The many horror movies inspired by Ed Gein
The horror genre has often taken influence from real life, using true crime cases as the basis for cinematic tales of torture and murder. While some movies explore real cases, such as Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile acting as a Ted Bundy biopic, others simply use infamous killers as inspiration for fictional characters.
One of the most notorious murderers to inspire countless cinematic killers was Ed Gein. He became widely known in the 1950s after it was discovered that the lonely middle-aged farm owner had killed two women and dug up the bodies of several others.
Gein’s troubled upbringing, which involved his overbearing mother instilling an intense hatred of women in him, is often cited as one of the reasons for the murderer’s bizarre behaviour. After the death of his mother, he began committing his crimes, desperately trying to find a way to get her back. He brutally murdered two women who resembled her, going as far as to fashion keepsakes out of body parts from his victims, including those he had dug up.
From masks made out of skin to belts decorated with nipples, Gein was into creating strange memorabilia, presumably inspired by Nazi war criminal Ilse Koch. Gein was declared insane and spent the rest of his life in mental institutions. However, his story has fascinated many people ever since, especially filmmakers. Lots of horror movies inspired by Gein have been created in the decades following his crimes, making him arguably the most ‘influential’ killer of all time.
A large handful of the movies Gein inspired have become some of the most celebrated (and terrifying) horror movies ever made – clearly a testament to the sheer depravity of Gein’s crimes. One of the most iconic movies to take influence from Gein was Psycho, although most of the connection is incidental. Alfred Hitchcock’s movie is based on Robert Bloch’s novel, which was written as Gein’s crimes were in the process of being uncovered. However, most of what Bloch had written about – a murderous man obsessed with his mother – was the product of his own imagination. Still, when he heard about Gein’s case, he incorporated elements of the killer into the character of Norman Bates.
A film much more directly influenced by Gein was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, helmed by Tobe Hooper. The movie is, to this day, horrifying, with Leatherface’s relentless chainsaw-wielding leaving viewers on the edge of their seats. The squalor of the killer’s house is captured viscerally, which is decorated with bones. The movie takes inspiration from Gein’s penchant for collecting ‘trophies’, as well as his tendency to wear skin, as exemplified in the aptly named Leatherface.
Almost 20 years after the release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, another huge horror hit took inspiration from Gein, even winning an Oscar for ‘Best Picture’. The Silence of the Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme, has several villains in it, but it’s the character of Buffalo Bill, played by Ted Levine, who has Gein written all over him. He makes himself a ‘woman suit’ out of human skin, much like how Gein made clothing out of dead women’s skin.
Controversial filmmaker and musician Rob Zombie has released two movies that feature Bill Moseley’s Ed Gein-inspired character Otis B. Driftwood – House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. Like Gein, the character uses his victim’s skin and body parts, and there’s no doubt that the serial killer didn’t directly inspire someone like Zombie. Both movies have since garnered a cult following, although neither was received positively by critics, who believed the movies to be overwhelmingly gross.
While these are the main movies inspired by the infamous figure, there have been many more, including 1972’s Three on a Meathook, 1974’s Deranged and 1993’s Ed and His Dead Mother.
