Charlie Hunnam currently stars in Monster: The Ed Gein Story on Netflix. It’s another season of the Ryan Murphy franchise, following the “success” of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and The Menendez Brothers Story. I remember when the Dahmer series came out, and the youths were like “but was Dahmer such a bad guy RLY?” Yes. He was. And the families of Dahmer’s real-life victims were disgusted with the series too. Personally, I haven’t watched any of these. Not to be hypocritical, I will admit to loving the Dexter franchise, so it’s not like I’m completely against “serial killer dramatization.” I just think Ryan Murphy is in danger of humanizing actual monsters who actually did terrible things and killed many, many people. Speaking of, Charlie Hunnam thinks his Ed Gein series will leave people questioning who the real monsters are. I’m pretty sure Ed Gein was the bad guy, Charlie???
Charlie Hunnam hopes that after viewers watch Monster: The Ed Gein Story, they’re left questioning who the real monsters are. Hunnam, who plays Gein, defended the series ahead of the release of the new season in the Netflix true-crime horror anthology, given that the previous two editions — The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story — both received criticism for being sensational portrayals.
“If people are compelled to talk about it and think about it, hopefully they’ll actually be compelled to watch the show,” he told The Hollywood Reporter when asked what he hopes conversations would be about Ed Gein. “What I would hope and feel really confident in is that it was a very sincere exploration of the human condition and why this boy did what he did.”
Co-created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, The Ed Gein Story picks up in 1950s rural Wisconsin, and follows the titular monster — known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul — and tells the tale of his perverse crimes, which would go on to inspire the onscreen horrors seen in Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.
Of the episodes, Hunnam said, “I never felt like we were sensationalizing it. I never felt on set that we did anything gratuitous or for shock impact. It was all in order to try to tell this story as honestly as we could.”
And, he hopes that means viewers are left looking inward after watching. “Is it Ed Gein who was abused and left in isolation and suffering from undiagnosed mental illness and…that manifested in some pretty horrendous ways? Or was the monster the legion of filmmakers that took inspiration from his life and sensationalized it to make entertainment and darken the American psyche in the process?” he told the outlet. “Is Ed Gein the monster of this show, or is Hitchcock the monster of the show? Or are we the monster of the show because we’re watching it?”
Ed Gein was literally making home decor and a “suit” out of human bones and human skin. He also killed people. I’m okay with calling him a monster! “But he was mentally ill!” Enough! Not to be the un-woke person at the party, it’s perfectly fine to say “hey, this serial killer is a monster!” The reason why Gein inspired so many novelists and filmmakers is because of the heinous nature of his crimes, especially for the time. “What if Alfred Hitchcock was the real monster??” Well, Hitchcock was a different kind of monster, but not because he made Psycho.
Photos courtesy of Getty Images for Netflix and Netflix.
