Highlights:
- Netflix has released first-look images of Charlie Hunnam as serial killer Ed Gein in the next season of Monster.
- Previous seasons covered Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers.
- Gein’s crimes inspired classic horror films including Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.
- The new series will examine Gein’s life, crimes, and lasting influence on the horror genre.
Netflix unveils next chapter of Monster
Netflix has released the first images of Charlie Hunnam in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the third instalment of its true-crime anthology. Produced by Ryan Murphy, the new season explores the life of Ed Gein, the Wisconsin grave robber and murderer whose crimes shocked the world and went on to inspire decades of horror cinema.
The series follows the success of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022) and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024).
The story of Ed Gein
Born in 1906, Gein grew up in Plainfield, Wisconsin, under the strict control of his religious mother, Augusta. Following her death in 1945, he became increasingly unstable. Gein confessed to killing two women — Mary Hogan in 1954 and Bernice Worden in 1957 — though he is suspected of more.
More infamous than his murders were his grave robberies. Gein exhumed corpses and used body parts to create furniture, masks, and a “woman suit” made from human skin. The macabre crimes earned him the name the “Butcher of Plainfield.”
In 1958, Gein was declared unfit to stand trial due to schizophrenia and confined to Central State Hospital. He was later found guilty of Worden’s murder but remained in psychiatric care until his death from lung cancer in 1984, aged 77.
How Gein shaped horror
Though Gein killed only two confirmed victims, his legacy in popular culture is vast. His story inspired:
- Psycho (1960): Norman Bates’s obsession with “Mother” was modelled on Gein’s relationship with Augusta.
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974): Leatherface’s use of human skin masks drew directly from Gein’s crimes.
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991): The character Buffalo Bill echoes Gein’s “woman suit.”
Other films, including Three on a Meathook (1972), Deranged (1974), and Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007), have also depicted killers based on his life.
What to expect from the series
Netflix has teased that the season will explore both Gein’s life and his influence on horror. The logline describes him as a man “driven by isolation, psychosis, and an obsession with his mother,” whose crimes “ignited a cultural obsession with the criminally deviant.”
Director Alfred Hitchcock, whose Psycho was directly inspired by Gein, will also feature as a character, played by Tom Hollander. Olivia Williams will portray Hitchcock’s wife, Alma.
A lasting fascination
Gein’s story remains a source of both horror and cultural intrigue. By placing him at the centre of its latest Monster season, Netflix is not only revisiting one of history’s most disturbing cases but also examining how his crimes shaped the modern horror genre.
