Month Two Take-Aways.
It’s been a month filled with bangers on Bloody FM’s Murder Made Fiction Podcast. Joe and I have spent spooky season digging into films that have little in common to the naked eye, but they’re all based on the life of a quietly disturbed and dangerous man from rural Wisconsin. Ed Gein’s gruesome crimes not only shocked the nation, they would inspire some of the genre’s most beloved texts.
We kicked off the month with a mini-primer on Gein‘s backstory, beginning with his complicated relationship with mother Augusta leading to a series of unthinkably grisly crimes. Content warnings abound as we discuss necrophilia, cannibalism, taxidermy, and a real life house of dismembered corpses.
We followed this gruesome episode with a docuseries featuring newly discovered audio of Gein’s multi-hour confession tapes. Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein allows us to hear the infamous killer’s voice for the first time, but does director James Buddy Day use this bounty to make a coherent point?
Next we dove into multiple films, including:
Psycho (1960): Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film debuted just two years after news of Gein’s atrocious acts made national news. Arguably the first modern horror film, Psycho seeks to understand how a monster can exist among us, hiding in plain sight.
The Silence of the Lambs: Based on the novel by Thomas Harris, Jonathan Demme’s award-winning film is a masterfully constructed and timeless horror story that revolutionizes the way we view women onscreen. But despite this unparalleled legacy, the film has caused incalculable damage to the queer community.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Tobe Hooper’s gritty nightmare adapts the more gruesome elements of Gein’s story. Though it bares little resemblance to the man’s actual life, this legendary film (celebrating a 50th birthday) may just provide the best representation of the collateral damage left in Gein’s wake.
House of 1000 Corpses: Rob Zombie remixes Texas horrors with true crime in an October-themed assault on our senses. This gritty hicksploitation film takes interesting elements of Gein’s life while spinning his original story into a salacious nightmare of pain and blood. But is there surprising pathos in this bombastic film, and does Zombie effectively capture the reality of Gein’s notorious home?
Having watched and discussed this collection of iconic films, we’re ready to sum up what we’ve learned about the Butcher of Plainfield and the way his crimes inform the true crime genre and horror itself.
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Summary: Ed Gein
After a month of discussing Ed Gein, Jenn and Joe reflect on what they’ve learned about the Butcher of Plainfield. They also compare depictions of his life and crimes as seen in some of the most important horror films of all time.
Plus: where we’re going in our third month.
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