislike because they are so difficult to pull off successfully due to it being very hard to find the correct balance between both the laughs and the horror. Again, I am happy to report that “Victorian Psycho” has succeeded in doing just that and this is due to everyone, both in front of and behind the camera, understanding exactly the tone of the film they are making. It is a heightened, slightly over the top world, with the comedy being of the blackest variety possible, which is my favourite kind. Seriously, there are moments in this film where I found myself laughing out loud and then almost immediately being embarrassed that I had laughed at it, due to how demented it all was. The perfect example of this is when Winifred brutally murders an infant with a broken tea-cup (after a hallucination she has), and the following commentary that comes out of her mouth after committing the evil deed; it is so wrong, but also so, so funny!! You find yourself at first thinking “Oh my God! Did she actually do that?!?” before it changes to “Oh God, did I actually laugh at that?!?” So while the comedy is quite dark, it is done in a slightly goofy manner to take some of the edge off of it. This is also true of the horror moments, as Winifred performs some quite nefarious deeds (did I mention that she kills a baby?), but due to her state of mind, it is presented in a manner that is less serious. Aside from the blood and guts (which there is plenty), I also found moments in “Victorian Psycho” genuinely scary due to Monroe's performance. There is a moment when she hisses the word “MAD” that is positively chilling, as well as another time when her young charge, Andrew, (while trying to exert some power over his governess) asks if he can call her “Winnie”, she quietly says “you can call me Fred”, which Andrew follows with “but that's a boy's name”, which Winifred finishes with “Fred is the name of the demon inside me!” while blowing out the candle that is illuminating the room, leaving the boy in total darkness. Mic drop! Scary!!
For a film like “Victorian Psycho” to work well, the entire cast needs to be on the same page as to the kind of film they are making and thankfully that is the case here. Everyone is excellent in their roles and appear to be having a ball making this film, but my personal favourites were Jason Isaacs who plays the patriarch of the family Winifred is working for, and who brings all kinds of goofy fun to the film, and particularly Thomasin McKenzie who plays the family's nursemaid, Miss Lamb, and who also becomes Winifred’s one true friend in the house. McKenzie brings both heart and a sense of naivete to this wild and crazy Gothic tale, while also being part of one of the film's most shocking and bloody sequences (no, not the baby scene).
Now I mentioned that “Victorian Psycho” wasn't perfect and had a few flaws, and one thing I didn't love were some of the over-the-top, flashy camera moves. Personally I felt that they did not fit with the rest of the film from a visual standpoint, and functioned more as a show-off piece, rather than serving any narrative function. I love myself some Sam Raimi and the wild and crazy kinetic camera moves that he is famous for, but what makes Raimi's films so memorable is he knows the correct time to use these camera tricks and get the full effect from them, but he also knows when to also put these tricks away if the scene or movie itself doesn't need them. “Victorian Psycho” has quite a distinguished and expensive look to it, thanks to cinematographer Nico Aguilar, who highlights the Gothic atmosphere that is the norm in these types of period films, so these wacky camera tricks ultimately take you out of the film because the viewer's mind recognises they are so different from the rest of the film. (The wild camera moves that involve Winifred’s state of mind I can handle, and understand their importance, it is just when they stray to other elements within the film that I disagreed with their use). In regards to the look of the film, Wigon and Aguilar have decided to shoot the film digitally, which I have no problem with, however it appeared that a fake layer of “film grain” had been added to the image to give it an older look, which really bothered me while watching it on the big screen. Another thing that I felt was a flaw in “Victorian Psycho” was the film's ending, the final massacre if you will, which I feel director Zachary Wigon fumbles. I think he totally undercuts the potential horror of the scene, even though it is probably true to his narrative approach. I know that sounds vague and contradictory (which is true, but I do not want to ruin the ending of a film so new, by explaining this), but I think he misses a trick and a chance on giving horror fans what they have been dying to see.
Overall though, these are minor quibbles and do not take away from how ridiculously entertaining and fun “Victorian Psycho” turned out to be. I had an absolute ball with this film thanks to the truly demented performance from Maika Monroe, and the film's willingness to break any taboo possible, all in the name of laughs and scares. It is not a perfect film by any means, but it is certainly a bloody enjoyable one. I loved it!
3.5 Stars.
