In Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Ryan Murphy tackles the murderer who influenced Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story features Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in episode 302. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
Ryan Murphy returns to the 1950s with Monster: The Ed Gein Story to recount the chilling tale of the real-life serial killer who inspired characters like Norman Bates from Psycho, Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.
In a dark cinematic twist, the new trailer for the Netflix series appears to be narrated by Alfred Hitchcock, portrayed by Tom Hollander in the show. This marks the third season of Monster, following Season 1, The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and Season 2, The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Critics on social media have voiced concerns about Murphy romanticizing such killers by casting attractive young actors in these roles—Evan Peters as Dahmer, and Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch as Lyle and Erik Menendez, respectively. This criticism is expected to persist with the casting of Sons of Anarchy heartthrob Charlie Hunnam as Gein.
A Reddit thread already exists titled “Hail Sexy Gein!”
In reality, Gein was anything but attractive: a murderer and grave robber, he was notorious for digging up bodies from local cemeteries and creating keepsakes from their bones and skin. Authorities discovered gruesome keepsakes in his Plainfield, Wisconsin home in 1957, including a belt made from human flesh, a lampshade fashioned from a human face, and numerous body parts.
He confessed to killing two women, Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden, but was suspected of more murders. In 1968, he was deemed “not guilty by reason of insanity” and committed to a mental institution for life, passing away in 1984 at the age of 77.
Before his conviction, the disturbing details of his troubled relationship with his mother influenced a similar theme in Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho. Gein’s grotesque obsession with the body parts of his victims—and his purposes for them—was a fundamental inspiration for Leatherface in the 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in 1991’s Silence of the Lambs.
Netflix assures that the new season of Monster, created by Murphy and Ian Brennan, will be the “darkest yet,” which seems fitting considering the source material.
Murphy shared with Netflix’s Tudum that “the thesis of every season is: Are monsters born or made? In Ed’s case, it’s likely a bit of both.”
Brennan, who wrote every episode of the new season and serves as executive producer, stated, “I think this is the best season of the three, and I believe it’s going to blow people away.”
Hunnam adds, “This will be a truly human, tender, unflinching exploration of who Ed was and what he did, focusing more on who he was at the core rather than solely on his actions.”
Main image: Charlie Hunnam in Monster: The Ed Gein Story. Netflix.
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In Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Ryan Murphy tackles the murderer who influenced Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs.
Ryan Murphy revisits the 1950s in Monster: The Ed Gein Story to recount the terrifying tale of the real-life serial killer who influenced Norman from Psycho.