While true crime shows like “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” have proven to be incredibly popular on Netflix, it’s hard not to at least ponder what purpose they end up serving. In the case of “The Ed Gein Story,” the third season of Ryan Murphy’s series based on real life monsters, the clunky and questionable driving force behind the series seems to be to humanize and empathize with Gein (played by Hollywood stud Charlie Hunnam), presenting him as something more than the grave-robbing boogeyman who inspired Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
But while those movies loosely drew inspiration from Gein’s horrific crimes and created fictional characters out of them, “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” essentially presents itself as the true story of Ed Gein, not so much a monster but a man driven to do monstrous things. By the end of the series, I personally found the whole endeavor to be a baffling and tasteless misfire.
But “The Ed Gein Story” does present some interesting ideas, particularly in the way it plays with Ed Gein’s aforementioned inspiration on Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. The series attempts to draw a clear parallel between Gein and the likes of Norman Bates, Leatherface, and Buffalo Bill, bringing those movie characters back to life on screen. In the process, Murphy and his team end up turning Anthony Perkins, Alfred Hitchcock, and Tobe Hooper into characters in their show, which is quite fascinating for horror fans.
But what does Osgood Perkins, the son of the late actor Anthony Perkins, feel about “Monster: The Ed Gein Story”? Chatting with TMZ, he reveals that he wouldn’t dare watch the series.
While Perkins told TMZ that he “wouldn’t watch it with a 10-foot pole,” he did question the way Netflix and other streamers have turned true crime into a profitable entertainment industry. Perkins notes that it’s all become “increasingly devoid of context and that the Netflix-ization of real pain is playing for the wrong team.” He’s particularly talking about the attempt to turn these real life horror stories into “glamourous and meaningful content,” and he worries about contemporary culture being “reshaped in real time by Overlords.”
The depiction of Perkins in “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” becomes particularly uncomfortable when the show seems to draw a parallel between Gein and Perkins, essentially suggesting that Perkins’ secrets about his sexuality are somehow akin to Gein’s own dark secrets. It’s something the series never ends up exploring further, leaving only a bad taste in the mouth.
Joey Pollari plays Anthony Perkins in “Monster: The Ed Gein Story.”
The post ‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ – Osgood Perkins Questions the “Netflix-ization of Real Pain” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
