Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007)

In the outskirts of Plainfield, Wisconsin, lived a man by the name of Ed Gein, born in 1906. He lived a lonely and secluded life. Most of his life was spent only in the company of  his controlling and abusive mother, and his older brother Henry, who died mysteriously in 1944. His father, an alcoholic, had died four years earlier.

When his mother died in 1945, Ed was truly alone in the world. He began a rapid deterioration into insanity. First, he turned to grave robbing. Then, to murder. Ed Gein became one of the most notorious serial killers in human history because of the obscene and grisly acts he committed, including cannibalism, necrophilia, and the fashioning of household items and clothes out of human skin and body parts.

Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield tells the story of this deeply disturbed individual as seen through a highly Hollywoodized, yet obviously low budget, lens.

The film stars Kane Hodder as Ed Gein. Among Hodder's previous exploits are appearances as Jason Voorhees in several of the later sequels in the original Friday the 13th series. But Hodder matches neither the stature nor over-all appearance for Ed Gein. Plus his tattoos are visible several times in the film, which is the most minuscule of the innumerable historical inaccuracies in this film.

In actuality, this film is the story of Ed Gein spliced with all sorts of added bits to spice up the plot. The film goes very little into the psychology of Gein or what led him to become the monster he was, while also offering very little in the way of historical fact. It's a story that needed no dramatization, but got plenty anyhow, with the results being unfortunate.

It's unfortunate that the man who inspired the creation of such famous horror film characters as Norman Bates, Hannibal Lectre, and Leatherface, could not get a decent film for himself with The Butcher of Plainfield. Luckily, a somewhat better film about Gein does exist in the form of In the Light of the Moon, directed by Chuck Parello and released in 2000.

2 meat hooks out of 5
Rated R for strong violence and disturbing graphic images.