After the gruesome discovery residents of Plainfield had made when entering the house of Ed Gein, no one knew the genre of horror would change forever. With Robert Bloch publishing his thriller novel "Psycho" in 1959, Hollywood would end up taking the story and twisting it into various iterations. Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of Psycho (1960) of the same name frightened many at the time. Skip a decade or so and Tobe Hooper would do the same thing in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Without Ed Gein or his contorted history, the stories of horror, fans have today to enjoy would not exist. It is unfortunate though that such events had to occur in order to develop such iconic creations. Up until that point though nobody had really made a movie based on the actual inspiration himself. Ed Gein had only been written about prior and was still alive up until the mid 1980s. Putting a production together that solely focused on the background / life of Ed Gein is just as intriguing as the other popular horror movies.The running time mainly follows Ed Gein (Steve Railsback) to the point of where he begins to commit his heinous acts that many never saw coming. Inserted at different points are flashback sequences that show what brought him to that point. These flashbacks pursue his upbringing from young boy to middle-aged adult. Living under the strict rule of his mother (Carrie Snodgress), Gein transforms from a timid adolescent, to a man with a distorted sense of reality. Writing the screenplay to this indie film was Stephen Johnston. For the most part, the story feels pretty solid. Certain scenes within the movie do contain moments that are unrealistic, but this appears when Gein has already hit his psychosis so it can be assumed that only he is seeing these things. However there are factual errors to the story. Certain names and events were changed. For example, the owner of the hardware store that Gein had killed was Bernice Worden. In this feature it was Collette Marshall (Carol Mansell). Maybe it was legal issue?Or the deputy who arrested Gein was named Arch Sly, but here his name is Sheriff Jim Stillwell (Pat Skipper). Even the way of which Gein's disgusting hobby was discovered has a slightly altered telling as to what other sources say. Perhaps director Chuck Parello modified these scenes to make it more dramatic. But why - a true story is way more convincing. Aside from this, the rest of the story execution is captivating enough. The subplot between Gein and Mary Hogan (Sally Champlin) is fascinating. Parello even delves into what might have happened to Ed's brother Henry (Brian Evers), since his death still remains unknown. This is by far the best personification of the life of Ed Gein in the most realistic fashion. From an upbringing with his religious mother, to his plunging mental health on his own. After this movie, Johnston also wrote for psychotic films like Bundy (2002) and The Hillside Strangler (2004). Parello is best known for directing this feature and Henry II: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1996). Gein is displayed as a truly lost individual with no clear sense of control or guidance. Steve Railsback as Ed Gein puts in the right amount of effort to show how much he studied the role. Railsback brings the deranged individual to life with quiet and restrained intent. There's enough to show that there's something not all there. Railsback has been in several film productions, his most famous being The X-Files and Lifeforce (1985). Carrie Snodgress as Augusta Gein is even more convincing being that she was the force that drove her son into lunacy. Citing biblical stories and forewarning her sons of the dangers of sinful people. Snodgress was also in other films like Easy Rider (1969) and Pale Rider (1985). The third actor that best fits the mold of their character was Sally Champlin as Mary Hogan. Not only did she fit the character visually but matched Hogan's described personality as well. All other cast members within the film work well too but do not stand out because their roles are not as prevalent.Being that this is an independent film, the visuals are not as perfected but help paint the story. Some of the digital effects look lightly rendered onto the picture, which isn't horrible but not great. There are practical effects though for the skin / bone cannibal like activities that Gein was interested in and what psychologists suspected. The cinematography shot by Vanja Cernjul worked for the film. It wasn't filmed in a wide aspect ratio, but it did get the needed shots in order to convey the correct atmosphere for how Plainfield might have felt at the time. Cernjul was also the cinematographer to American Psycho II: All American Girl (2002). For music, Robert McNaughton composed the film score. For an unreleased film score the music does its job efficiently. It's unfortunate that there was no main theme of any sort. McNaughton also scored both Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), its sequel and is related to the director of the first; John McNaughton.By no means is it a gory horror film with the most recognizable icon. The script also adapts certain parts of the history correctly, while other times is misses the mark completely. No matter what though, the main leads fill the shoes professionally, the story is tempting to watch, the music fits the atmosphere as well as the visual style.

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.

This is probably the best film concerning Edward Gein, a Wisconsin farmer that would become known as The Butcher of Plainfield. Steve Railsback plays Gein, who would rob graves of women who resembled his mother Augusta(Carrie Snodgress)to take home and have sex with them. He would also use certain portions of skin for a "woman suit". He also decorated his home with furniture and clothing made from the skin and bones of corpses. He would be arrested and convicted of only two murders, but suspect for six to a dozen other slayings between 1947 and 1957. The necrophiliac butcher would die some 27 years later in an Institute for the Criminally Insane. Also in the cast: Steve Blackwood, Craig Zimmerman, Carol Mansell and Sally Champlin. Some very disturbing scenes; but highly recommended if you like true life crime movies with minimum exaggeration.

The completely abnormal characteristics that distinguish a serial killer from the common homicide, as well as the disturbing psychological behavior found in their cases, are probably the reasons of the people's old fascination with Serial Killers. As this fascination is fueled basically by the natural interest on the unknown, it's not a surprise that Serial Killers have become the source for fictional stories of many different genres, with of course, horror being the most representative. Among the many Serial Killers in history, Ed Gein is one of the most interesting, not only because of the horrid acts he committed, but because of the complex and disturbing mind behind them. A mind so deranged that served as inspiration for movies like "Psycho", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Silence of the Lambs", and the theme of this film, which attempts to reconstruct the events that lead to his capture."In the Light of the Moon" (now renamed as simply "Ed Gein"), is the story of Ed Gein (Steve Railsback), based on the reports of his capture, accounts of witnesses and the interviews he gave after he was captured. Told from his perspective, we follow the quiet and apparently normal Ed Gein as his relatively simple life becomes drastically changed when his disturbing obsession with his dead mother, Augusta Gein (Carrie Snodgress), grows stronger and takes him to commit acts of grave robbery, necrophilia, and finally, the murders that made him tragically famous. We get a glimpse of his family history and the reasons that made Gein a killer, as well as a fairly realistic theory of how his schizophrenic mind worked and the way he devised the horrific methods of his murders.Written by Stephen Johnston (whose work has been focused on serial killers since "The Midnight Hour"), the film is a fairly accurate representation of Gein's case, and while some names were obviously changed, it's safe to say that it's one of the best documented films based on the case, as well as probably Johnston's best work. Probably because of the real pathetic melancholy of Gein's life, it's in this film where Johnston finally succeeds in creating a story where the main character is both likable and repulsive at the same time (something he attempted without the same success in "Ted Bundy" and "Starkweather"), to the point that one can feel sympathy for Gein, although not to the point of making him likable. It's a fine line that Johnston works out effectively, in a nicely done script.Director Chuck Parello, better known as the man behind the sequel to "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", recreates Gein's life in a surprisingly restrained way. Rather than going the easy way out by building his film as a horror movie (after all, three classics of the genre were "inspired" by Geins' story), he creates a compelling docudrama that attempts to remain as accurate as his limited budget allows him to be. While nothing groundbreaking or original, Parello's slow paced and notoriously restrained approach works remarkably well with Johnston's script, and allows a slightly truer, more realistic glimpse to Gein's sad story.While it's true that both Johnston and Parello do good jobs, the true star of the film (and basically the reason to watch the film) is the outstanding performance by Steve Railsback as the title character. Railsbeck literally owns Gein's character making the sad, disturbed man alive in a haunting, realistic way. While Railsback is the highlight of the film, Carrie Snodgress also delivers a terrific performance as Geins' religious and dominant mother, and while her screen time is considerably smaller than Railsback's, she steals every scene she is in without problem. Sadly, the rest of the cast is not as convincing, although most do a fairly good job.The worst mistake one can make when watching "In the Ligh of the Moon" is to take it as a horror film (and even worse, to compare it to the 1974 classic, "Deranged"), as that approach will surely end up in a big disappointment; it's certainly better to see it as an attempt to make a dramatic biopic of a deranged man that became a monster, as that seems to be what Parello intended with his slow, subtle style. However, this is not to say that the film is perfect, far from it, as sometimes the same restrained approach that works effectively in some scenes, becomes painfully tiring at times. Still, like most independent films, this movie shows its biggest flaw in the very cheap special effects (they look as taken out of a cheap TV series) caused by the budget constrains. Once again, the low-budget hurts what otherwise could had been a much better film.To those familiar with Gein's life, this unpretentious film won't offer anything new, but will be a pleasant surprise due to its fairly accurate retelling of the story. Sure, this movie is nowhere near the level of "Psycho", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Silence of the Lambs", but as a serious docudrama of Ed Gein's life, it's a very effective film. Not really as bad as one may believe. 7/10