ED GEIN (2000) Slooooooow, like its subject This was the first of the serial killer biopics from First Look, and even if I'm not really sold on it, it does nicely set the tone for the rest of them, as a sincere character study instead of a sensational exploitation flick. Ed Gein wasn't technically a serial killer - unless you count the apparently accidental death of his brother, he only had two victims - but he was a messed-up old coot, inspiring both Norman Bates and Leatherface. Gein was like the America's first attempt at their own Jack The Ripper, but he didn't really measure up. Jack was a fiend, who took enough delight in his own evil that he wanted to share it with the world. Gein was a mostly affable guy, though obviously screwed up, due (the movie argues) to a combination of a twistedly religious upbringing and being, it would seem, slightly retarded. Steve Railsback plays Ed, and he obviously believed in this project all the way because he produced this too. Ed lives alone in the too-huge house his late parents left him, hoarding junk, never cleaning up after himself, basically living like a kid well into his forties. Nobody these days would want anything to do with a man this creepy, but back in the 50's, people let him babysit their kids. He's perceived as a well-meaning, harmless, but unpleasantly stupid man with whom nobody would spend any more time than they have to (except the kids he's babysitting...he's got all sorts of neat stuff in his house, like shrunken heads and a spine-lamp). Gein starts small, robbing graves (is it still robbing graves if you're robbing your mom's grave? I mean, she got buried only with the stuff you let her get buried with). But it's a slippery slope from robbing graves to gutting barmaids. I suppose 1950's Wisconsin has Ed's own limited smarts to thank for his very small list of victims; after his first murder, he runs out and tells two people all about it. And then tries to pass it off as a joke. Mind you, the police in this movie aren't that much brighter; unwilling to investigate credible leads in two murders, or stop a likely vigilante with a clear and stated agenda and target. They follow, but pretty far behind. Carrie Snodgress plays Ed's mother, who continues to haunt Ed long after her death, moreso than Ed's abusive father who picked the most theatrical times to smack his wife and kids around (like when there's a gutted pig hanging up behind him). Religious guilt is her primary weapon and tool for raising her kids - and the results speak for themselves, usually saying something along the lines of "Duh-uh!" This must where Norman Bates came from. Where Leatherface came from is nastier; Ed cuts the face (and even much of the torso and breasts) off of a woman and wears them while (now-) famously prancing around in the moonlight, fantasizing on the then-novel concept of getting a sex change. This is after he tries getting the corpses to resurrect, mom having failed to teach him anything about Biblical resurrection beyond the idea of the dead not being dead anymore. Then he cuts pieces off the bodies, cooks them up and eats them, even serving them to some neighbors in one scene (I don't know where fact ends and movie begins here, but this definitely seems the most fanciful part of the movie, aside from the cheeeeesy burning bush scene). Personally, I don't like movies about people this stupid. I don't think stupid people make for very compelling characters, for the same reasons they don't make for very engaging conversationalists. But director Chuck Parello does a good job with the material; it moves like a sea turtle amputee, but it's got atmosphere and Railsback makes a credible (if not exactly fascinating) Gein. The intentions and effort is there, but I can't help but think a better Ed Gein movie would focus on a lot more on everybody who isn't Ed Gein. BACK TO THE E's BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE