‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’s Popularity Is a Sign of the True Crime Genre’s Biggest Unsolved Problem

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is the latest in Ryan Murphy’s Monster series for Netflix, a look at the serial killer and grave robber whose story inspired some of Hollywood’s great movie villains, the likes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s Leatherface and The Silence of the Lambs‘ Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill. It’s proved to be just as popular as the series’ first two entries on the infamous Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, respectively. That’s not surprising: features about serial killers consistently find their way to the top, feeding the public’s insatiable appetite to learn more about these monsters… and it’s a problem.

‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ Is the Latest Project To Glorify the Infamous

As pointed out in Collider‘s review of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the series’ biggest sin is turning Ed Gein (Charlie Hunnam), a ruthless serial killer who didn’t see people as human beings, into a quiet, unassuming small-town boy lacking the smarts to know any better. He is as much a victim as those he killed, railroaded into becoming a cold-blooded killer by mental illness, an abusive and zealously religious mother, Augusta (Laurie Metcalf), and a girlfriend, Adeline Watkins (Suzanna Son), who is as obsessed with death as he is.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story plays fast and loose with the facts to bolster that narrative. Arguably, the most offensive in this regard is the depiction of Adeline Watkins, who was a real person from Plainfield, Wisconsin. In real life, she reportedly knew him, but only briefly and distantly, denied claims about a romance with Gein, no record she shared his obsessions or even knew about his heinous crimes. Yet the series all but ignores the facts, making Watkins a key figure in Gein’s life and one of many reasons why he isn’t wholly to blame for his crimes. If it’s an effort by Murphy to make a comment about people’s admiration of serial killers, it fails miserably, as does the inclusion of Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Perkins. And the complete fabrication of Gein aiding the FBI in catching Ted Bundy, as if to offer Gein redemption for his own sins, is equally offensive.

But it doesn’t matter. Monster: The Ed Gein Story made it to the top of the streaming charts, despite the overwhelming negative criticism of the project. Even without exaggerations like the ones that plague Monster: The Ed Gein Story, features about serial killers fascinate a public that seeks to understand their motivations, at odds with a marked decline in serial killing as a whole, with one expert placing an 80% drop in serial killing since its 1970s peak. Anyone with even a passing interest in the true crime genre can rip off a list of names of real-life serial killers, while the names of serial killers in Hollywood horror — Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger — have become virtually iconic.

The Success of ‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ Points to a Terrible Truth, but Change Is Possible

The problem isn’t just with the public’s fascination with serial killers. Monster: The Ed Gein Story is evidence of another terrible truth: Hollywood actively seeks to make serial killers more interesting and compelling. Was Gein’s true story interesting enough? You’d think, but just in case, Murphy thought it best to add in all these other elements so you’re really interested. Ted Bundy was handsome, so we’ll just double-down on that aspect and cast Zac Efron as the notorious killer in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.

In the realm of true crime, unless the victim is a young beauty pageant contestant like JonBenét Ramsey, or an expectant mother killed by her husband like Laci Peterson, victims are never the focus of true crime features about serial killers. The talk of respecting the victims of a serial killer is often just that: talk. Victims aren’t captivating enough, it seems, interesting only when they’re at the receiving end of the serial killer’s weapon of choice.

Until these stories center around the survivors and victims rather than the killers themselves, it’s a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon. However, not every project following a true crime story is following the formula. The recently released scripted series about John Wayne Gacy breaks that cycle while focusing highly on his victims. Peacock’s Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy subverts the troubling expectations of the serial killer feature. Gacy, played by Michael Chernus, is in the series, and you do get to see his motivations and how he was able to lure his victims, which feeds the public’s appetite for “understanding” the killer, but you never see him murder anyone. The show doesn’t indulge in that violence or gore.

Instead, each episode, named after one of his victims, tells the story about the victim in the days before Gacy ever entered the picture, making the victim as captivating as the man who took his life. What’s promising is that it, too, has proven popular, a refreshing change to the genre norm that has struck a chord with the public. And if success breeds like-minded projects, then perhaps we’ve turned a corner in the genre. Embracing the stories of the victims rather than their killers, especially in the case of true crime, is the answer to how to overcome the problem of lionizing the serial killer.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.