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Ed Gein

2000, Movie, R, 89 mins

Ed Gein: Review

ED GEIN | IN THE LIGHT OF THE MOON
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A sober, unsensational look at the grotesque deeds of 49-year-old rural recluse Ed Gein, whose bizarre crimes horrified '50s America and inspired films ranging from PSYCHO and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE to SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Plainfield, WI, 1957: Local eccentric Ed Gein (Steve Railsback), regarded by his neighbors as peculiar but harmless, is living a double life. He does odd jobs for the neighbors — including babysitting — shops at middle-aged matron Colette Marshall's (Carol Mansell) general store and drinks at the tavern owned and operated by aging good-time girl Mary Hogan (Sally Champlin). But warped by pulp novels and the fanatical religious teachings of his late mother, Augusta (Carrie Snodgress), Ed has become a secret grave robber who uses corpse parts to fashion bizarre trinkets and objects that he keeps concealed in his filthy, isolated farmhouse. In flashback, we learn that Ed's mother dominated the household, bullying her husband (Bill Cross) and raising her sons Henry (Brian Evers) and Ed on a fire-and-brimstone brand of Christianity in which the world is inherently sinful and immoral women invariably cause the downfall of weak-willed men. Henry eventually rebels and Ed kills him, successfully passing off his brother's death as an accident. But when Augusta dies, Ed's tenuous ability to function in the world begins crumbling. Believing that his mother wants him to rid the world of wicked women, Ed kidnaps and kills "dirty talker" Hogan. Her disappearance causes a stir in quiet Plainfield, but no one seriously suspects Ed. Marshall vanishes next, but this time her son (Steve Blackwood), who's convinced that Ed knows something, goes poking around the Gein farmhouse, where he discovers the awful truth. Though screenwriter Stephen Johnston changes some names and condenses the time frame of Gein's crimes — in reality, three years elapsed between the disappearances of Hogan and Marshall — his screenplay is otherwise extremely faithful to the facts of the case. Railsback, who first gained recognition for his portrayal of Charles Manson in the 1976 TV movie Helter Skelter, is an extremely credible Gein, and Parello (who directed 1998's underrated HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER PART 2) pays understated homage to PSYCHO in the film's final sequence, when the institutionalized Gein directs his disordered thoughts to the camera. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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