Halloween horror: Ed Gein

Here's one to get you in the "holiday mood": Ed Gein aka In the Light of the Moon.

Ed Gein is a real life serial killer. He was supposedly the model for Norman Bates in Psycho, Leather Face of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill of Silence of the Lambs. He is played here by Steve Railsback, who also played Charles Manson in Helter Skelter. He was found out in the 50s, when most of this film takes place.


The film shows a bit of Ed's childhood:  he starts out as a normal child but is severely demented by his mother (Carrie Snodgrass). Bible spouting and probably mad, she dominates Ed and he becomes aberrant although his brother seems to escape her clutches and turns out pretty normal. Ed, on the other hand, has a somewhat screwy relationship with his mother. He fears and loathes her, yet has a sexual attraction to her, and also he seems to feel the need to be a woman himself. The film skips through much of the middle of his life. He grows into middle age with barely any skills, babysitting for local children, and at first no one sees anything wrong. He may be a little odd, but not crazy or terrifying.

Two local deaths/disappearances begin to point to Ed though, both middle aged women. One works at a local shop, whom Ed seems to be attracted to, but when she gently rebuffs him he pretends that he was only joking. The other is a barmaid, who has dinners with him, but this too is platonic on her part. Ed is shown having done horrible things to their bodies and also used their body parts in despicable manners, such as wearing their skins and displaying body parts.

I don't think this film went far enough/deep enough to show us Ed. It was too centralized on the two parts of his life, brief scenes with his mother and then his later life involving the two murders. There were many other suspected murders and other things like graverobbing (for bodies) that he did that was not fleshed out. Also, even though we see how his mother influenced him, it doesn't show why he and his brother were so vastly different. There was very little relationship shown between the mother and his brother, or brother and brother for that matter, and little history of who the mother was as well. It was too "outside" and not "inside," focusing on the splashier stuff but not making much effort in showing us how Ed became this way or what his thinking was. Is this a biopic or is this just a somewhat factual horror film?

In any case, Railsback certainly plays Ed as the typical keeps-to-himself-quiet-neighbor that no one suspects of anything until someone suspects him of something horrible.  It definitely is a portrayal to creep you out and look at your neighbors differently.