6 Horror Movies and TV Shows Inspired by Ed Gein's Disturbing Crimes

Part of the appeal of horror movies is the vague feeling of safety because the terror lies behind the screen. "It probably won't happen in real life," you tell yourself. But with the horror movies and TV shows inspired by Ed Gein, you don't get that. Human bodies turned into furniture upholstery? That sh*t happened. From Psycho to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Edward Theodore Gein, or the Butcher of Plainfield, has been mythologized in pop culture.

Gein grew up on an isolated farm in Plainfield, WI, very close with his fervently religious mother, who died a few years before his string of crimes. His story unraveled when a local woman went missing in 1957. Bernice Worden, a hardware store owner, had been seen with Gein the day she disappeared. Tracking down Gein wasn't hard. Police found Worden's body decapitated, shot, and mutilated in his farm shed.

But even more, they discovered a display of horrors in Gein's home. Inside, they found human bones and decapitated heads. There were masks, leggings, wastebaskets, corsets, chair covers, lampshades, and more made from human skin. He fashioned bowls and bedpost finials from human skulls. Gein killed Worden and admitted to killing at least one other local woman. Often, he would dig up recently buried women who resembled his mother and use their bodies for his grotesque handiwork. Gein was eventually found guilty of murder, kept away in mental institutions until his death in 1984.

Truth, in this case, is probably more disturbing than fiction. There's no doubt that Gein and his crimes left an indelible mark on pop culture. Ahead, we've rounded up the most popular movies and TV shows based on Gein's story and break down which parts of his case they depict.

01
Psycho
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Psycho

Both Gein and Norman Bates were small-town loners with serious Oedipal complexes. In Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, we see Gein as Bates, the creepy murderer obsessed with his late mother Norma. While Gein was only known to be responsible for two deaths, Bates killed at least six people. Bates is known to have exhumed his mother's body — Gein robbed many graves, especially looking for women who looked like his mother.

Psycho, as we know, would inspire many other projects, including the series Bates Motel with Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore.

02
Deranged
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Deranged

Much like Gein, Ezra Cobb, the main character in the 1974 film Deranged is a middle-aged man living in a rural area with his deeply devout mother. Following his mother's death, Cobb begins digging up bodies and murdering women. Also like Gein, we find that he also has a thing for skinning the body and has a mask made of human flesh.

03
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Writer-director Tobe Hooper definitely borrowed elements from Gein's story for the character of Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. While there was no cannibalistic family in Gein's case, Gein also had skin masks and decor made from human body parts. Like Leatherface, Gein was also easily controlled by his family, especially his mother.

04
The Silence of the Lambs
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The Silence of the Lambs

It's not the human liver and fava bean-eating Hannibal Lecter who's based on Ed Gein in 1991's The Silence of the Lambs, it's the serial killer Jame Gumb, aka Buffalo Bill. He targets female victims, starving them after their capture so that their skin is easy to remove when he kills them. From their body, he creates skin suits that he can wear, just as Gein made clothes from the corpses he acquired. In addition to Gein, Gumb is also based on the disturbing cases of killers such as Ted Bundy, Ed Kemper, and Gary Heidnik.

05
House of 1000 Corpses
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House of 1000 Corpses

In case you haven't seen Rob Zombie's 2003 movie, Otis B. Driftwood from House of 1000 Corpses is disturbing beyond all hell. Like Gein, the psychotic character in the film skins his victims and uses their bodies to create art, most notably costumes to wear.

06
American Horror Story: Asylum
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American Horror Story: Asylum

Speaking of things nightmarish, we need to talk about Dr. Oliver Thredson from American Horror Story: Asylum (aka the best season of AHS). Thredson pretends to befriend Lana Winters and Kit Walker at Briarcliff Asylum, but he's just messing around with them. In fact, he turns out to be a deranged serial killer with mother issues. Thredson keeps a downright horrifying "playroom" where he makes things such as a human skin lampshade and skull bowl — which Gein also had in his house of horrors.