I was pleasantly surprised to find this way, way less trashy than I expected. There are no heavy messages about the nature of evil, and the whole thing at times comes across just as schlocky as the average straight-to-video shocker (Gein dancing in the light of the moon wearing the bodies of his kills while howling comes to mind); but the overarching realism, the focus on the reaction to Gein of those around him, and the fairly stunning performance by Steve Railsback (who also plays Charlie Manson in Helter Skelter, another movie I have lined up to see), especially in the ‘interview’ scenes during the end credits, make this a highly unpleasant but effective and far from sensationalized look at what made the original Norman Bates, Leatherface, Buffalo Bill, etc, tick.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 7:26 pm in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.