The latest addition to Ryan Murphy’s Monster anthology series adds another notorious American killer to the Netflix canon – this time delving further back into the past than the show has gone before.
‘There’s something real dark about you, Eddie Gein,’ we hear a woman’s voice say at the start of The Ed Gein Story trailer. It’s an understatement.
The third season dramatises the life of Gein, played by a blank and inscrutable Charlie Hunnam in what has already been hailed as the most daring TV performance of the year.
Co-created with Ian Brennan, this season of the show positions Gein as the originator of horror classics like Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs. He’s a near-prototype for the latter’s skin-obsessed killer Buffalo Bill.
Gein admitted to frequenting local graveyards between 1947 and 1952, during which time he exhumed recently buried bodies and took them home to make horrifying keepsakes, which police later found at his home.
Get personalised updates on all things Netflix
Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro’s TV Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we’ll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you.
Known as the ‘Butcher of Plainfield’, Gein confessed to two murders – of tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957 – and was suspected of seven others. The rural Wisconsinite died in a psychiatric institution in 1984.
But despite becoming a template for classic horror films, not as much is known of Gein and his motivations, compared to the 2022 and 2024 show subjects of Jeffrey Dahmer and Erik and Lyle Menendez respectively.
We will have to wait and see if the Gein season attracts any of the controversy those seasons did.
Why has Ryan Murphy's Monster series been controversial?
While Murphy said his Menendez series was ‘the best thing that has happened to the brothers in 30 years’, their family took issue with the show.
Members of the brothers’ family said the pair were ‘victimised by this grotesque shockadrama’ and also claimed the show was ‘riddled with mistruths’, per a social media post.
Murphy responded to the comments by saying they were ‘predictable at best’ in an interview with Variety.
‘I find it interesting because I would like specifics about what they think is shocking or not shocking,’ said the Glee creator. ‘It’s not like we’re making any of this stuff up. It’s all been presented before.
‘What we’re doing is we’re the first to present it in one contained ecosystem. What’s grotesque about it?’
The Jeffrey Dahmer Monster series also received blowback, with some victims’ relatives claiming that nobody from the production notified them of the show or consulted them. Murphy in turn said they had reached out but received no response.
The show was slammed for its incredibly protracted scenes of grisly violence and also criticised for its sometimes-sympathetic depiction of Dahmer.
Hunnam did his own investigative work to prepare for the role and managed to get his hands on a lost tape of Gein’s voice, which had been recorded the night he was arrested but deemed not legally admissible.
‘Our best researchers couldn’t get’ the tape, show director Max Winkler told Variety. ‘But Charlie got it, because he’s Charlie and he does crazy s***.’
‘I started to see him through a series of affectations to please his mother,’ Hunnam told the publication. ‘That’s where the voice came from.’
The Netflix trailer has promised maximum creepiness, so the eight episodes now streaming on Netflix are likely not for the weak of stomach.
In the comments section, TV fans seem ready. @zipkip4996 wrote underneath the teaser: ‘I love the line, “You’re the one who can’t look away” as he looks at the camera.
‘Basically Netflix saying even though you’re disgusted by this, you’re still going to watch it.’
‘This show is gonna shock people,’ commented @devante9555.
@Tanise-j1i wrote: ‘Charlie is going to do a phenomenal portrayal of Ed Gein. Such a good actor in everything he is in.’
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available to stream on Netflix.