MONSTERS: Ed Gein | A controversial season
Since I was little, I've always loved reading about serial killers. It's something I wouldn't want to experience, but at the same time, it sparks my curiosity, knowing the background of why people become monsters. One of the series I've enjoyed the most lately has been the MONSTER saga, starting with Jeffrey Dahmer, then the Menendez brothers, and finally this new season of Ed Gein. Honestly, I didn't watch the second season of the Menendez brothers' series because I feel like it wasn't 100% worth turning into a series. But now, let's talk about Ed Gein and the impact this season had.
I've seen a lot of controversy and the public is divided into those who didn't like this series and others who did. Personally, I liked it a lot. It immersed me in the story and never bored me. However, I am absolutely clear that the majority of the story is fiction, since it has real data but at the same time they are mixed with some fiction to obviously entertain the public. Starting with the fact that Ed Gein actually killed two people, in the series they make us understand that it was more than two people... The really shady thing, besides those two murders, was the desecration of graves and creating furniture with people's skin, and the series presents this very well, but it is not something that is too frequent.
Many people say the series seeks to humanize the murderers, but I think that depends on how you interpret it, your values and principles. I don't think anyone who is completely sane would empathize too much with someone like that. And obviously outside of the series, Ed's situation with his mother was real, added to his schizophrenia. In this series, they portray the subject of schizophrenia very well. There are even people who still don't understand that the series really shows us a bit of how Ed's environment was wrapped within his twisted mind. People were expecting to see an extremely sadistic series that focused too much on murders and delved more into Ed's story since his childhood, but I feel that everything was quite clear just by seeing the manipulation and how sick his mother was. We really don't need too much context.
Something I loved about this series was that they showed references to movies inspired by Ed Gein's story, but it's not just seeing references and saying "ohhh I saw that movie!" It really has a darker background, how humanity can take something tragic and practically turn it into a culture of horror through cinema, I am a fan of horror movies but thinking about how a single person inspired so many stories that today are classics is something that blows my mind. We see references to Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, how such a bizarre story was shaped and inspired different filmmakers to create films that would mark our lives, even this series would enter this list and that makes it too interesting.
We have to keep in mind that it is a story that tries to portray the main crimes of these murderers, but that it is always accompanied by fiction since it is NOT a documentary, that is why it is always good to investigate a little before or after watching each series of this saga, but always keeping in mind that the story will never be told verbatim, as I told you, I feel that they did a great job, not only in showing a little of what Ed Gein's life was like but also in seeing how he left an indelible mark on society, even inspiring other serial killers.
On the other hand, the acting was excellent, the setting of everything looked very realistic and something that I love is the lighting, the series was promoted with a specific color which is neon green and I feel that this color contributes a lot to the aesthetics and plot, for some reason it is a green that fits quite well with the whole story, since the color green on the negative side can represent that which is dangerous, sick or supernatural.
Although the performances were good, we cannot deny that in terms of characterization there is a bit of a difference. The real Eggein had an older look, a more disturbing look and a gesture on his face that conveyed anything but innocence (contrary to how it is shown in the series).
I give this series a 9/10. My husband and I really enjoyed it. The movie references were a unique touch, something I never imagined I'd see, especially the Psycho section, which shows us a great deal about how this film, which practically revolutionized horror cinema, was created. It also has some extremely difficult scenes to watch because of how disturbing they become, but at the same time, they leave us reflecting a lot.
