Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield

• Actors: Kane Hodder, Adrienne Frantz, Michael Berryman, Priscilla Barnes, Shawn Hoffman.
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC.
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Dolby Digital 5.1 EX). Subtitles: Spanish.
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only).
• Rated R. Run Time: 90 minutes.

The truth behind the twisted crimes that inspired the films Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs...

From "America's principal chronicler of its greatest psychopathic killers" (The Boston Book Review) comes the definitive account of Ed Gein, a mild-mannered Wisconsin farmhand who stunned an unsuspecting nation -- and redefined the meaning of the word "psycho." The year was 1957. The place was an ordinary farmhouse in America's heartland, filled with extraordinary evidence o! f unthinkable depravity. The man behind the massacre was a slight, unassuming Midwesterner with a strange smile -- and even stranger attachment to his domineering mother. After her death and a failed attempt to dig up his mother's body from the local cemetery, Gein turned to other grave robberies and, ultimately, multiple murders. Driven to commit gruesome and bizarre acts beyond all imagining, Ed Gein remains one of the most deranged minds in the annals of American homicide. This is his story -- recounted in fascinating and chilling detail by Harold Schechter, one of the most acclaimed true-crime storytellers of our time.Harold Schechter is a historian: he takes old files and yellowed newspaper clippings, and brings their stories to life. Deviant is about everyone's favorite ghoul, Ed Gein--whose crimes inspired the writers of Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. Schechter deftly evokes the small-town 1950s Wiscons! in setting--not pretty farms and cheese factories, but infert! ile soil and a bleak, hardscrabble existence. The details of Gein's "death house" are perhaps well known by now, but the murderer's quietly crazy, almost gentle personality comes forth in this book as never before. As Gary Kadet wrote, in The Boston Book Review, "Schechter is a dogged researcher [who backs up] every bizarre detail and curious twist in this and his other books ... More importantly, he nimbly avoids miring his writing and our reading with minutiae or researched overstatement, which means that although he can occasionally be dry, he is never boring."
Also recommended: Schechter's books about Albert Fish (Deranged) and Herman Mudgett a.k.a. Dr. H. H. Holmes (Depraved).The story of the killer Ed Gein is one of the weirdest, most disturbing ever, one that has inspired horror stories as diverse as Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. His crimes, which were committed in and around Plainfield, Wisconsin, included exhuming corpses from! local graveyards and making trophies and keepsakes from their skin and bones.

The Murder Files is a series of individual titles, giving condensed accounts of some of the most appalling and notorious killers of all time.The story of the killer Ed Gein is one of the weirdest, most disturbing ever, one that has inspired horror stories as diverse as Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. His crimes, which were committed in and around Plainfield, Wisconsin, included exhuming corpses from local graveyards and making trophies and keepsakes from their skin and bones.

The Murder Files is a series of individual titles, giving condensed accounts of some of the most appalling and notorious killers of all time.This is the true story of America’s first famous serial killer. Everyone in small Plainfield, Wisconsin thought Ed was just a little different, a local oddity. But Ed was tormented and haunted by years of family abuse and repression which led him to the bruta! l murders and mutilations of countless victims and corpses. In! a remot e farmhouse filled with the stench of death, Ed is driven to do unspeakable acts to his victims, acts that have become legend and the basis for future films like "Psycho" and the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." This film will shock you with its unflinching horror and unforgettable performances from Steve Railsback and Carrie Snodgrass. No one will ever forget the true story of "Ed Gein."

America may have had its fill of psychos for the last forty years, but none of them has inspired so many books and films (Pyscho, The Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as Wisconsin's cannibalistic handyman, Ed Gein. None of them has been used as the ultimate ogre in countless children's stories and off-color jokes, and none of them has been found guilty of as many unspeakable atrocities as Ed Gein.

This is his story. This is his legend.

The gruesome murders shocked the world, the grisly remains told a terrifying story of pain, brutality and torture. Now, years! after inspiring PSYCHO's Norman Bates, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS's Buffalo Bill and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE's Leatherface, the story of real-life, serial killer Ed Gein is finally told. Nicknamed "The Butcher of Plainfield," Gein was responsible for a rash of gory murders that sent shock waves through his rural Wisconsin town, and across America, in the late 1950s. Prepare to enter the evil mind and twisted world of "The Butcher of Plainfield" in this dark and disturbing thriller.