Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: VICTORIAN PSYCHO [Fantastic Fest - Austin, Texas]
With a title like this and a Cannes birth earlier in the summer, the anticipation and intent was palpable for "Victorian Psycho". Director Zachary Wagon provides an interesting balance that plays both modern sensibilities fixated with gothic horror and Victorian architecture. Maika Monroe plays Winifred Notty as a skewed demon from the get go. The first shot is literally cocked as her eyes look unwittingingly up at us. She is undeniable intelligent but it is almost as if something else in control of her faculties. She is keeping it fairly in check right at that moment in order to make her way into the Ponce household (her new charge as a governess). Both the Ponce parents played by Jason Issacs and Ruth Wilson have their own idiosyncrasies about how they want their house run. Mrs. Ponce is more a woman of the day but one almost thinks that Notty would take her apart bit by bit if given the chance. Mr. Ponce, played by Isaacs, has an eye for detail but his breakdown of action from shooting a book to measuring the aspects of Notty’s skull to an interesting progression of liking at his lineage gives him a doomed context from the start.
The young son of the Ponce household is arrogant but also easily scared in not knowing who carries the real power in this story until she doesn’t. The daughter is an interesting play because she shows a certain aptitude that skews different as well. The aspect of perspective with Notty also shifts and Monroe really sells it as not being in control and yet perfectly in control. Her character is put through the wringer and yet there is an inherent resilience both in her and Notty that just keeps coming even if it is against her better nature to do so (because this is her nature). Monroe can sometimes overact but the heightened nature of this film and the way Wagon films the scenes really plays to her strength and makes this performance one of her best. It might push her into a psychotic pigeonhole with characters but it is quite thrilling to do this with an adequate production and the right actors. Thomasin McKenzie plays a nurse and offers the empathy that might undo Notty but the aspects relay in how Notty lies. There are many plot strands and actions that are never explained but it almost makes it more haunting because of that. Notty sees things in her mind but it might be her demon called Fred protecting her from the reality of what is happening. The resolution though is that unlike those around her (though her brutality is extreme) she sees things as they truly are. 88%/B+
By Tim Wassberg
