Ed Gein... This guy was a truly evil monster in life, but in death, was some of the greatest inspiration for serial killers in some of the most famous horror movies of all time![/caption]For those of you who don't know who Ed Gein was... The truth is, is Ed Gein was a monster who in Wisconsin in the 1950s had killed a few people, but because of the tragic circumstances that led up to him become the monster that he would end up becoming, has in some respects become the model for a lot of the serial killers in movies as well as in novels for the second half of the 20th century...
A couple of examples of this being:
1. The Sawyer family's remoteness, cannibalism, as well as wearing human body parts is said to have been inspired by the fact that Ed Gein lived out on a remote farm in the middle of no-where, eat human flesh, as well as sometimes wearing body parts from some of the dead people he dug up...
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This truly prolific horror movie villain was in some part inspired by who Ed Gein was and what he did.[/caption]2. Another example of this is, 'Jame Gumb' from, 'The Silence Of The Lambs'... Now the truth is, is that with this book and to some extent, the movie itself, the serial killers, 'Hannibal Lecter,' and, 'Buffalo Bill' are an amalgam of a lot of the serial killers from the various bit of filling that has been done on these creeps, on up to people like, 'Ted Bundy'... But there is a little bit of Gein in both Lecter and Buffalo Bill... In how Lecter was a cannibal, and also in how Buffalo Bill used to skin his victims...
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Both of these horror movie villains both had a little bit of Ed Gein in them...[/caption]3. And last but certainly not least, when Robert Bloch did his seminal novel, 'Psycho', he actually based the character of, 'Norman Bates' loosely, but still directly on, 'Ed Gein'!
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The character of, 'Norman Bates' as characterized from the most famous scene from, 'Psycho' was loosely, but still directly based on Ed Gein...[/caption]And boy did he... I would definitely say that it is wrong to immortalize a serial killer in any fashion that paints them in any form of positive light, but the truth is, is that this is exactly to a greater or lesser extent what Robert Bloch did... And I have to admit that where in I have never read the novel (I really want to...) I have seen the movies and they are freaking awesome... Despite the fact that unfortunately it looks like, 'Ed Gein', will live on forever in, 'Norman Bates'!
Now as for Ed Gein... Ed Gein was practically in love with his mother, and the two of them had a very unnaturally close bond in their tiny farm, out in the middle of no where, till well after his father and brother passed away (the later of which it has been suspected that Ed Gein murdered...)
After his mother died he decided that he wanted a sex change and began exhuming the bodies of dead women to make himself a, 'Woman Suit'... From there he would also go on to kill women as well...
Now Norman Bates was very similar, except different and here is what I mean:
1. Norman Bates, he lived at a creepy Motel that was out in the middle of nowhere (unlike Ed Gein who lived on a farm...)
2. Norman lived out at that creerpy Motel and shared a dangerously unnatural bond with his mother, until he killed her, (Ed Gein shared an unnatural bond with his mother but never killed her...)
3. After Norman Bates killed his mother, he slowly became her, (After his mother died, Ed Gein wanted to become a woman...)
In the end, I think Ed Gein was the absolute embodiment of a monster, but being a fan of, Novels, Movies & History, I found this stuff to be kind of interesting (despite being extremely disturbing,) and I thought that you guys might as well!
http://youtu.be/y9klJA1JMbM
http://youtu.be/Vs3981DoINw
http://youtu.be/lQKs169Sl0I
