{"id":352,"date":"2026-05-20T18:07:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=352"},"modified":"2026-05-20T18:07:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:07:56","slug":"victorian-psycho-director-on-the-challenge-of-making-a-demented-and-funny-movie-where-you-root-for-maika-monroes-serial-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=352","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Victorian Psycho\u2019 Director on the Challenge of Making a \u2018Demented\u2019 and \u2018Funny\u2019 Movie Where You Root for Maika Monroe\u2019s Serial Killer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\u201cVictorian Psycho\u201d is a film that lives up to its brazen title.<\/p>\n

\nMaika Monroe plays Winifred Notty, a young governess who arrives at the sweeping Ensor House in the 1850s, ready to work for the well-to-do Pounds family. But Winifred also harbors a violent past and dark impulses, and a series of brutal happenings soon overtake the mansion.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe film, which is set to bow in Un Certain Regard on May 21, tumbles through tones, swerving through pitch-black humor, empathy, fury and larger-than-life moments. Director Zachary Wigon suggests a term that cleanly sums up his vision.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe word I kept using was \u2018demented,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a big tent. Demented encompasses scary, but also funny and outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPsycho\u201d is Wigon\u2019s third feature, following his 2014 debut, \u201cThe Heart Machine,\u201d and 2022\u2019s genre-shifting two-hander \u201cSanctuary.\u201d While open to a new project, the New York City-based director discovered the work of Spanish novelist Virginia Feito and reached out to her. They discussed some different ideas, and then she offered him a chance to read her then-unpublished manuscript for \u201cVictorian Psycho.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat really struck me was every page was filled with this incredible intensity and anger,\u201d he says. \u201cThe novel changed forms a little bit from that early draft that I read to what she ended up publishing. But the anger and the intensity of it was so acute that the experience was like being gripped on every page. At the same time, it was really funny. I\u2019d never read anything like it before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPsycho\u201d is a work that shifts gears frequently, and Wigon says it was essential to collaborate with Feito, who adapted her own work for the screen, make sure the foundational text was airtight.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf the script is feeling true, then going from a scene of horror to a scene of comedy to a scene of character-based drama isn\u2019t a gimmick if it\u2019s true to the situation and the psychological subjectivity of the character,\u201d he says. \u201cSo if it\u2019s true on the page, then it becomes an execution question. As a director, you have a blueprint for a very complicated house and develop the structural engineering so that it can stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tThat sturdiness is doubly important when getting the audience on the side of a depraved central character.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe key thing is being connected to the protagonist\u2019s subjectivity,\u201d Wigon says. \u201cEven if you are not rooting for them, when you recognize how aberrant and awful their behavior is, if you\u2019re connected to their subjectivity, you understand why, to some degree, they feel the way they feel, or why they view the world the way they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMonroe transforms into the eponymous role in a manner that expands on her previous work in dark films like \u201cIt Follows\u201d and \u201cLonglegs,\u201d and the story hinges on her ability to transform herself from a mannered young woman to a murderous rage without hesitation. Wigon says that the pair narrowed in on the character by speaking about \u201cexpressionistic performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne of the interesting things about Maika is her incredible ability to have a restrained, contained intensity on screen,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s this sense with her screen persona that there\u2019s something very intense going on behind her eyes, in her head, that you\u2019re not able to track. Instinctively, I felt it would be compelling to cast her as a serial killer, because we\u2019re so curious about what\u2019s going on in their head.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough Wigon is keeping his upcoming projects and interests quiet for now, he\u2019s \u201cover the moon\u201d about premiering his demented vision at Cannes.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a surreal and unbelievable honor,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Victorian Psycho’ director Zachary Wigon reveals how he created the period piece with Maika Monroe and its journey to Cannes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,386,387],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-maika-monroe","tag-victorian-psycho"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Victorian Psycho\u2019 Director on the Challenge of Making a \u2018Demented\u2019 and \u2018Funny\u2019 Movie Where You Root for Maika Monroe\u2019s Serial Killer - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=352\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Victorian Psycho\u2019 Director on the Challenge of Making a \u2018Demented\u2019 and \u2018Funny\u2019 Movie Where You Root for Maika Monroe\u2019s Serial Killer - 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