Netflix's famed Monster anthology uncloaks the darkest, stomach-churning history of human minds, one would likely avoid delving into at dinner. And now, the newest act has come to venture paths rarely trodden: the brutal history of the Butcher of Plainfield. In the chill of rural Wisconsin, a solitary figure persists, carved into infamy, his murder career spawning nightmares eternal. Cast in shades of cinematic violence and primal dread, Monster: The Ed Gein Story's teaser refuses to shy away from the deadly curiosities of what is hidden beneath civility. 

Here is a deep dive into the gruesome history of Ed Gein, who continues to inspire some of the most terrifying cinema from Alfred Hitchcock's classics to Netflix.  

Trigger Warning: Has mentions of themes that can be disturbing for some. User discretion is advised.

A quiet farmer who haunted Wisconsin, appropriately called The Butcher of Plainfield, or The Ghoul of Plainfield, infamous for his murders, he became a horror legend. Born on August 27, 1906, Ed Gein lived with his domineering mother in a shady farmhouse till she passed away in 1945. Later on, Gein slipped into a morbid passion for exhuming women's corpses, digging up several bodies over the years. Among his many sickening crafts, he created several household items like lampshades of facial skin and chairs upholstered in human skin, and skulls on his bedposts.

In 1957, he confessed to killing two women: Mary Hogan, a tavern owner, and Bernice Worden, a hardware store owner. The authorities' search of his house yielded a disturbing collection of trophies fashioned from human remains, skull bowls, skin belts, and organs in jars. Gein was declared insane and, as such, institutionalized, rather than imprisoned. He was eventually tried and found guilty of murder, and he died at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in 1984. However, his legacy became indelible in pop culture, becoming the blueprint for fictional criminals like Norman Bates and Buffalo. Now Netflix has caught up with Gein's lingering terror.

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Netflix has true crime enthusiasts locked in on the edge of their couches as it revives Gein's chaos in the third season of its Monster series. 

The newly released Netflix teaser of Monster: The Ed Gein Story offered a chilling peek into the life of the infamous murderer and suspected serial killer, and body snatcher, Ed Gein, with Charlie Hunnam delivering an unforgettably spine-chilling performance. Against the backdrop of the stark and barren farmland, Hunnam slipped into the soul of the reclusive Gein, whose psychosis, isolation, and obsession fed his grotesque line of crimes.

Suspended in stillness, every shot carried the jarring weight of terror and the deeply unsettling art of murder. Laurie Metcalf as Augusta Gein, Ed Gein's mother, Tom Hollander as Alfred Hitchcock, Olivia Williams as Alma Reville, an English screenwriter and film editor, and Hitchcock's wife, Addison Rae as Evelyn Hartley, Suzanna Son, and more round out the stellar cast. With a promise to focus on mental health awareness, Ryan Murphy's Monster: The Ed Gein Story hits Netflix screens globally on October 3, 2025.   

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