Series / Monster: The Ed Gein Story

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Monster: The Ed Gein Story is the third season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's True Crime Anthology Series, Monster (2022). It follows Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and will be followed by a season on Lizzie Borden.

This time, Monster goes to the frozen fields of Wisconsin in the The '50s, where Ed Gein (Charlie Hunnam) was isolated, psychotic, and obsessed by his mother Augusta (Laurie Metcalf). These factors — alongside his growing obsession with Nazi mass killer, Ilse Koch (Vicky Krieps) — motivated him to kill Plainfield hardware store owner Bernice Worden (Lesley Manville) among others.

But the story didn't end there. The brutality of Gein's crimes caused an influx of interest in him, fascinating figures as diverse as Alfred Hitchcock (Tom Hollander), his wife Alma Reville (Olivia Williams) and his leading man Anthony Perkins (Joey Pollari), Dr Mildred Newman (Robin Weigert), and Tobe Hooper (Will Brill). Gein's crimes then gained a second wave of fascination as he became the main inspiration behind major movies such as Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).

Monster: The Ed Gein Story premiered on Netflix on October 3rd, 2025.

Previews: Teaser, Trailer

Monster: The Ed Gein Story contains examples of:

• The '40s: Gein's father George died in 1940, his brother Henry died in 1944, and his mother Augusta died in 1945.
• The '50s: Gein's crimes were discovered in 1957, after the disappearance of Bernice Worden, and his confirmed murders occurred in this decade.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: The real Gein was not as handsome as Charlie Hunnam, nor did he have Hunnam's muscular physique.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: As far as anybody knows, Ed Gein never had romantic or sexual relationships with anybody in life, whereas in the series he does.
  • In reality, Adeline Watkins seems to have only casually interacted with Ed Gein, and so barely knew the man, much less had any sort of romantic relationship or close friendship with him. She embellished the extent of their familiarity after Gein became infamous in order to draw attention to herself.
  • There's no evidence that Ed Gein had a brief romantic or sexual relationship with Bernice Worden before killing her.
• Advertising by Association: "From the creators of Dahmer and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story."
• Affably Evil: Ed Gein is polite and soft-spoken with almost everyone that he interacts with.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Although Gein is a murderer and a disgusting necrophile, his loneliness and eventual death from lung cancer in the pyschiatric hospital are rather sad, especially because during his last years, he's no longer violent or sexually depraved.
• Artistic License – History:
  • As noted above, Adeline Watkins's relationship with Ed Gein was a lot less personal than she later claimed, and there is no evidence that Gein was ever romantically or sexually involved with her or anybody else. That goes double for the portrayed relationship with Bernice Worden, who in real life felt annoyed by Gein and complained about his constant presence around her store in the weeks leading up to her murder.
  • Despite what the show portrays, Gein never actually wore drag nor had any interest in crossdressing. This was a sensationalistic detail invented by newspapers looking for content to report on when the details were still scarce, and has long since been disproven.
  • Robert Bloch is portrayed as an expert on Gein who coaches Alfred Hitchcock through how to portray him. In reality, Bloch insisted long after writing Psycho that he'd only been aware of the basic facts of Gein's story and that the book wasn't directly based on him. Similarly, Hitchcock did not build an exact replica of the Gein farmhouse's interior to help Anthony Perkins get into character.
  • Evelyn Hartley did not have polio, though her older brother was killed by it at 18. Despite popular speculation, no evidence exists that Gein was in any way involved in the disappearance of Hartley, who did not match his victim profile of older women. Neither did Victor Travis, who disappeared in 1953, contrary to the implication that Gein killed him following Bernice's murder in 1957.
  • Nearly all of Frank Warden's role had to be imagined by the production, as for the rest of his life he was extremely private about his involvement with the Gein case. Though he definitely was not present when the other investigators discovered Gein's gruesome trophies.
  • In reality it was Sheriff Schley, not Deputy Warden, who assaulted Gein after investigating his house. Also, Schley didn't simply punch Gein in the face, but smashed his head against the wall of the interrogation room.
  • Rather than Gein being arrested upon arriving back home while the police were still there, they went to get him at the house of a family he was visiting at the time.
  • Tobe Hooper said in an interview that the genesis of Leatherface occurred when he was stuck in a long line while Christmas shopping, then noticed he was next to a rack of chainsaws and figured if he grabbed one and revved it up, everyone would let him pass. The show amps this up to Hooper daydreaming about slaughtering everyone.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Even though Gein's truck was seen at Mary Hogan's bar the night of her death, he isn't considered a serious suspect by anyone, since he's widely seen by everyone in town as a completely harmless simpleton.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The recreation of the shower scene from Psycho is far more gory and graphic than the original scene. Graphic violence in Hollywood wasn't as normalized (or as technically feasible) back then, so the series amps up the blood and brutality to convey the same level of visceral shock to modern audiences that the relatively tame black-and-white stabbing gave viewers in 1960 (Hitchcock even used chocolate syrup for the scene instead of the usual Kensington Gore fake blood).
• Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Played with in regards to both previous instalments of Monster (2022), almost to the point of Composite Character in how the sequels contrast with each other.
  • Both Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein were Wisconsin serial killers^note Albeit ambiguously and only suspected, in Gein's case with necrophiliac impulses. However, Gein and the Menendez brothers were abused by their controlling parents (though Gein's primary abuser was his mother, Augusta).
  • It has been theorized that Gein killed his brother Henry, who was formally reported to have died of heart failure. In contrast, Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their parents together and were portrayed as having a very close and codependent relationship.
• Creepy Crossdresser: Ed Gein, obviously, since he was the real-life inspiration for several fictional murderous cross-dressers, despite his crossdressing actually being a myth.
• Cure Your Gays: As happened in life, Anthony Perkins sees a psychiatrist with the hope of being converted to heterosexuality.
• Dream Sequence: Ed imagines himself at a party surrounded by fellow infamous murderers, including Charles Manson, Ed Kemper, and Jerry Brudos.
• Epic Fail: Adeline thinks that her letters, photos, and fake personality will impress the famous photographer Weegee into hiring her as his assistant. When he reluctantly agrees to meet her in person, he can barely hide the fact that he finds her ridiculous and disgusting.
• The Ghost: Unlike Alfred Hitchcock and Tobe Hooper, Jonathan Demme is nowhere to be seen during the scenes about The Silence of the Lambs.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: As Alfred Hitchcock discusses, Ed's exposure to photographs of The Holocaust triggered his descent into madness.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • A very macabre and twisted example. Adeline encourages Ed Gein to relieve his sexual frustration by having sex with corpses while she's gone. When she returns and wants sex with Ed, he can't perform because he's fixated on cold corpses. She then proceeds to take an ice bath so that she would feel more like a dead body to him.
  • In a rather lighter version, Hitchcock and Anthony Perkins are both very frustrated to find Psycho overtaking their entire public image, and preventing them from getting any other kinds of jobs.
• Grave Robbing: Ed exhumes fresh female corpses to skin them, retain certain body parts as trophies, and engage in necrophilic acts with them.
• Hidden Depths: Ed can play the accordion quite well.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Adeline thinks that she's a talented photographer and writer, and that her talents and intellect put her on a higher plane than everyone else from her hometown of Plainfield WI. Weegee's reaction to her letters and photos suggests that she's anything but.
• Historical Beauty Update:
  • Despite the makeup, Charlie Hunnam's physique doesn't really match the schlubby Ed Gein.
  • Vicky Krieps is noticeably more conventionally attractive than the real Ilse Koch. Justified in that Ed's visions of her are based on her sultry portrayal in the comic book he's reading rather than photos of the real Koch.
  • Adeline Watkins was quite homely in life, unlike Suzanna Son.
  • Tom Hollander is much slimmer than the real Alfred Hitchcock (though he does wear a rather unconvincing fat suit in the series).
• Historical Hero Upgrade: While Gein's criminality and depravity is exaggerated in most of the series, the last couple of episodes also make him more sympathetic than he was in life - most notably, in the series he actively provides helpful advice to the FBI that contributes to the eventual capture of fellow serial killer Ted Bundy, whereas in reality Gein was never even interviewed by the FBI in connection to the Bundy case (or in connection with any other serial murderer), and Bundy was captured by chance after being stopped for driving a stolen vehicle.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Depraved though he was, in reality, Ed Gein probably only murdered two people (Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden), whereas in the series he's shown to have killed at least three times as many.
  • While his brother did die under strange circumstances, there's no evidence that Ed murdered him (or that it was a murder at all). His death was ruled heart failure due to smoke inhalation, something that would be impossible to fake after clubbing him to death.
  • There is also no evidence that Gein murdered Evelyn Hartley (the teenage babysitter).
  • Similarly, the scene where he murders the two hunters who witness his cutting up of Bernice is pure fiction, created to tie in Gein with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This incident seems to be based on the disappearance of the hunters Victor Harold Travis and Raymond Burgess near Gein's property, but there's never been any conclusive evidence regarding what happened to them and if Gein had any involvement. They're generally seen are pretty unlikely vicitms by most experts, considering they're two adult males (whereas all of Gein's victims, alleged or confirmed, were women) and that Gein's house had no male bodyparts.
  • In Episode 5, Gein digs up the corpse of a recently deceased woman and has sex with her. As far as is known (and according to Gein himself), he never had sex with any of the corpses that he dug up, because by his own admission, “they smell bad”.
  • The series depicts Adeline Watkins as privy to and supportive of Gein's crimes, when in fact she almost certainly knew nothing about them until after the fact.
  • Gein is portrayed as only taking a single babysitting job which goes disastrously and makes the kids terrified of him. He actually did it for several families, who noted that he got along very well with the children, much more than he did with adults, and became quite popular as a babysitter in the area, and there is no evidence Gein ever showed any children his home or human remains.
• Homage:
  • The teaser posters directly reference three of the films Ed Gein inspired:
    • One poster shows Gein peeling a mask from his face in a way reminiscent of Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter. The Tagline also says that "before The Silence of the Lambs, there was Ed."
    • Another shows Gein screaming and swinging a power saw a la Leatherface. The Tagline says that "before The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, there was Ed."
    • The third poster shows Gein resting his head on his mother’s lap, an homage to Norman Bates and his mother. The Tagline reads, "Before Psycho, there was Ed."
  • The show packs in multiple nods to those horror films:
    • Augusta's corpse sits in a rocking chair in her bedroom, just like Mother in Psycho.
    • Adeline then turns her around and gets attacked by Ed.
    • Both Ed and Alfred Hitchcock are depicted watching women dress through a peephole, mirroring the infamous voyeuristic behavior of Norman Bates.
    • Ed, dressed in Augusta's dress and wig, attacks Adeline in the shower — complete with the iconic Psycho theme.
    • Ed does Leatherface's infamous Chainsaw Dance.
    • Ed catches a moth that he keeps in a jar and then lets fly around the house, a reference to Buffalo Bill.
    • Ed’s hammer attack on Evelyn mirrors a similar scene in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which is made explicit when they intercut this attack with the scene from the film.
    • Less obvious is Ed's assistance to the FBI in catching Ted Bundy, a nod to "The Silence Of The Lambs" with Ed standing in for Hannibal Lecter instead of Buffalo Bill (the actual Ed Gein expy in that movie).
  • When Hitchcock is talking to Anthony Perkins in the Gein house set, he is seen for a moment from the side in front of a window, and his dark silhouette is made to look like the iconic intro to Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
• I Am a Humanitarian: When police find a heart and other human organs boiling in a pot in Ed's kitchen, they speculate that he engaged in cannibalism, though he denied this was the case.
• I Ate WHAT?!: When Gein is found out, suddenly people remember how he'd go around town offering "venison," despite never being seen hunting...
• I Just Want to Be Special: This is what drives everything Adeline does. Despite all evidence to the contrary, she's convinced that she's intellectually superior to everyone else in Plainfield and thus destined for fame and greatness. When she fails to impress Weegee as a photographer, she returns to Plainfield and goes around claiming to be a reporter for the New York Times - a claim that absolutely no one in town takes seriously.
• I Love the Dead: Ed is depicted engaging in necrophilic acts with the corpses he digs up.
• Innocently Insensitive: Sheriff Schley had no way to know that his carving up a Thanksgiving turkey with an electric knife would trigger Deputy Frank Warden's visions of his own mother's dismemberment by Ed Gein.
• Lap Pillow: Gein is shown with his head on a woman's lap (presumably his mother Augusta Gein) in the first officially-released poster.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After being cruel and arrogant towards everyone from her mother to her lover, Adeline is (rightly) dismissed as a talentless, pretentious hack and a phony by her idol, the photographer Weegee.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • When Ed tells the two lost men that “they shouldn't be watching this” (referring to a hanging corpse), he stares straight into the camera as if he’s warning the audience that they shouldn’t be watching this show.
  • In a hallucination, Anthony Perkins tells Ed Gein that he can’t make people watch "something like this," to which Gein retorts, "you’re the one who can’t look away," a jab at the show's very own viewers.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Later episodes show the acts of other serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Jerry Brudos, and Richard Speck whose perversions and crimes are compared to Gein's. Unlike them, Gein wasn't a sadist (he killed his two known victims quickly and painlessly) nor did he revel in or take pride in his crimes.
• Making the Masterpiece and Set Behind the Scenes: The show depicts the making of Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), and The Silence of the Lambs.
• Metafiction: The Monster anthology is basically part of the very phenomenon this season is portraying.
  • The show exploring Hollywood's obsession with Ed Gein doubles as commentary on itself and on its own creators, writers, and audience. It takes aim at viewers who criticized Psycho over its disturbing content yet helped turn it into a classic, echoing the same cycle that made this anthology series successful and countless other True Crime stories pop-culture sensations.
  • In The Bitch of Buchenwald comic, Ilse Koch is drawn as strikingly attractive and sexualized despite the real Koch being far less conventionally attractive (and portrayed by Vicky Krieps in a comparatively Hollywood Homely fashion). This mirrors the anthology's tendency to cast conventionally attractive actors for infamous figures: Ed Gein is portrayed by Hunk Charlie Hunnam, and the previous season leans heavily into this with Pretty Boys Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez as the Menendez brothers.
• A Mistake Is Born: Adeline's mother tells her that she never wanted a child when she got pregnant as a teen, and would throw herself down the stairs in the hope of inducing a miscarriage. To make matters worse for her, not only was Mrs. Watkins stuck with an unwanted child, but the child grew up to be an entitled, vindictive sociopath with delusions of grandeur.
• Momma's Boy: Gein is an extreme case of this - he had no social life of any kind while his mother was alive because she always kept him under her watchful eye, and even after her death, she still imposed her strict discipline and religious fanaticism in Gein's imagination.
• Moody Trailer Cover Song: The trailer uses a dark remix of "It's a Sin" by Pet Shop Boys.
• Nice Guy: Sheriff Schley is a kind-hearted family man who welcomes his deputy Frank Warden into his home after Frank's mother is murdered. He's also very professional and patient in his dealings with Ed Gein, despite the fact that he knows that Gein is lying.
• No Social Skills: Because his mother kept him largely isolated from society, Ed Gein's interactions with others are strange and off-putting, as with his attempt to make friendly small-talk with two girls at a diner. He does even worse when telling jokes and putting on his grotesque "magic show" for the two kids he babysits.
• Posthumous Character: Ed's mother Augusta dies during the first episode, and appears in flashbacks and in Ed's imagination from then on.
• Production Foreshadowing:
  • Albeit with a different actor, Ed Gein briefly appears in a flashback in Dahmer, when Jeffrey is told how Gein used the insanity plea to avoid life imprisonment.
  • In Grotesquerie, Father Charlie mentions that his favorite serial killer is Ed Gein. That series was filmed while Monster: The Ed Gein Story was already in development.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Adeline gets several, due to her inflated sense of self-worth -
  • Weegee gives a short but very cutting one to Adeline, pointing out that she's just a pretentious wannabe devoid of talent as well as a manipulative slut.
  • Adeline's mother outright says that she regrets ever having given birth to her, and that the best punishment for Adeline would be being burdened and saddled with a child as obnoxious and mentally unstable as she is.
• Smarter Than You Look: Most people take Gein for a half-wit, but he proves to be quite shrewd in his ability to get away with crimes ranging from digging up graves to murder for so long. At times, he also uses a vocabulary that's much richer than you'd expect given his outward persona.
• Take That, Audience!: One of the first things we see Gein do is flip through a comic about real life mass murderer Ilse Koch with fascination. Kind of like you watching this very show. And it just builds from there with a very cynical view of anyone who’d exploit a story like this for entertainment.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: Many of the events we see are a product of Gein's delusions, perhaps most notably his killing of the charge nurse at the psychiatric hospital and his ham radio conversations with Ilse Koch and Christine Jorgensen. Gein's psychiatrist later points out that his ham radio was never even connected to an electrical outlet, so he was just talking to himself, and the charge nurse was alive and well in the next scene, giving Gein his medication.
• Title Drop: It's in a different context, but during a conversion therapy session, Anthony Perkins says that the act of sodomy felt "monstrous". Dr. Mildred Newman responds by asking if that makes him a monster.
  Dr. Newman: And are you a monster?
  Anthony: No, no.
• Unreliable Narrator: Since Ed is schizophrenic, anything shown from his perspective should be taken with a grain of salt.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out if the elderly hotel clerk died after being beaten and robbed by Adeline. She was moving her arms and legs while laying on the floor afterwards, but she may very well have died of head trauma shortly after.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Charlie Hunnam doesn't really have Gein's Wisconsin accent down, nor was Gein's voice nearly as high-pitched as Hunnam's portrayal.