Welcome to Monster Season |
Even if you don’t know his name, you know the macabre legacy of Ed Gein. In 1957, the reclusive farmer from Plainfield, Wisconsin, was unmasked as the most crazed and disturbing serial killer America had ever seen—and arguably has ever seen since. So gruesome and grotesque were the crimes of the so-called Butcher of Plainfield, Plainfield Ghoul, or Grandfather of Gore that more than 65 years of filmmaking haven’t yet imagined much worse. “You can understand why moviemakers gravitate toward Gein,” says Christopher Berry-Dee, author of Serial Killers at the Movies. “He’s unique, creative, enterprising, and imaginative. We don’t get many killers like Ed anymore.” As yet another version of Gein rears its ugly head into the zeitgeist—this time on Ryan Murphy’s new season of Monster, starring Charlie Hunnam as Gein and Laurie Metcalf as his overbearing mother—Rosemary Counter takes a look back at Hollywood’s long and lurid history of borrowing from Gein for the big screen.
Elsewhere in HWD, Jimmy Fallon declines to get political—even after Donald Trump has declared open season on late-night hosts; Selena Gomez perfects the art of the slow wedding photo rollout; the stars show up for Paris Fashion Week; and Joshua Rivera breaks down what Jared Kushner and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund really want with video game publisher Electronic Arts. |
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