Netflix has dropped the official trailer for Monster: The Ed Gein Story (premiering October 3), featuring Charlie Hunnam in what might be his creepiest performance yet. Oh, yes, he looks really unsettling in the new clip.
The trailer highlights how Gein inspired classic horror films like Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs, before diving into dramatisations of his horrific crimes. It also teases his disturbing relationship with his mother and his gruesome obsession with crafting masks from his victims’ skin.
The trailer for Season 3 of Monster sticks to the show’s signature style, centring on the killer’s perspective to explore his crimes. But questions remain: will the series address past criticisms and move away from its controversial, sensationalised approach to true crime?
The first two installments, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, were huge viewership successes for Netflix. Yet both drew heavy criticism for sensationalising and even romanticising brutal crimes, often humanising the killers in ways that many found troubling. Dahmer faced the harshest backlash, with victims’ families stating they were re-traumatised by the show’s graphic reenactments.
That’s why The Ed Gein Story carries an even greater risk. Gein’s crimes were truly horrifying, and focusing solely on his disturbed psyche while sidelining the victims, Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan, would be a major ethical failure. Their stories deserve dignity, not to be reduced to mere background for a “monster’s” origin tale.
A key reason for the franchise’s criticism is its showrunner, Ryan Murphy. His signature style is often described as “stylized” and “glamorous.” While this aesthetic worked brilliantly for American Horror Story, a fictional series, it becomes problematic when applied to real-world crimes.
Murphy’s approach spectacularly backfired with Dahmer, which many accused of being gratuitously gruesome and lacking meaningful psychological or social insight. Meanwhile, The Menendez Story drew fire for taking excessive creative liberties, including an unproven suggestion of an incestuous relationship between the brothers.
Despite the controversy, Monster: The Ed Gein Story is set to be another viewership juggernaut for Netflix. Public fascination with true crime remains sky-high, and with Ryan Murphy at the helm and Charlie Hunnam in the lead, viewership will almost certainly be massive. But for the series to be not just watched, but respected, it must learn from the mistakes of its predecessors.
By centring the humanity of the victims, avoiding exploitative sensationalism, and balancing psychological depth with factual accuracy, Netflix has the chance to elevate this season beyond mere exploitation and deliver a compelling, responsible true-crime drama. Stay tuned for more updates.
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