Review - Monster: The Ed Gein Story
Directed by: Max Winkler, Ian Brennan
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Suzanna Son, Vicky Krieps
Go Horror Rating: C
We'll preface this rant/review by saying that Charlie Hunnam's performance was awesome. It may have taken an episode or two to accept his voice (Gotcha!... Gotcha again!), but I truly believe he nailed the 'role' (he shouldn't get roasted for Murphy's decisions or casting) and put everything he had into it. He's the main reason we stuck it through the series.
Moving on... what. the. fuck.
It was essentially 8 episodes of psychosexual bedlam with deficient storytelling. It's worth noting that I enjoyed Ratched and still enjoy American Horror Story, but when it comes to true crime (even if he takes liberties and fictionalizes it), Ryan Murphy just can't get his act together. Artsy, ragey, perverted insanity really only works well when you get to create something from scratch.
It's entirely my fault for hoping there'd be more focus on the depravity and seriousness of Gein's atrocities, I just feel like the liberties taken in the show bordered on asinine.
-"2 straws please", blue balls comments, serving human-meat to neighbours-
The circle jerk of pop-culture and horror references was excessive. It's like listening to a hip-hop song where the artist just name drops other popular rappers for 3 minutes instead of having to write decent lyrics. We get it... in fact, most people familiar with Gein know his story's influence in modern horror, and how many movies drew inspiration from his crimes. It would have been a lot cooler if all of those references weren't jammed down our throat at every turn, but I guess we needed something to break up all the cross-dressing scenes.
The way Murphy oversexualizes in the Monster series is weirder than Tarantino's foot fetish timeline. The best way I can explain this season is if it were the year 1999 and I was trying to download an Ed Gein documentary on Napster. What I would inevitably get would be what Netflix just released to the world. Maybe it's supposed to be a commentary on media manipulation, or some sort of 'we're the monster' take. If either or both of those ideas was the point, dialing down the sensationalism, even slightly, would have driven it home.
I just found it monotonous and murky. It felt like it had so little confidence in itself that it defaulted to flooding the viewers with other scenes of horror icons. This is the 3rd instalment of the Monster series and by far the worst one. Barely worth recommending.
