What new Ed Gein Monster series actually got right as people call out ‘made up’ story line
Topics: Crime, Netflix, TV And Film, True Crime, Ed Gein
Madison Burgess
Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Crime, Netflix, TV And Film, True Crime, Ed Gein
October has got off to a well and truly terrifying start as the latest instalment of Netflix's Monsters series dropped onto the streaming platform last week.
For those who aren't familiar, the controversial show dramatises real true crime stories, with each season focusing on a notorious killer or case.
Previous subjects include the Menendez brothers and Jeffrey Dahmer, and this time, the criminal in question is 1950s American serial killer and grave robber Ed Gein, also known as the Butcher of Plainfield.
Those starring in the crime drama include Charlie Hunnam as Gein, Tom Hollander as Alfred Hitchcock, and Suzanna Son as the killer's alleged girlfriend, Adeline Watkins.
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However, with any dramatisation of real life, viewers have questioned exactly how much of the series is true and if any parts were tweaked for the storyline.
One Twitter user brutally penned: "They took INCREDIBLE liberties with this story. If you watch this, understand it’s unbelievably dramatised and about 50% fabricated."
While a second added: "If you’re watching Ed Gein Netflix series, I hope you know how fabricated it is."
And someone over on Reddit penned: "Man, I do not mind at all if they do make a movie about a killer and go in depth about what he did but they portrayed him horribly.
"They kept adding in scenes of him getting off, the same ones multiple times that were not needed. They added multiple details that just weren't true to make it more dramatic, turned storylines was past what was real to the point it seemed honestly just weird and disrespectful.
"His 'girlfriend' at the time gave mixed responses about even dating him and they made it seem like they were partners in crime."
So, what exactly did the series definitely get right?
The huge thing that the series kind of had to get right was the fact that Ed Gein did rob graves and made masks, body suits and furniture out of human skin.
As per PEOPLE, Gein would monitor obituaries to know who had been freshly buried.
He only admitted to only taking parts of the body, for example the head, but according to TIME, he did steal an entire female corpse once.
When police searched the Gein farm, they discovered gruesome masks, body suits and furniture - such as lamps and chairs - made of female skin, as well as other horrors, such as human skulls being used for soup bowls.
Though there was never any evidence that suggested Gein participated in cannibalism or necrophilia.
A big aspect of the show that's come into question is whether Gein's girlfriend, Adeline Watkins, was a real person.
The answer is that yes, she was, but their exact relationship and involvement with each other are unclear.
She is based on a real resident of Plainfield, Wisconsin, but information about her is thin.
The real Watkins came forward in November 1957, just days after Gein's arrest, to famously claim the pair had a 20-year romance.
She even revealed she had almost married him, telling the publication: "I loved him and I still do," with the article being published after the serial killer admitted to 'butchering' another woman.
However, just days later, Watkins revoked almost everything she said and instead claims they were just friends, adding to the confusion.
It is true that Ed Gein inspired one of the most famous horror films of all time - Alfred Hitchcock's Pyscho - and the crime drama delves into this connection.
In the series, Gein kills local bartender Mary Hogan, telling her she reminds him of his mother.
As per Netflix Tudum, it’s no accident that the same episode introduces the parallel story of Hitchcock, who drew directly from Gein’s relationship with Augusta for his portrait of Norman Bates, a motel-owning killer who dresses in his mother’s clothes.
Creator Ryan Murphy said: “He is probably one of the most influential people of the 20th century, and yet people don’t know that much about him. He influenced the Boogeyman and Psycho.
"Norman Bates was based on him. He influenced The Silence of the Lambs. He influenced The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. He influenced American Psycho.”
It is also true that Ed Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia, as seen in the drama.
While in isolation in the mental hospital, the show sees Ed finally be diagnosed, which gives him much-needed insight into why he committed the crimes and why he doesn’t remember committing them.
Hunnam said: "We always knew that we wanted to climax our story with our exploration of the nature of mental illness and how it had affected Ed.
"If he had gotten the right treatment sooner, [the question becomes] if he would’ve ever done the things that he did. I really wept inconsolably reading that scene for the first couple of times."
The fact also gave the actor valuable insight as he took on the role.
He added: "He really lived in that world, and the parameters and fantasies of that world were as real to him as anything else. It was just his reality. Those manic episodes were the experience he was having, just like anything else."
In real life, Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia and found 'not guilty by reason of insanity' in 1968.