4 Times Serial Killer Ed Gein Penetrated Media

Charlie Hunnam is absolutely terrifying in Netflix’s Monster. Those who know the actor from Sons of Anarchy would be shocked by his performance in the series. The third installment of Ryan Murphy’s horror show dives into the life and crimes of Ed Gein and the entire culture inspired by the man. From The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Psycho, several crime classics have been linked to him.

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Ed Gein was also known as the Butcher of Plainfield and the Plainfield Ghoul. He was a murderer, a possible serial killer, and a grave digger, but he was eventually found “not guilty” for reasons of insanity due to the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs took inspiration from several real-life killers. Much like the creation of Hannibal Lecter, Buffalo Bill shares a combination of traits from Ted Bundy, Gary Heidnik, and Ed Gein, including Bundy’s use of fake injuries to lure his victims, Heidnik’s use of a basement to torture women, and Gein’s obsession with his mother and his passion project of stitching a suit with human skin.

Ted Levine played Buffalo Bill in the 1991 film adaptation. “I kind of took it that he was sort of imitating the way his mother might have talked to the poodle,” the actor said in an interview with ScreenHub. “By hearing that voice, in a sense, he’s sort of talking to himself. His inner poodle, as it were.” He also explained that Buffalo Bill was “playing with” ideas as he put on women’s skin as clothes. “He’s tried on a whole lot of personas, and just got hooked on this idea of dressing in a woman’s skin.”

Psycho

Monster actually weaved the making of Psycho and its influence into the storytelling of season 3. One particular trait that Ed Gein has is his twisted love and obsession with his mother. Based on Robert Bloch’s novel, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho introduced the disturbing Norman Bates, who is similarly fixated on “Mother.”

While Bloch denied anything direct connection between Bates and Gein, he did admit that he was inspired by the small town killer’s circumstances. “I’d discovered how closely the imaginary character I’d created resembled the real Ed Gein both in overt act and apparent motivation,” he told Galaxy Press.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre follows Leatherface, a slasher who wears masks made out of human skin and terrorizes viewers with his chainsaw and cannibalistic behaviors. While what happens in the 1974 horror classic doesn’t really match Ed Gein’s life story, director Tobe Hooper has admitted that the figure was born out of the fear and fascination for Gein and his real-life crimes.

“To me, he was like a real boogeyman,” said Hooper of Gein in an interview with The Flashback Files. “I had relatives from Wisconsin and they would pay us a visit when I was about four or five years old. They told us the story about this man who lived in the next town from them, about twenty seven miles or so, who was digging up graves and using the bones and skin in his house. That was all I knew about it...That stayed in my mind.”

American Horror Story: Asylum

American Horror Story has a history of drawing inspiration from real-life events, people, and places. It wouldn’t have made sense if the FX horror series had left Ed Gein’s story untouched. This was realized in Asylum through Dr. Oliver Thredson, aka Bloody Face, who has a habit of skinning his victims, motivated by his search for “Mother” after being abandoned as a child.

The series was co-created by Murphy, who saw the man as a significant figure in shaping the landscape of the horror genre. “He is probably one of the most influential people of the 20th century, and yet people don't know that much about him,” Murphy told Netflix. “He influenced the Boogeyman and Psycho.”

What both American Horror Story: Asylum and Monster have in common is their exploration beyond the murders that Gein admitted to having committed. “To me, what’s interesting is not so much the crimes but everything else that surrounds the crimes,” he told The New York Times. “If you walk away from Ed Gein and all you want to talk about are the two murders, well, that says a lot about you.”