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On the surface,
Edward Gein is just a normal farmer,
but deep down below he's really a very lonely and
disturbed man who seeks comfort in killing women and
then wearing their skin. Recently, many women have
gone missing in the small community of Plainfield
and when Bobby's mother goes missing, he decides to
find out who's responsible once and for all.
Ed Gein is probably the most popular serial killer to
make movies about. Some have been outstanding (The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre), while others have taken
a more serious approach and fallen flat. To me, the
2000 Steve Railsback thriller was one of those, and
Ed Gein: The Butcher Of Plainfield almost felt as if
it was made from the same script - only with Kane
Hodder starring as Ed Gein. Now, I love Kane Hodder
and he gives us a brilliant performance in here but
he looks nothing like Gein which made the movie feel
less realistic and more fictional.
Obviously, director Mike Feifer tried to take certain
elements from the remake of The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre and put a more serious spin on things.
We have the grey-brownish colours, the chains hanging
from the roof for no apparent reason, the girl hung
from hooks (not a meat hook this time though) and
various other elements. Other than that, this is,
as I said before, basically a re-telling of the
2000 film with the same title.
The story revolves around Bobby, a rookie deputy,
and his loving mother and girlfriend. Recently,
women have been disappearing without a trace in the
small community of Plainfield and Bobby is doing
everything he can to find out who's behind these
mysterious disappearances. We all know that it's
Ed Gein of course. But when Bobby's mother disappears,
Bobby decides to put an end to this mystery once
and for all. As you can hear, there's not a whole
lot of creativity behind the script. It's a basic
Ed Gein movie and we've seen it all before.
I have to give some credit to Mike Feifer though.
I know I usually bash his movies to hell but Ed
Gein actually felt like a more ambitious effort
than his previous movies. There are a couple of
scenes that are just outstanding and the characters
are all interesting enough. So even though Ed Gein
isn't a great movie, it's not as bad as I had expected
it to be. It's unoriginal and the story is basic
but every now and then there's just something there
to keep your interest up. Slow-paced and serious,
perhaps not my taste, but not one of the worst DTV
horror flicks of the year, I'm sure.
We get hooks through skin, some severed body parts
and peeled of skin. It thinks that it's gorier than
it actually is. Nothing special.
I really dug the score for Ed Gein, this was one of
the movie's better qualities. Slick violin music
that created a nice and dramatic atmosphere.
I've never been a big fan of the serial-killer-thriller
genre that was so popular back in the early 2000's
and Ed Gein definitely wasn't my cup of tea. It didn't
feel fresh enough and Kane Hodder wasn't believable
as Ed Gein. It's got some redeeming qualities though
but not enough to make me recommend it.
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