Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series Monster: The Ed Gein Story slammed by true crime fans: ‘So far from what happened’
Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix show Monster: The Ed Gein Story has been fiercely criticized by viewers for its creative ‘liberties’ with many frustrated by its ‘fake’ storylines.
The latest in the anthology series arrived on the platform on October 3 and focuses on the convicted murderer, grave robber, and suspected serial killer.
Starring Charlie Hunnam in the titular role, the eight-episodes explores Gein’s heinous crimes, however, annoyed viewers have blasted Murphy for embellishing some of the facts of his case.
One aspect of the show that has irritated fans is the introduction of Gein’s supposed girlfriend, Adeline Watkins, played by Suzanna Son.
On the show, the pair are engaged in a romantic relationship, but in reality, the real-life Adeline refuted these claims. In a 1957 article, she insisted that reports of a romance were a complete exaggeration and that the pair had only known each other a few months.
Another area of backlash has stemmed from the depiction of Gein using a chainsaw to kill his victims.
Gein confessed to killing hardware store owner Bernice Worden and tavern owner Mary Hogan, both of whom were killed with a firearm.
In Murphy’s series, however, Gein kills them using a chainsaw, like Leatherface does in the 1974 film Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was loosely based on his crimes.
Charlie Hunnam plays Ed Gein in Ryan Murphy’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story
The series shows Gein using a chainsaw to kill his victims, which did not happen in reality
Additionally, Gein is portrayed as to having killed his older brother, Henry Edward Gein. Henry was found dead aged 43, with the coroner listing the cause as asphyxiation.
While many have speculated that Gein was responsible for his death, this theory was never proven.
On the show, he also killed babysitter Evelyn Hartley, whom he abducts, tortures, and kills in retaliation for her taking his babysitting job.
While Hartley did go missing in 1954, she was not abducted or killed by Gein.
At the end of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, he is seen assisting the FBI in helping to catch Ted Bundy, but this did not happen in reality.
Gein was arrested in 1957, almost two decades before Bundy committed his murders.
Viewers have vented their annoyance at Murphy’s embellishments on social media.
Taking to Reddit, one complained: ‘Now here’s the thing, I could forgive all this if it’s revealed at the end that it’s all “fantasy and myth”… this series could have saved itself by being an examination of how myths become widely believed.’
Gein was a body snatcher, grave robber and murderer. He was remanded to a psychiatric institution, where he died aged 77
They continued: ‘Someone who watches this series to completion and takes it at face value will come out thinking that Ed killed people with a chainsaw, he is the confirmed killer of Evelyn Hartley, Adeline Atkins knew he what he was doing and was fascinated by it, that Ed had a fling with his second victim, and hell, that he is the reason Ted Bundy got caught.
‘It’s dogsh**, but I doubt I’ll be able to keep anyone from watching.’
Another wrote: ‘I knew he [Murphy] embellished some things in Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, which for Dahmer was for sure making it seem like one of the victims was dating him, but there was still a lot of truth to what the series depicted.
‘However, the Ed Gein Story is just soooooo far from what happened.
‘Making Adeline an accomplice, being involved with one of the victims, killing the babysitter because she “stole the job,” and the fact that SO much of the show is about Adeline being an accomplice too is just asinine.
‘I never expected this to be fully based on facts, but to have this much “creative liberty” is going to have people think it’s all true. Super frustrating. They didn’t have to do all that, it still would have been a great series.’
A third slammed: ‘Ryan Murphy doesn’t care about facts or any victims of his series. He sensationalizes, romanticizes, and glamorizes, real life killers and make them “hot.”
‘His ideas are good for maybe 2.5 seconds then he has to take someone else’s story and make it his own. Gotta make that green somehow.’
In a separate thread, one posted: ‘Why couldn’t they stick to just the facts of this case! That is enough to be a great series. All the fake storylines just take away from the series in my opinion.’
Another Reddit user branded the show ‘much more historically inaccurate than I expected.’
‘They take way too many artistic liberties,’ they continued. ‘I even googled some of the stuff he supposedly did, and a lot of it never happened.
Gein is escorted from the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory to the county jail after confessing to two murders
Television writer, director, and producer Ryan Murphy has been critiqued for embellishing Gein’s story for his series
‘The show invents characters like a romantic interest, suggests he influenced or consulted on other crimes, exaggerates his psychological state, and misrepresents his family and relationships…
‘Anyone else find it tonally all over the place? Like half thriller-drama, half accidental comedy? I wanted to like this because the Monster series was intriguing and I learned stuff about Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, but this just feels like modern Hollywood slop.’
Agreeing, another commented: ‘It was terrible in so many ways. Most of it was completely fictionalized and not at all what happened.
‘It went off on so many ridiculous tangents and jumped time back and forth for no apparent reason. And the end? Comically bad. Please stop giving Ryan Murphy the green light to keep churning out Z-grade horror-porn.’
Others, however, have learned to take Murphy’s biographical crime drama anthology with a pinch of salt.
‘I’ve always found Murphy’s shows to be entertaining,’ one said. ‘I’m not particularly interested in Ed Gein, so I haven’t watched this show, but I used to love Nip/Tuck and I also really enjoyed his Mendez Brothers show. I guess I must be his target demo!’
‘To be fair, I feel like most of Ryan Murphy’s shows have always been very wild and over-the-top,’ another commented.
‘I’d never take them at face value… I kind of assumed this would be exploitation schlock from the images and trailers.’
A third added: ‘I don’t know why people are still outraged and surprised by a Ryan Murphy production it’s like watching Tyler Perry movies and still surprised he’s a sh** writer and director.’
Besides Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Gein’s horrific deeds and twisted psyche has provided the inspiration for – among others – Norman Bates in Psycho, Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.
Between 1947 and 1952, he exhumed the bodies of nine freshly-buried women, bringing the corpses – along with the women he murdered – back to his farmhouse, where he would flay them and cut up their bodies.
After his arrest, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and, after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1968, committed to psychiatric hospitals until he died of respiratory failure in 1984, aged 77.
