Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007)

The Worst Film Ever

Great Film overall

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Blistering performances.

Oh Dear! Anyone who knows the story of Ed Gein will hate this. It bears hardly any relationship to the Gein murders other than his name. As a run-of-the-mill,low-budget murder\thriller,this Is barely watchable. As the "Ed Gein story", It's laughable. To say It was very loosely based on the Gein case would be pushing It somewhat! Now, the movie Itself. Poor acting - 'Gein' and the Sheriff In particular could do with a few lessons - as for special effects, well there's a brief look at several dummy heads falling out of a bag and not much else! The Sheriffs daughter has a smashed knee that looks quite realistic, until of course the agony seems to subside as she sits on the ground and pulls her knees right up to her chin...not so much as a grimace...It's a miracle! Don't bother watching unless It's to compare to the superb and accurate "Ed Gein"(2000)".

First the good points.This movie has a strong and effective atmosphere about it and does have an intensity about it. Thats about it. Ed Gein has a horrific and appalling history that is ultimately tragic, BUT, if you are into the history and cases of serial killers this movie is not for you. It is so far off the facts and story that it reminds me of a certain huge cartoon corporation that rewrites great literature to make it nice for the kiddies EXCEPT that in this movie the substitutions of facts for more horrific effect fails epically as they are rather less gruesome than the facts. Add to that the appalling acting and you have wasted 90 minutes that you could have been having fun in. I recommend reading the book instead.

When "Deranged" was made the film-makers saw fit to turn Ed Gein into Ezra Cobb even though the resultant film was actually quite close to the facts of the notorious case. I presume that enough was fictionalised that they thought they should change names and such."Ed Gein - The Butcher Of Plainfield" masquerades as a true story retelling of the Gein case, but actually bears very little resemblance to the history. As a biopic type film it is a travesty. If ever a film needed names changing it is this one, far more so than "Deranged". It is as close to the true crime story as "Dirty Harry" was to the true story of the Zodiac killings.OK, so, that annoyance aside, how is it as a horror film? Well, as a horror film, well, as a film generally, it is quite appalling. One of the worst films I have sat through in months. Issues run thus: 1) Kane Hodder is quite astonishingly miscast as Ed Gein. Utterly unsuitable in the part, Hodder just lumbers through glowering menacingly. Very bad.2) Kane Hodder is the best actor in the film! The rest of the cast are rather "amateur dramatics" and utterly unengaging. It is painful to witness some lines being delivered.3) The occasional efforts of stylish film-making seem to come from "The Big Book Of Moody Cinematography Cliché". You've seen it all before, better executed. Aside from the efforts at style, the rest of the film-making is largely inept: cameras shake, framing is bad, there are overlong pointless shots holding back the pace...which leads me to...4) It seems to go on forever. It is under 90 minutes in length, but sitting through it is an ordeal. You'd swear it ran two and a half hours.5) Ed Gein almost seems secondary. Mostly the film is concerned with the family affairs of a newly promoted Deputy Sheriff. Said Deputy is played by an abysmal actor upon whose shoulders no film should rest.Is anything good about it? Well, the gore FX are very good. Some convincing wounds are in display and the make-up is generally excellent. None of this, however, makes up for the massive failings of the film.It doesn't even have any kitsch value, it's just bad; not enjoyably bad, not "so bad it's good", just genuinely bad. A film to avoid and despise.

I own a vacation lake home not far from Plainfield, WI. Ten minutes from the Gein property to be exact. I've seen his land, the cemetery where he is buried and where he did his digging, and I've shopped at the hardware store that was formerly owned by the Worden family. While visiting relatives in California, we decided to rent this movie. It was disgusting. The true story of Ed Gein is so disturbing and creepy, why the creators of this piece of trash decided to make up their own story is beyond me. The actor playing Ed is a very large man, Ed was a very small, meek, and shy man. That is part of what makes his story so frightening. He did not have a helper to dig up the graves and anyone who owns land in the area knows that it is mostly sand with a little dirt in it. You won't break much of a sweat digging a hole. They didn't have to hire an actor with the physique of a wrestler, just do your research. And if the writing wasn't bad enough - there are NO mountains in Wisconsin, and I'm pretty certain that 911 was not available in 1957.