Surprise! The Internet Missed the Point of The Ed Gein Story (But more importantly, the Birdman was a famous bully!)

Although usually level-headed and hardly ever prone to instant uproar, the internet uncharacteristically has a lot of nonsense to say about Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

I finished watching the miniseries last night and the whole time, I couldn't help but think about all the complaining I'd read on the internet about how much artistic license Ryan Murphy & Co. took with telling the story of Ed Gein's life. But I'm not here to do one of those "What they got right and what they got wrong" articles. What I was struck by was how the series turned the camera around on us - both the filmmakers and the audience, alike.

Are we monsters, too?

The morbid fascination of Alfred Hitchcock and other creatives who exploited this horrible tale for their own personal gain was highlighted quite often. And the audiences who ate it all up while being simultaneously disgusted and titillated were on full display.

But I think the moment it hit me the most was when the son of confirmed victim, Bernice Worden - knowing that he'll never get justice after Gein is deemed insane and sent to an asylum instead of facing trial - decides to sell off Gein's stuff in a desperate attempt to get something in return for the murder and perverse desecration of his mother's corpse.

The son, a deputy in the town's police department, tells the Sheriff his plans, and the Sheriff is justifiably horrified at the idea. He insists that no one would want to buy any of Gein's things - that, in fact the general public would be appalled at the idea as well.

Cut to Deputy Worden doing it anyway and the line of people hoping to get a sneak peek before the sale starts extending as far as the eye can see.

People show up in hoards - even paying for admission - desperate to get a look at what sick artifacts they may get their hands on. Inside the house, a couple, middle-aged with a seemingly put-together appearance, notice the presence of hair on Gein's sewing machine. They begin pointing out blood stains on the floor below with the glee of spotting shooting stars during a meteor shower. It is both grotesque and vividly familiar. Because I would definitely be one of them.

So, are we all monsters? I think the Ed Gein Story poses that question by being a meditation on murder for entertainment while also providing murder for entertainment. Like murder-tainment inception. Or something.

In any case, I found it interesting that people seemed to be too distracted by fact-checking to ruminate over any of this crap.

But, then I found it. The most important tidbit of them all.

The dude from Hocus Pocus played Richard Speck. Ho-ly shit.

End of discussion.