Netflix dropped the third installment of Ryan Murphy's anthology series, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, on October 3, pulling viewers into the macabre world of one of America's most notorious killers. Charlie Hunnam takes the lead as Ed Gein, the Wisconsin handyman whose gruesome acts in the 1950s shocked the nation and birthed some of horror's enduring icons. Indeed, Gein's story feels eerily timeless, especially now with this fresh retelling hitting screens just days ago.
Gein, born in 1906, lived a reclusive life on a rundown farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin, dominated by his domineering mother, Augusta, played sharply by Laurie Metcalf in the show. What did Ed Gein do? He confessed to murdering two women—hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957 and tavern keeper Mary Hogan back in 1954—while also robbing graves to fashion trophies from human skin and bones. His house of horrors, discovered by police, was a nightmare of lampshades and masks made from the dead. How did Ed Gein get caught? A routine search for the missing Worden led deputies to his property, uncovering the butchered remains in his shed. He died in 1984 at age 77, succumbing to respiratory failure in a mental hospital, far from the infamy he inspired.
The series weaves in cultural ripples too. Tom Hollander portrays Alfred Hitchcock, nodding to how Gein influenced Psycho's Norman Bates and later horrors like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs. No Evan Peters this time—Hunnam's gravelly voice as Gein has sparked chatter online about authenticity; did Gein really talk like that? Recordings are scarce, but the performance leans into a soft-spoken menace that fits the myth. Reviews are pouring in mixed: some praise the bold visuals, others decry the show's lingering on depravity, calling it unforgivably provocative without deeper insight.
Moreover, the cast shines with Olivia Williams as Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville and Suzanna Son in a key role echoing Gein's twisted obsessions. It's not Bates Motel redux, but a stark look at the mother-son bond that warped him. However, as true crime saturates streaming, one wonders if glorifying such darkness serves any real purpose.
In an era obsessed with monsters, both real and fictional, Gein's tale prompts us to reflect on the thin line between curiosity and complicity.