Before I watched this (all 8 episodes of it) I thought I knew all there was to know about Ed Gein. I was wrong. If you don’t know who he was well, he was a pretty big sicko. Murderer, grave robber, possible serial killer, and cross dresser. Starring as Gein is Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy and Children of Men) who is super creepy. Not sure how I felt about the voice he adapted for the role, but it was certainly different. I went and listened to some recordings of Gein and Hunnam didn’t sound much like him. To me he sounded like the guy in Office Space that was obsessed with his stapler. But here's the deal, did Hunnam do it just to make the character sound different? If so, he succeeded.
Playing Gein’s mother is Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne and Big Bang Theory) and she is playing the part as a stricter and God-fearing woman than she did as Sheldon Cooper’s mother. I know the miniseries is about Ed, but Metcalf nearly steals the whole show; she is just that good. Playing Ed’s love interest Adeline, (she was only his love interest in the series not in real life, this is just one of the differences included in the series that critics didn’t like) is Suzanna Son (Fear Street Prom Queen and Red Rocket) who, after a few episodes, you begin to realize isn’t quite right either. Tom Hollander (About Time and Bohemian Rhapsody) plays Alfred Hitchcock, and I must be honest here, they needed to get someone else to play the role. Nothing against Hollander but wow, that was just awful.
Now I know you’re asking why Alfred Hitchcock would be in a movie about Ed Gein? Well, the real-life story of Ed Gein is the influence for the Norman Bates character in Hitchcock’s film Psycho. Not only that but Gein is also the influence for Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs is also based on Gein. Like I said earlier, this guy was a sicko! The series follows Gein over the course of forty years. Starting in the early 1940s through his years as a patient in Mendotta Mental Health Institute. His actual convictions included two counts of murder (he was suspected of committing seven more), and nine counts of corpse mutilation. You can do your research to see exactly what he did, especially the corpse mutilation crimes. Disturbing is a good way to describe it.
I understand the people who complain the series isn’t completely factual but really, the story is a dramatization of the actual story, so I’ll accept it and move on. While I never saw the Jeffrey Dahmer series on Monster, I did see the Menendez brother’s series. This wasn’t as good as the Menendez series but it’s not terrible. Also, this could have easier been shorter. I’m talking shorter by like two episodes, especially at the end where a lot of stuff is added that never happened. I will give it three lampshades made from a human face (this one really happened too!) out of five. This isn’t for everyone, and I can’t even say it’s an acquired taste. No, do NOT acquire a taste for that!
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