Ed Gein, the Ghoul of Plainfield
The original ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ movie was made in the 70’s, but it was re-made a few years ago. The horror film is about a group of teenagers who get stranded in a small town which turns out to be a death trap. The Hewitt family preys on anyone who comes in their direction. By the end of the story, only one girl escapes the clutches of ‘leather face,’ which cut off his victims face and turns it into a mask. One might ask, who has not seen the film, why it is so scary? It is just another movie about some fictional character that kills people for his own sick fantasies. However, within the first 5 minutes of the movie, the audience discovers that this movie is based on true events, and that is why The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the scariest movies ever made. This movie is composed from the life of a serial killer known as Ed Gein. What caused this small town boy to become one of history's imfamous killers? Was it a genetic disposition that he could not control, or did something or someone cause his downward spiral into murder?
Although the ‘massacre’ did not occur in Texas, and no chainsaw was actually involved, the main idea behind this movie was referenced from Ed Gein, the ghoul of Plainfield, Wisconsin. He killed over 20 people in the 1950s. Because the 50s were a time where TV couples were not allowed to be seen in the same bed, his crimes were horrifying to everyone in his time. Police found a woman gutted and strung up by her heels like a deer in his shed. There were jars of noses, and a belt made of female nipples. He used skulls as soup bowls, and propped up his coffee table with shin bones. He grew up in Plainfield where the population fluctuated between 600 to 680 people. His house was a good distance from town, where he was isolated from all human contact except his crazy mother. She was domineering and fanatical in her religion and did not want Ed, or his brother Henry, have much to do with the outside world. On a conscious level he basically saw his mother as a god-like figure whom he worshipped, but I believe unconsciously he built up resentment against her because she would not let him have contact with anyone, especially women. One might argue that his lack of communication with the outside world led him to killing just because he did not know any better and had irreversable chemical imbalances. On the other hand, I would like to argue that his mother's influence on his life caused him to do the horrible things that would soon come.
After his mother grew ill and passed away, Ed’s life began to spiral down. His house became almost a symbolic representation of what was going on inside his head. It was complete chaos, you couldn’t move at all in his home because there was so much stuff in it. He had odd collections of dentures and chewed up gum. He also had an extraordinary collection of Tales of the Crypt and The Vault of Horror comic books that illustrated extreme and graphic violence. He became obsessed with these and decided it was time to act on his obsession, so before he went on a killing spree, he started robbing graves of women who reminded him of his mother, which was symbolic of the resurrecting of his mother. The most common thing he would do with the women he dug up was to cut their faces off and make masks with them. Gein was fascinated with the idea of transsexuals, and I believe he wanted to be a woman, more specifically, his mother. Because he had no contact with the outside world, he did not know how he was supposed to act, so he just emulated his mother.
Most psychiatrists and people who examine the lives of people like Ed Gein believe that serial killers are born with some genetic chemical imbalance that makes them want to kill, but in Ed’s case, I believe the serial killer was created inadvertently by his controlling mother. If he was allowed to associate with anyone outside his family, or have a girlfriend for crying out loud, maybe he would not have become one of the most infamous serial killers of our time.
Information about Ed Gein was researched from the special edition two disc ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ DVD!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment