Ed Gein (2000)

Plot Outline: Ed Gein is a slow-witted, simple man who lived by himself in 1950s America. He had a tormented childhood and his mother was a cruel disciplinarian. But he still loved her and when she died, he was heartbroken. So he goes about grave-digging and trying to resurrect corpses. He is a cannibal and likes to dress up in his victims' skins. He also keeps seeing and hearing his mother, who tells him to murder women for various reasons.

The Review: The infamous serial killer Ed Gein, whose real life crimes have inspired the killers in The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, gets his own story told in this docu-film. Ed Gein isn't a bad film by any lengths but it's just so one-dimensional. Practically nothing is accomplished in the film. We don't really get a good insight into his mind, nor do we see the atrocities he committed. There are some glimpses of the sick things that he did but for some reason, they are put on the back burner. In the films most disturbing scene, Gein dresses up in the skin of one of his victims and goes outside his house at night, dancing around and banging on a drum. There is little gore because this is a 15 rating but we do get a couple of chopped up corpses and face skins lying around the house. But these things, which are what Gein was infamous for, are hardly touched upon throughout the film. So this just becomes a relatively normal serial killer thriller. People want to know more about the things Gein did to his victims - not what he thought of the woman who worked in the hardware store. The film also ended very quickly. There wasn't a big pay-off. He was simply at a friends house for dinner, the cops went to his house and found the remains of his victims and then he was arrested. But the ending is so low key that you're left feeling robbed at the end (although the real life footage of his arrest is quite freaky - he really looks scary!). Steve Railsback is simply excellent as Gein. Think of a cross between the normal-looking but lunatic Norman Bates and the sheer mystery and twisted nature of Leatherface. He manages to make the character both sympathetic but disturbing at the same time. His mannerisms such as the wry smile and the crooked cap are quite freaky in their own right. You would just know he wasn't all there up top if you saw this guy come into your store. But he doesn't look like the serial killer type. However I just get the feeling that they made Gein too sympathetic so we feel sorry for him. This is one of the most notorious serial killers in America we're talking about here, not some fictitious film character.

Final Verdict: You'll not learn much more about Ed Gein by watching this film as you would if you watched one of the films it inspired. Watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Silence of the Lambs and Psycho and you'll learn more about him.

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