The chilling legacy of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and the unsettling psychosis of Norman Bates in “Psycho” have haunted the nightmares of audiences for decades. But before these cinematic boogeymen slashed their way into popular culture, there was a real-life monster whose gruesome acts of depravity served as their unholy inspiration: Ed Gein. This fall, prepare to delve into the dark and twisted mind of the man who became the blueprint for some of horror’s most iconic villains in Ryan Murphy’s latest installment of his acclaimed anthology series, “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” starring Charlie Hunnam in a transformative role as the infamous killer. The series is set to premiere globally on Netflix on October 3.
Edward Theodore Gein, the so-called “Butcher of Plainfield,” was a seemingly quiet and unassuming handyman from rural Wisconsin. Following the death of his domineering and fanatically religious mother, Augusta, in 1945, Gein’s already fragile psyche shattered, and he descended into a world of unimaginable horror. Living in isolation on his dilapidated farm, Gein’s loneliness and twisted obsession with his deceased mother festered, leading him down a path of grave robbing and, ultimately, murder.
When authorities were led to Gein’s farmhouse in 1957 while investigating the disappearance of a local hardware store owner, Bernice Worden, they stumbled upon a scene of unparalleled grotesquerie. What they discovered within the squalid home would shock the nation and forever etch Ed Gein’s name in the annals of criminal infamy. Human skulls were fashioned into bowls, chairs were upholstered with human skin, and a “woman suit,” complete with breasts and genitalia, crafted from the tanned hides of his victims, was found hanging in his house. These were not the actions of a typical killer; they were the macabre creations of a mind consumed by a morbid desire to preserve the female form, a desire horrifically twisted by his oppressive upbringing.
While Gein was only ever convicted of two murders – those of Bernice Worden and tavern owner Mary Hogan – the true extent of his depravity lay in his systematic desecration of graves. He confessed to making numerous nocturnal visits to local cemeteries, exhuming the corpses of recently deceased women who he believed resembled his mother. It was from these stolen bodies that he constructed his horrifying collection of human trophies. This ghoulish practice of using human remains as raw materials for his “crafts” would later be sensationalized and immortalized in Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” where the Sawyer family’s home is a macabre art installation of bone and flesh.
The psychological impact of Gein’s case, particularly his unnerving attachment to his mother, resonated deeply with author Robert Bloch. While writing his novel “Psycho,” Bloch, who lived just miles from Plainfield, was struck by the eerie parallels between his fictional character, Norman Bates, and the real-life Gein. Both were seemingly harmless, isolated men living under the psychological thumb of a deceased, puritanical mother. The revelation of Gein’s crimes after the novel’s completion solidified the chilling connection, and Alfred Hitchcock’s subsequent film adaptation cemented the image of the seemingly gentle but dangerously disturbed mama’s boy in the public consciousness.
The influence of Ed Gein’s shocking story doesn’t end there. The character of Buffalo Bill in Thomas Harris’s “The Silence of the Lambs,” a serial killer who skins his female victims to create a “woman suit” for himself, is a direct and terrifying echo of Gein’s own grotesque creations. The novel and its Oscar-winning film adaptation introduced a new generation to the horrors that first came to light on that desolate Wisconsin farm.
Ryan Murphy, the creative force behind “American Horror Story” and previous “Monster” installments focusing on Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, is known for his unflinching and stylistically bold explorations of dark subject matter. With Charlie Hunnam, an actor celebrated for his intense and charismatic performances in “Sons of Anarchy” and “The Gentlemen,” stepping into the role of Ed Gein, audiences can expect a deeply unsettling and meticulously researched portrayal of one of America’s most notorious killers.
“Monster: The Ed Gein Story” promises to be more than just a chronological retelling of his crimes. It will undoubtedly explore the psychological and societal factors that contributed to his descent into madness. The series has the potential to examine the public’s morbid fascination with true crime and how the horrors of a secluded farm in Wisconsin in the 1950s have continued to shape and inform the landscape of horror entertainment for over half a century. Brace yourselves for a journey into the heart of darkness, a journey that began long before the roar of a chainsaw or the slash of a shower curtain.
