Ed Gein, the real-life murderer who liked to rob graves and fashion household items off of what he found there, inspired many horror films in the past, including Silence of the Lambs, Deranged, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho. However, there has never been, as far as I recall, an actual film about the real prototype for so many cinema serial killers nor a film calling him by name until this vehicle surfaced. Originally titled In the Light of the Moon, it was later altered to carry the star in the title and produce more drawing power.

Supposedly, Steve Railsback (Distortions, Scissors, Deadly Instinct, etc...) received the part of Gein after he auditioned and simply gave a laugh as part of his reading. This proved to be a wise choice, for he was able to play the lead very chillingly and was somehow even able to add a tad of sympathy for the same, where logically no sympathy should abound. Viewers, however, cannot help but feel a little bit sorry for the guy though, because he is just so screwed up in the head.

Gorehounds will feel let down, expecting a bloodbath that never comes. Aside from one brief scene of Gein dressed in his infamous suit of woman's skin, howling at the moon and pounding on a bongo drum (now there is something you don't see every day) and artifacts in the house, taken from actual crime scene photos, there is relatively little to grotesque you out. Instead, the film takes the psychological approach, offering a study of just how and why this lunatic became the way he was in real life.

As far as films go, this movie places more focus on the truth than other films about mass murderers on the market, such as the host of movies about Dahmer, Gacy and Bundy. Railsback even looks a little like Gein, though I believe considerably taller, right down to the dumbassed cap he was seen wearing in most pre-arrest photos of him.

In truth, Gein was more concerned about being branded a thief, for he had killed a woman in a store and taken a cash register. He insisted he was going to bring it back later and had only taken the thing to see what made it work. Forget all the body parts, the skin suit, an ashtray made out of a human skull and a couple pieces of furniture made of bones ... he was more worried about being branded a thief and dead serious about it. No wonder he ended up in a nut house instead of in jail (Wisconsin did not have the death penalty at that time, I believe, so it would not have mattered much had he be sentenced to an actual prison). Even near the end, the real Gein and the actor portraying him, both seemed to think they had done nothing wrong, commenting how they were happy in the asylum except for the fact that there were a bunch of disturbed people there. Of course Gein did not consider himself one of them.

One constant element that may or may not have been true in real life, but emphasized heavily upon in the film is an odd relationship between Gein and his mother, played with equal psychotic fury by Carrie Snodgress. The film tends to put more than slight reasoning behind Gein's character being so fouled up in the head on a Bible-quoting, paranoid mother figure. Maybe, maybe not in real life, but in the film, the formula works well.

The film also notes how Gein was considered an oddball, but not really a killer, by most of the Wisconsin townfolk he associated with. In fact, he was well-liked by some and just considered a little peculiar. The film touches on this repeatedly as well.

Charles Parello, the director, seems to be making a career ot of movies about psyhcopaths, as a few years after this was made he finished another project on The Hillside Stranglers. Railsback, also more recently, has a role, uncredited, in the Devil's Rejects and in late 2005 has yet another film in post-production for which few details are available, at least as of this writing [November 2005].

If you are a historian on crime and have been jaded by other films in the past that deal with real murderers like Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer and the like, this film might be a project worth viewing as it sticks pretty close to the facts of the case. And why would there be a need to add-lib? Gein's documented real-life exploits are twisted enough, without adding or spicing them up.

review � by Dale Pierce

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