Monster: Ed Gein
October 10, 2025 • Review • David
After watching Monster: The Ed Gein Story on Netflix, I came away with complicated feelings that surprised me. Having already seen several documentaries and interviews about the real Ed Gein case, I went into the series expecting a straightforward retelling of a murderer’s descent into madness.
Instead, I found a layered and strangely empathetic exploration of a man shaped, even broken, by the world around him. The show doesn’t excuse Ed Gein’s crimes, nothing could, but it does make an effort to understand how he became what he did.
Charlie Hunnam gives a remarkably controlled and haunting performance as Gein, often saying more with silence than words. The series presents him not as a calculating killer, but as someone trapped in a mental prison built by years of psychological torment. His mother, portrayed by Laurie Metcalf, is the true architect of that prison and through their toxic dynamic, the show reveals how relentless emotional abuse can warp a mind until reality itself fractures.
Some elements were clearly dramatized. The pacing of certain events, the stylized hallucinations, and a few invented subplots are embellishments for dramatic effect. Yet, instead of detracting from the story, these choices actually deepen its impact. They capture something emotional that raw facts alone cannot convey — the loneliness, repression, and slow corrosion of a human being’s sanity.
Visually, the series is stunning in its bleakness. The muted tones of rural Wisconsin give the story an atmosphere of cold isolation, while the meticulous production design pulls viewers into Gein’s disturbed world without relying too heavily on gore. There are disturbing scenes, yes, but they never feel gratuitous. Instead, they feel like things we need to see in order to understand the story.
What lingers most for me is the strange pity I felt for Ed Gein. That feeling doesn’t erase the horror of his actions; rather, it underscores the tragedy of what unchecked abuse and untreated mental illness can create. The show succeeds in humanizing a figure long reduced to myth and rumor, forcing viewers to confront the uncomfortable truth that monsters are often made, not born.
In the end, Monster: The Ed Gein Story is not just a crime series, it’s a psychological study and a moral reckoning. For all its creative liberties, it achieves what the best true crime dramas rarely manage: it makes us feel something real for someone we thought we could only fear.
If I were to sum it up in one line: A haunting, beautifully acted portrait of a man destroyed by cruelty, and a powerful reminder of how horror often begins at home.
