Ryan Murphy’s “Monster” anthology series has faced frequent criticism for its portrayal of shocking crimes, but season 3 star Charlie Hunnam thinks viewers might be complicit.
During a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Hunnam, who plays the titular killer in “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” questioned who the show’s real villain is.
“Is it Ed Gein who was abused and left in isolation and suffering from undiagnosed mental illness and … that manifested in some pretty horrendous ways? Or was the monster the legion of filmmakers that took inspiration from his life and sensationalized it to make entertainment and darken the American psyche in the process?” he said. “Is Ed Gein the monster of this show, or is Hitchcock the monster of the show? Or are we the monster of the show because we’re watching it?”
Legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film “Psycho” is based on the 1959 novel of the same name, which is loosely inspired by Gein’s story. Tom Hollander plays Hitchcock in “Monster: The Ed Gein Story.”
Gein committed at least two murders, but he is suspected of killing seven other people. He was also a bodysnatcher who dug up corpses to make clothing and household items out of human body parts.
Gein was arrested in 1957 shortly after the disappearance of Bernice Worden. During a search of Gein’s home and property, police found Worden’s decapitated body and head. They also discovered objects made from human skin, including a wastebasket, leggings, and a lampshade.
READ MORE: Is Ed Gein still alive? An update on the notorious serial killer
Some viewers have criticized “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” for not taking responsibility for its own role in sensationalizing Gein’s crimes. As Flicks’ Clarisse Loughrey wrote, the Netflix series “happily damns” Hitchcock and others for profiting off murder, but doesn’t “address its own complicity.”
One X user called the series “exploitative shock” created only to “score the parasitic Ryan Murphy another hit.”
Another person slammed Hunnam’s view that the show has more than one villain.
“Monster: The Ed Gein Story is the height of sensationalism trash. There’s one monster in this story. It’s Ed Gein. Period,” they tweeted alongside a link to Hunnam’s Hollywood Reporter interview.
Hunnam told the outlet that he “never felt like we were sensationalizing” Gein’s crimes during the making of the show.
“I never felt on set that we did anything gratuitous or for shock impact,” Hunnam said. “It was all in order to try to tell this story as honestly as we could.”
Seasons 1 and 2 of “Monster” focused on Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, respectively. A fourth season about Lizzie Borden is in the works.
“Monster: The Ed Gein Story” is available to stream on Netflix.
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