Puffer Bluntman This is one of the most inaccurate attempts to make a dramatization of the real life events. The movie takes so much liberty with the story, it just comes off as a lie. The main villain looks nothing like Ed Gein, and his actions are nowhere near to what Ed Gein had done in reality. The way the movie was done, he might have as well pop out a chainsaw and wield it around. There is a much better independent movie called Ed Gein (2001), so I'd recommend to all who are interested in the gruesome case of Ed Gein to watch that one instead - this one is just a bad attempt to make a slasher movie out of real life. And it appears that my review is too short, because I really have nothing else to say about this movie, so I'll just write this down at the end. In the words of The Critic, Jay Sherman, "It stinks!".

Motorskallen It's important to keep in mind that this film is "inspired" on what happened, not "based on" the true story. But so is "The Texas chainsaw massacre", "Psycho" and "Silence of the lambs". It's not that the movie sucks big time, but think of the fact that it purports to be the true story ... No, I just don't buy it.The acting is a bit so-so. They definitely got the wrong actor who plays Ed.I don't know really ... take it for what it is, a half-good B-movie. I agree on what others say: "Why make up a story when the truth is way more gruesome" ...

crispin_13 The story of Ed Gein is a disturbing and terrifying story. Ed was truly a messed up character and his legacy went on to inspire such 'greats' as The Tooth Fairy, Norman Bates, and Leatherface. How is it then that such a fascinating man has inspired such a boring melodramatic piece of drivel?? Ed Gein made belts out of nipples, bowls out of skulls, lamps out of skin, danced around under the moon in suits of human skin. None of this made it into the movie because they needed to give us a fictitious story of a ridiculously awful deputy and his rather homely, sex-starved girlfriend. This movie seemed to go out of its way to falsify history. What baffles me is that most movies stray from the path of truth to exaggerate history; this one seems to do it to minimize it. I just don't get it.

Coventry Did we really need another movie-version of the life and crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein? No, of course we didn't, but clever producers realize there's always room for one more, especially because all horror movie fans agree that Ed Gein simply is one of the most – perhaps THE most – fascinating sick individuals in history. And the producers of this movie were even extra clever, as they managed to cast no less than Kane Hodder in the titular role. Hodder is already a bit of a horror legend on himself (depicting Jason Vorhees multiple times in the "Friday the 13th series") and his name alone is guaranteed to attract even more viewers. I've lost count of how many movies – both fictional and non fictional – there already are closely inspired or loosely inspired by Ed Gein. There are the strictly factual and almost biographical ones, like "In the Light of the Moon" and "Deranged: Confessions of a Serial Necrophile", but of course the most commonly known horror classics simply used little morbid characteristics of Gein's utterly demented persona, like "Psycho", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Motel Hell", "House of 1.000 Corpses" and "The Silence of the Lambs". As you can probably derive from its juicy title as well as from the DVD cover art, this particular isn't too concerned with accuracy and merely just sets out to shock and provoke its viewers with a whole lot of gruesome images and perverted insinuations. It feels as if director Michael Feifer wants to make us believe his film version is truthful, but repeatedly "forgets" about the facts in favor of sheer horror movie excitement. Kane Hodder portrays Ed Gein like he was a muscularly shaped and relentlessly unstoppable killing machine, whereas in reality he was a scrawny and miserably timid guy whose horrendous psychopathic tendencies only gradually come to the surface after his arrest. Although Gein only ever got charged with two murders he commits nearly a dozen of vile kills here, so you know you don't have to check out this film for its informative value. Still I don't want to bash this straight-to-video production entirely, because there really are a handful of positive things to say as well. The make-up effects are effectively nauseating and the Californian filming locations were aptly chosen in order to recreate the depressing 50's Wisconsin atmosphere. And in spite of his unfit posture, Kane Hodder isn't such a bad choice to depict Ed Gein. He hardly has lines to speak but looks menacing throughout the entire playtime.