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Not rated. () |
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75 |
474 |
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18 |
114 |
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360 |
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Plot:
A man living in rural Wisconsin takes care of his bed-ridden mother, who is very domineering and teaches him that all women are evil. After she dies he misses her, so a year later he digs her up and t...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:July 2, 2008
A fictionalized telling of the story of the infamous killer, Ed Gein. Roberts Blossom plays the lead with a fine mix of the pitiful and the frightening.
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MCT:May 13, 2008Oh yeah! This is what us genre fans like to call a REAL horror film! "Deranged" is shocking, insensitive, cold-hearted and features a 'you-don't-like-it-go-to-hell'-honesty you can't possibly walk away from! This is the pretty damn factual, and therefore hugely disturbing, reconstruction of the case of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. This guy was crazier and far more dangerous than any fictional horror character could ever be and therefore he was a nearly endless source of inspiration for independent filmmakers who wanted to bring a horrific tale. "Deranged" appears to be very cheap and amateurish, but it's one of the rare films in which the low budget production values actually contribute in making the story more grim and realistic! Ed Gein really was a poor and simple-minded farmer who went absolutely berserk after the death of his beloved mother and he refused to accept her passing away by replacing her with cadavers that he kept in his house. The characters' names have been altered, as well as the timing of the story, but Ezra Cobb's actual crimes are frighteningly truthful and portrayed with a chilling eye for detail. The film's biggest trump is unquestionably the casting of the rather unknown actor Roberts Blossom whose impressive and straight-faced performance will make you more than once wonder whether he isn't a real madman! Other aspects that definitely increase the creepiness are the constant funeral music that guides the film and the colorless, depressing set pieces. "Deranged" is not a total gorefest (mainly due to the lack in budget) but the murders are nonetheless explicitly illustrated and quite bloody. Strangely enough, the film's devastating tone is regularly undercut with brilliant flashes of morbid black humor, like Ezra's encounter with an overweight widow who talks to her deceased husband. In short, "Deranged" is a typically 70's cult treasure that should be watched by every horror fan on this planet.
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MCT:May 8, 2008Based on the true story of ed gein who's the inspiration for most of todays movie psychopaths. It's a fascinating watch even if the low budget is painfully obvious at times.
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MCT:May 3, 2008
Portray of a serial killer.
One of the most disturbed ones, even if his homicidal numbers are not quite exactly top ranked in the charts.
But that didn't keep Ed Gein from gaining reputation as one of the most deranged minds of modern time.
And one of the most notorious ones amongst his peers.
Murderer. Grave desecrator. Cannibal. Necrophilliac. Human skin stylist.
And also a God fearing boy.
The whole package.
Inspired, among others, the serial killers in Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Silence of the Lambs, and American Psycho. Featured in several songs of more extreme bands (being Slayer's Dead Skin Mask the obvious highlight).
For all that and more, he deserves a very special place in all hearts.
The ones he didn't eat, that is.
Now, for the movie.
Probably the best among the ones that tried to portray him. But that's not saying that this is in fact a masterpiece.
Not really.
This is a fairly effective display of what should be a day in the life of old Theodore, but I still think it's a light one.
Nevertheless, and although I thought at first I wasn't going to give much credit to this one, it's definitely worth a look.
Because (make no mistake about it) it does in fact have a great amount of true and accurate information regarding what happened and how it happended.
I just think they should've darkened it up a little more.
Such an unsettling mind deserved that much. -
MCT:April 25, 2008
hey isnt that the creepy old man from home alone .. hehe
low budget film based on the life of ed gein
the lead actor does the role justice but the secondary actors bring down the production quite a bit ...dated but still effective -
MCT:March 21, 2008
Considering there has only been one real-life set of crimes that has intrigued me enough to pursue it or know the name as a sort of automatic filing label in my brain, it's kind of surprising this movie passed in one ear and out the other for me.
Ezra Cobb (Roberts Blossom) is a sheltered man living alone with his bed-ridden mother (Cosette Lee) who directs him to avoid women, who she believes are instruments of the devil, riddled with gonorrhea and syphilis and planning to take financial advantage of Ez as soon as she leaves this earth. Fire and brimstone are the cornerstones of her dying speeches to shaking, worried, desperate Ez, who tries to feed her soup on her deathbed, sure that he can keep her alive a little longer. Of course, she does die, and so Ez is left alone, taking on the role of handyman to Harlon Kootz (Robert Warner) and his family, including his wife Jenny (Marcia Diamond) and son Brad (Brian Smeagle). Ed, I mean, Ez, however, still misses his mother and is absolutely grief-stricken over her death. He begins to hear her voice, asking him to bring her home. Of course, he does just that, shocked to find her in a state of decay and determined to put this to right.
Interestingly enough, despite the wild deviations of the other films based on Ed Gein (Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,* The Silence of the Lambs--Buffalo Bill, not Hannibal), this one is reasonably accurate, especially as film adaptations go. I was surprised that the film opened by addressing his mother's controlling, dominating, self-loathing misogyny as used to raise Ed, hinting at the effect it later had on him. We're brought in close to Ed (forget "Ez," it's so close as to be pointless, and we all know who it is) and see some measure of sympathy for him as it begins. Blossom plays him as a simpering, dependent, scrawny man in his 40s who lived for his mother and was never allowed to develop a backbone. He tries to follow his mother's teachings with some measure of strength, but is otherwise completely without a will of his own. We feel some pity for him in this, and at least see the roots of what comes from it. Cleverly, the way Blossom performs it and Jeff Gillen and Alan Ormsby direct it, we don't end up thinking, "Gee, he wasn't that bad!" or "The poor fellow!" We certainly see his victims as victims, and him as monstrous. There are no bones about this, despite the fact that we see the tragedy of poor parenting and the horrid effect it can have on someone, leaving fault not with that parenting, but with the result of it (in this case Ed).
There is not a lot of focus on his, er, trophies (for the sake of most, I'm not going to list them, you can look them up if you want) or in some ways even on the murders, until the end when we see his mind completely devolving as he falls into the sickening trap of feeling the power that his acts have given him. Stumbling into the first, but finding something in the act as he continues, until he, too, does not realize where he has let himself wander. There is some gore--it should be noted that I've seen the R-rated and not the unrated version, which includes far more gruesome acts--but not an awful lot. Moreso we find thoroughly decayed corpses being used as companions, which is disturbing in an altogether different way. Blossom never plays this aspect for complete, drooling madness, nor for pure evil. Ed is a severely misguided and altogether screwed-up mind, and is acting as if this group of women is indeed still alive and keeping him company.
Rather a surprise for its treatment of the events, even going so far as to underline the idea that these events are true but for the names and locations, it even employs a narrator (Leslie Carlson) who occasionally appears to tell us he is a reporter who first wrote about the story. This can be a bit distracting, but not overly so, and can break the tension--appropriately--at some moments. It's a good idea that doesn't quite work like it should, but does not bring the movie down for it.
Special moment: most of the scenes revolving around "Ma Cobb's" death are soaked in church organ music playing various hymns, but when Ez brings a skull to her that is to be her "company" and places it on a bedpost, suddenly the chord goes amelodic and sustains, the sort of music you would more expect out of a horror movie, but not jarring or overly loud, just a sudden change in atmosphere that tells us Ez has finally lost it, that up to then he was crossing major lines, but now he has passed the point of no return.
*As someone once said, really, "The Wisconsin Rifle Double-Homicide" would not have been near as menacing a title. -
MCT:December 13, 2007
"Edward Theodore Gein (August 27, 1906 - July 26, 1984) was a notorious American killer. Though only two murders on his part were proven, he gained great infamy due to necrophiliac behavior (which involved the skinning of his murder victims and exhumed corpses, the decoration of his home with parts of corpses, and the creation of articles of clothing and furniture from the skin of corpses). Although he is considered to have engaged in necrophiliac behavior, there is no significant evidence to prove that he engaged in sex with the corpses. Besides the death of his brother in 1944 under mysterious circumstances, six people disappeared from the Wisconsin towns of La Crosse and Plainfield between 1947 and 1957."
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MCT:June 5, 2007
Slow moving at times, there are very unnerving moments in this film that really play up the source material, the murders of Ed Gein that also inspired other classics of the genre such as Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Worth a rental. -
MCT:May 20, 2007A classic drive-in horror film. Based on Ed Gein. And possibly the closest adaption of him. Co-directed by Alan Ormsby of Bob Clark fame. And one of the first, if not the first, Tom Savini makeup jobs.
One of my favorite movies. Its so much fun. -
MCT:December 12, 2006
Creepy and filmed documentary style. Not really action packed and not really gory, but it can certainly get under your skin. I also recommend reading Deviant based on Ed Gein for more.
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