''In the Light of the Moon'' (also known as ''Ed Gein'') is a 2000
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...
horror film directed by Chuck Parello, and written by Stephen Johnston. It is based on the crimes of
Ed Gein
Edward Theodore Gein (; August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984), also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher. Gein's crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, ga ...
, an American murderer who killed at least two women in
Plainfield, Wisconsin
Plainfield is a village in Waushara County, Wisconsin, United States. The village is located almost entirely within the Town of Plainfield. A tiny portion extends into adjacent Town of Oasis. The population was 897 at the 2010 census.
Histor ...
during the 1950s. It stars
Steve Railsback as Gein, and
Carrie Snodgress as Gein's domineering, fundamentalist mother, Augusta.
Plot
Growing up on a farm in rural Wisconsin,
Ed Gein
Edward Theodore Gein (; August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984), also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher. Gein's crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, ga ...
is abused by both his
Christian fundamentalist
Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British and ...
mother, Augusta, and his alcoholic father, George. George dies of a heart attack in 1940, and four years later, Ed kills his older brother, Henry, in a fit of rage after Henry insults Augusta. Ed makes it look like Henry died in a brush fire, and lives alone with Augusta until she dies of a stroke in 1945. Ed becomes depressed after his mother's death, and lets the family farm become squalid and dilapidated, with the exception of Augusta's room, which is sealed off by Ed.
Living off of
agricultural subsidies
An agricultural subsidy (also called an agricultural incentive) is a government incentive paid to agribusinesses, agricultural organizations and farms to supplement their income, manage the supply of agricultural commodities, and influence the ...
and the money that he makes from leasing land and babysitting children, the increasingly unstable Ed makes nightly excursions to the Plainfield Cemetery and digs up recently deceased elderly women. He makes futile attempts at reviving them, before decorating his home with pieces of their corpses, at one point passing "shrunken heads" off as gifts from a cousin in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
Ed begins suffering from hallucinations of Augusta, who commands him to kill "sinful" women, starting with a tavern owner named Mary Hogan. Ed shoots Mary and takes her to his farm, where he leaves her bound to a bed until she dies. Ed butchers her body, consuming some of it, and using the rest to add to his crudely-designed "woman suit." Ed's delusions worsen, and he becomes convinced that Mary's death has resurrected Augusta, who implores Ed to kill a hardware store owner named Collette Marshall. Ed shoots Collette and brings her body back to his farm before having dinner with the Andersons, a neighboring family who he surprises with "
Venison
Venison originally meant the meat of a game animal but now refers primarily to the meat of antlered ungulates such as elk or deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edible, ...
steaks."
Colette's employee, Brian, returns from a hunting trip to find the unmanned store full of blood, and calls the police. Brian suspects Ed of being involved in Mary and Collette's disappearances, and races to Ed's farm, followed by Sheriff Jim Stillwell. After finding Collette's decapitated and "
dressed out" body hanging in Ed's barn, an enraged Brian tracks Ed down to the Anderson residence, but is talked out of shooting Ed by Sheriff Stillwell, who arrests Ed.
The film ends with a nonlinear montage that consists of the police uncovering evidence in Ed's home, interviews with Ed after he was diagnosed with
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...
and placed in a psychiatric hospital, and scenes in which Ed tries to keep his urges in check through prayer and rituals. He also exhumes corpses, only to rebury them after snapping out of a
fugue state
Dissociative fugue (), formerly called a fugue state or psychogenic fugue, is a mental and behavioral disorderDrs; that is classified variously as a dissociative disorder,Dissociative Fugue (formerly Psychogenic Fugue) 'DSM-IV 300.13, Diagnost ...
. An
intertitle
In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...
states that Ed died of respiratory failure in 1984, and was buried next to his mother.
Cast
Release
''Ed Gein'' premiered in America, in a single theater in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, on May 4, 2001. On its opening weekend, the film
grossed $5,708, and by May 11 had grossed $11,821.
Home media
''Ed Gein'' was released on
VHS by Millennium on July 24, 2001. That same year, the film was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
by both First Look Home Entertainment on June 24 and Tartan Video on November 29. On April 22, 2003 it was re-released by First Look as part of a three-disk box set which included ''
Dahmer'' and ''
Ted Bundy
Theodore Robert Bundy (Name change, born Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more th ...
''. That same day, it was released as a single-feature by Velocity Home Entertainment. It was last released in 2005 by both Prism and First Look on February 14 and August 26, respectively.
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 10% based on , with a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
rating of 4.1/10.
Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News (AICN) is an entertainment news website founded by Harry Knowles and run by his sister Dannie Knowles since September 2017, dedicated to news, rumors, and reviews of upcoming and current films, television, and comic book pro ...
praised
Steve Railsback's performance as Gein, and concluded, "''Ed Gein'' is not must-see but it's a lot better than I thought it would be. I would recommend a rental to the curious horror or
true crime
True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events.
The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 pe ...
fans out there looking for something sort of along the lines of ''
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'', but tamer, but at the same time a lot sicker." ''
Time Out'' found the film to be "a surprisingly sober response to a potentially salacious subject" and wrote, "As with the best scenes of ''
Deranged'', the conjunction of colourful case history, odd impulses,
gallows humour
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
, low budget austerity and genuinely grotesque
iconography produces a felicitous and engaging variant of
American Gothic."
In a review written for
AllMovie, Richard Gilliam commended the film's historical accuracy, production design, and "low-key" approach to its source material, but also found it to be lacking in style, writing, "The problem with the authenticity here is that the filmmakers have managed to authentically capture the dull, boring parts of life in 1950s rural Wisconsin. ''Ed Gein'' is so under-the-top that what should be compelling merely becomes unpleasant."
Nathan Rabin
Nathan Rabin (; born April 24, 1976) is an American film and music critic. Rabin was the first head writer for '' The A.V. Club'', a position he held until he left the ''Onion'' organization in 2013. of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' had a lukewarm response to the film, writing, "Half character study, half
exploitation film
An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
, ''Ed Gein'' is most effective when it focuses on Gein's halting attempts to connect with his neighbors, who treat him with the polite but decided distance of an adult dealing with a misbehaving but well-intentioned child. Where the film falters is in its attempts to explain away Gein's madness with a massive dose of
pop psychology
Popular psychology (sometimes shortened as pop psychology or pop psych) is the concepts and theories about human mental life and behavior that are purportedly based on psychology and that find credence among and pass muster with the populace. The ...
."
While ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
's''
Philip French offered praise to Railsback's performance as Gein, he found the film itself to be "a generally unsensational chunk of bizarre
Americana
Americana may refer to:
*Americana (music), a genre or style of American music
*Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States
Film, radio and television
* ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...
" that "adds little to our understanding of the man." Fellow ''Guardian'' reviewer
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''.
Early life and education
Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...
had a similar response to the film, writing, "Really, it's the same old
pulpy, paranoid voyeuristic stuff, and Ed's fear and hatred of women is never that edifying. It's well acted, and effectively put together, but there is an insurmountable problem: gloomy, grave-robbing, body-chopping old Ed is, in the end, just a little bit of a bore."
Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' afforded the film moderate praise, commending the performances, the atmosphere, and the historical accuracy, but went on to write, "''Ed Gein'' resists cheap humor in favor of moments that are inherently darkly comic, and tries for a seriousness of purpose, yet is at times awkward and under-inspired, creating a question as to whether so gloomy and repugnant a tale was worth telling simply for its own sake."
Neil Smith of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
called the film "gross and repellent" and awarded it a score of 2/5, writing, "Parello's stated intention is to explore the psychology of his twisted protagonist, but the result has all the hallmarks of a low-budget exploitationer, right down to its
. Would it be too much to expect some thought or consideration for Gein's victims? Evidently so, given Hollywood's depressing habit of turning serial killers into cult heroes." ''
's'' Robert Koehler gave ''Ed Gein'' a wholly negative review, deriding it for being both lackluster and "a disappointingly mild re-creation of true events."
Chuck Parello and Steve Railsback won Best Film and Best Actor, respectively, at the 2000
.
'', another true crime film directed by Chuck Parello and written by Stephen Johnston