Ed Gein (2000)

Disappointment for a huge fan!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Ed Gein was the seriously messed up Wisconsin individual whose nefarious activities in the 1950s—murder, dismemberment, grave-robbing, amateur furniture design, and the wearing of the skin of his victims—inspired the creation of several infamous cinematic sickos, most notably Psycho's Norman Bates and Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series.But where Gein's real-life activities should easily make for a thoroughly absorbing and disturbing biopic, this account actually proves rather dull and lacking in shocks, director Chuck Parello (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 2) opting for a frustratingly reserved approach that focuses far too heavily on the more mundane aspects of Ed's life and on presenting him in a sympathetic light when it should be delivering the grisly goods.Factually correct it may be, but Ed (convincingly played by Steve Railsback) shooting the breeze with locals in the town bar, discussing why he enjoys pork and beans for supper, and performing babysitting duties for a couple of kids hardly makes for particularly enthralling viewing, while his frequent delusional flashbacks and hallucinations are predictably staged and repetitive. Only two scenes stand out in so far as they actually manage to prove genuinely unsettling—Ed taking his skin-suit for a late-night airing and a quick glimpse of a decapitated, gutted human corpse hanging in his basement—but these are all too brief.5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

Talking about wasting a potentially fine and interesting subject. Here we have a movie about Ed Gein, which is about the best and most interesting American horror-story, mainly because it of course all really happened. The movie however doesn't work out as good and effective because of the reason that the movie picks a wrong approach for its subject. The movie picks a more Hollywood horror approach, in which the killer and his action get depicted as sensational-horror. The movie tries hard to get personal at times and dig into the the mind of Gein but all is in vein really.The movie still could had been a decent one of its horror, atmosphere and tension would had been better. The movie however more or less fails on each of these fronts, making "In the Light of the Moon" an ineffective movie within its genre. Perhaps if the movie would had been made 30 years earlier with a more '70's style over it the movie could had still worked out. Now you're instead better off watching the other Gein movie "Deranged", which is a surprising good movie about Gein, without using the real names of the persons.It's a pretty distant movie that remains mostly on the surface. It shows too much of the things that aren't interesting and too little of the things that were potentially interesting. For instance the movie shows very little of Gein's grave-robbing and how he used to skin his victims and use body parts for decoration and suits out of real people's skin. The movie is more being a light-version of the Ed Gein story, as if this movie got aimed toward TV only.It must had really been a dream-project for Steve Railsback, since he also produced. It was a kind of role that could had launched him to stardom and he also certainly ain't too bad in his role and he does look like Gein but due to the movie its execution his character also doesn't really work out effectively.It's not an horrible movie but considering its subject it's still a disappointing one.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Norman Bates (Psycho), Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs) and Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) are all based upon Ed Gein. Althau Ed Gein considered to be worse than these three fictional characters. This movie is pretty well done. It's too bad that I don't know much about Ed Gein so I don't know how much truth was in this movie. But anyways the movie was still great and well directed. And the most important things were truth. There was also some funny scenes but most of the movie was creepy scenes. It's very similar with movie like Ted Bundy and Dahmer but this one is probably even better. So if you are looking for a good horror film, watch this one because these things happened for real.

Ed Gein (2000) * (out of 4) Steve Railsback plays the infamous Ed Gein, the man who killed woman so that he could wear their skin, eat them and so on. I've seen a lot of movies based on Gein's life (Deranged) and a lot of films influenced by his story (Psycho, Texas Chainsaw) but this here is without a doubt the worst of the worst. I'm really not sure where to start but I guess I'll go with the screenplay, which seems to think it's a good idea for a horror film to go the first forty-minutes without a drop of gore or violence. When Gein finally gets on his murdering spree nothing is shown but instead we get countless dialogue scenes that are as boring as I'm sure Gein was in real life. Railsback gives a so-so performance, which means he tries hard to get Gein down right but he's just not good enough of an actor to pull it off. Go rent Deranged instead.