For those who enthralled by Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story, starring Charlie Hunnam, MGM+'s four-part docuseries, Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein, will be right up their sordid alley.
Throughout director/producer James Buddy (Charles Manson: The Final Words) Day's examination, one hears with creepy clarity the genuine Edward Theodore Gein recounting (or at least semi-confirming) his deeds. For the most part, he projects a faulty memory, conveyed with calm rapport to his interviewer/interrogator Judge Boyd Clark, recorded on the day of his capture (November 16, 1957), but he doesn't deny any of the graverobbing, corpse defiling or general carnage he engaged, which makes his testimony no less unnerving. In fact, one could argue it makes his "confession" even more disturbing.
From a structural stance, The Lost Tapes appears to have influenced the Neflix series, pressing Gein's obsession with his mother, Augusta, and his interaction with Plainfield, Wisconsin's deer-hunting community, before uncovering and dissecting his revolting secret, with a bold emphasis on his house of horrors, depicted through jarring photographs.
Beyond this, the literary and cinematic results of Gein's acts are discussed at length, including Psycho (both Robert Bloch's novel and Alfred Hitchcock's movie), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (with inserted commentary from director/cowriter Tobe Hooper) and Ed Gein 2000 (with reflections from its director, Chuck Parello), along with comparative references to The Silence of the Lambs, Deranged, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. This unsettling lineup sealed Gein's presence in the public consciousness, granting him a terrifying infamy that doesn't appear prone to fade any time soon.
Writers, historians, investigators and psychologists round out the episodes with worthy rumination, much of the unpleasant ingredients helmed by Harold Schechter, author of Depraved, in addition to a scholarly queue noted for its expertise in abnormal behavior: Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, Ben Kissel (of The Last Podcast on the Left), Jooyoung Lee (serial-killer researcher), N.G. Berrill (forensic psychologist), Scott Browser (Wisconsin author/historian), Louis Schlesinger (necrophilia expert), Jocelyn Szczepaniak Gillece (horror-movie chronicler) and an assortment of archival appearances from those who lived through Gein's crimes, capture and confinement. (Segments of the imprisoned Gein are enacted, as well, thanks to eerie, A.I. enhancement.)
Hearing Gein's voice is the real grabber, of course, for it places the famous fiend in a new, grounded context, offering the sort of history most would relegate to their nightmares and then (fingers crossed) forget, but in truth, one can't help but lend a morbid ear to Gein's steady, humble intonation and wonder what slow-burn madness pushed him over the edge.
Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein premiered in 2023, but has gained a huge resurgence due to Charlie Hunnam's nuanced portrayal. The documentary is available on MGM+, and for those with strong nerves (and stomachs), it's worth the scrutiny.
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