Ed Gein: The Sadistic Monster that Inspired "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"
Ed Gein, known as "The Butcher of Plainfield" has served as inspiration for numerous documentaries and films including the iconic 1974 horror film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"
Released in 1974, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a classic horror film widely regarded as one of the most influential flicks within the genre. The movie set the tone for future slasher films, making use of many elements that have since pervaded the genre.
The central antagonist of the film, Leatherface, is a massive masked man wielding a chainsaw. Leatherface has become an iconic figure within the horror genre, and every year, countless people wear his infamous mask for Halloween.
Composed and directed by Tobe Hooper, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre focuses on a group of young people living in a remote area of Texas.
The film was shot in central Texas, and the budget was relatively low. Hooper predominantly used lesser-known actors from the local area.
Because the film was so graphic in nature, Hooper found it difficult to secure distribution for the movie, but the rights were acquired by Bryanston Distributing Company.
Hooper did his best to minimize the gore in an attempt to receive a PG rating, but the film received an R rating from MPAA. Though there were widespread complaints of excessive violence and bans in certain countries, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a box office hit, grossing more than $30 million in cinemas around the nation.
Fictional Story, Real-Life Inspiration
Though the scenes in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre are largely fictional, the film was advertised as being based on real-life events.
This is partially true, as Hooper’s inspiration for the movie and the character of Leatherface do have roots in a true story. As a Texas resident, Hooper had seen San Antonio news organizations providing graphic details of real-life cases.
However, there was one case in particular that inspired Hooper to create The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Ed Gein.
Ed Gein: The Ghoul that Inspired Leatherface
In Wisconsin in the 1950s, one of the most disturbed and grotesque killers of all time committed heinous acts.
Ed Gein, commonly known as “The Butcher of Plainfield” or “The Mad Butcher” was a serial killer and body snatcher born in 1906.
His father was a raging alcoholic, and his mother was a religious fanatic. Ed’s mother had an intense hatred towards women, insisting that all women were prostitutes who existed only to tempt men.
Unsurprisingly, Ed grew to have a very peculiar relationship with his mother. After his mother’s death in 1944, Ed was left alone in the family home; which would become a house of unspeakable horrors.
In 1957, police raided the Gein family home. Inside, they found a local hardware store owner, Bernice Worden, decapitated, disemboweled, and suspended by her ankles like a slaughtered pig.
They also found numerous other bodies within the home. Ed Gein later testified to killing Bernice and Mary Hogan, but there were other corpses in the house that he denied murdering.
Instead, Ed insisted that these corpses came from graves he’d robbed, similar to the hitchhiking graverobber depicted in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Also similar to the film, Ed was known to dress up in women’s clothing, just as Leatherface did in the movie.
Shockingly, the corpses in various states of decay were not the most surprising discoveries within the Gein home. Ed had chosen a very peculiar interior design scheme in which he’d covered lamps, armchairs, chests, and more in patchwork casings of human skin.
Ed harvested the skin from the bodies he exhumed, using it to create covers for his household furnishings. The gruesome scene horrified the nation. Ed Gein was sent to a psychiatric institution, where he died in 1984 from respiratory failure.
Other Films Inspired by Ed Gein
The horrific crimes of Ed Gein have captivated screenwriters and filmmakers since they were first uncovered.
In addition to inspiring The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Ed Gein’s story has inspired numerous other films. Gein’s graverobbing, grotesque decoration style, and hyperfixation with his mother have served as creative material for various fictionalized stories, including some very famous examples.
Most notably, the movie Psycho was loosely based on Ed Gein’s story. Anyone who has seen Psycho will immediately understand the connection, the character Norman Bates also shared Gein’s Oedipal obsession with his mother.
Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous film was released in 1960, and it has become one of the most famous horror movies to date.
Perhaps the most horrifying film to come out of the early 1990s, The Silence of the Lambs also owes credit to Ed Gein’s case. The serial killer Buffalo Bill was loosely based on Ed Gein, as depicted by Bill’s habit of fashioning suits from the skin of his victims. Buffalo Bill also originated out of inspiration from other famous serial killers, including Ted Bundy and Ed Kemper.
There are several other lesser-known films that drew inspiration from Ed Gein’s case. William Girdler’s Three on a Meathook depicts the tragic story of four young women who are lured to a remote farmhouse and attacked by a cannibalistic serial killer who hangs his victims from meat hooks.
In addition to the fictionalized accounts, there are innumerable movies and docuseries that are biographical retellings of Ed Gein’s story, including Deranged (1974) and Ed and His Dead Mother (1993).
Sources:
Ed Gein: 7 Horror Movies Inspired by the Body Snatcher and Murderer, www.biography.com/crime/ed-gein-inspired-horror-movies. Accessed 20 June 2024.
Lealos, Shawn S., and Kara Hedash. “The True Story That Inspired the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” ScreenRant, 24 Feb. 2024, screenrant.com/texas-chainsaw-massacre-movie-true-story/.
“The Story of Ed Gein, The Killer Who Inspired ‘the Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, Comes to Streaming: When Is It Released?” MARCA, 24 Aug. 2023, www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/tv-shows/2023/08/24/64e76afdca4741cd5e8b4585.html.
“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 June 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Texas_Chain_Saw_Massacre.