When Ed Gein died at the age of 77 in 1984, the Wisconsin-based serial killer had seen his grisly misdeeds spawn two of the greatest horror films of all time: Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” These movies were not straight, factual depictions of Gein’s crimes, but they saw terrifying potential in exploiting the monstrousness produced by a mix of social isolation, bullying, and parental abuse. As they became box office hits and spawned sequels, fans of the films dug into the lore of Ed Gein, curious to learn how a human being could be driven to such savagery.
Ryan Murphy’s “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” the third season in his Netflix series about notorious American killers (coming on the heels of Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers), purports to get granular about Gein’s gruesome acts, but according to showrunner Max Winkler (the son of television legend Henry Winkler), the writers made significant alterations to Gein’s story because, in some cases, they felt the history was wrong. They also felt the historical depiction of Gein (played by Charlie Hunnam) lacked empathy. So they made some alterations that, to Winkler and his writers, felt truer to the fact than the long-established (but perhaps flawed) factual record.
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The making of a Monster
Charlie Hunnam clowns as Ed Gein in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Netflix
In an interview with The Wrap, Winkler revealed that the murder of 14-year-old Evelyn Hartley, who was suspected to be a victim of Gein’s, but went unconfirmed because her remains were never found, is attributed directly to Gein. Though the suspect failed a lie detector test in the 1950s, the technology was hugely unreliable at that time. “According to our research, it was irrefutable,” said Winkler. So in “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” Gein is identified as Hartley’s murderer.
A more controversial decision for Winkler’s team centered on their depiction of Adeline Watkins (Suzanna Son), who was evidently emotionally involved enough with Gein to prompt the killer to make a rebuffed marriage proposal to her. Watkins recanted some of her comments, but she was clearly close enough to Gein that Winkler felt comfortable expanding her role in the series as a means of humanizing the brutal protagonist. “I’d fallen in love with Suzanna Son’s acting from ‘Red Rocket’ and was so excited when we cast her,” said the showrunner. “We had a hard time writing scenes for people with [Ed Gein], because he was alone so much of the time. So Adeline’s character became a sounding board for that.”
If Winkler has a storytelling advantage here, it’s that horror fans have a wildly distorted understanding of Gein because “Psycho” and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” are so far afield from their inspiration. But this is the problem dogging Winkler’s series: the truth is that Gein was a horrifically abused schizophrenic child. Once you get into his crimes, you realize he’s a product of monsters. You’re watching a person who had no choice in his upbringing and no chance of overcoming it.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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