Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story explores the roots of horror

Ryan Murphy's third season of the anthology series Monster, titled Monster: The Ed Gein Story, is now streaming on Netflix and follows the story of Ed Gein, the Wisconsin farmer known as 'The Butcher of Plainfield.' Charlie Hunnam stars as Gein, studying over 120 clinical reports from Gein's thirty years in a psychiatric hospital to portray not just the criminal but the man behind the monster. Hunnam described the role as a 'huge responsibility,' aiming to understand how horror is born rather than celebrate it. Murphy, creator of American Horror Story, frames the series as a moral and social investigation into loneliness, male discomfort, madness, and society's abandonment of the mentally ill, calling Gein 'the first incel in history.' The series draws on Gein's real-life crimes, which inspired films like Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. Murphy emphasizes that Monster is never just a story of blood but a commentary on larger issues. The show has topped Netflix charts despite mixed reception.