On October 3, 2025, Netflix released the new addition to their collection of Monster shows: limited series that depict the lives of killers as well as reenacting real-life murders that they committed. For this installment in the Monsters collection, the show focuses on well-known schizophrenic graverobber, serial killer, and the inspiration for blockbusters such as The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre– Edward Gein. If you’ve seen those movies, you can probably discern the similarities between them. Wearing human skin. Gein was most known for making suits and furniture out of human skin. That and confirming Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Oedipus Complex; Gein had an unusual obsession with his mother, and claimed to do these unspeakable acts because his DECEASED mother told him to do it. (That’s where the schizophrenia came in.)
Netflix chose this man to make a show about. And if you have a fascination with true crime, you might be interested in it. Not every day do you hear about a serial killer who wears other people’s skin like an outfit. On paper, it sounds pretty good. It doesn’t just focus on Gein; it also portrays the stories of other people mixed up in his life and legacy, such as his girlfriend, Adeline Watkins. It shows things about her background, aspirations, and Bonnie-and-Clyde relationship with Gein. Which would be interesting if any of it were true. You heard (read) me. The show’s writers completely made up the personality and life of a person; what’s worse is that that person actually existed. They took a woman that claimed to have romantic relations with Gein and fabricated her entire being.
However, she wasn’t the only person this was done to– the show used speculations that Gein murdered his brother, Henry Gein, as well as local teenager Evelyn Hartley, and ran with them. They rewrote history by depicting Gein murdering his brother and covering it up with the fire that was going that night, as well as him brutally murdering Evelyn Hartley Texas Chain Saw Massacre style. The fact is, Henry Gein was pronounced dead by asphyxiation by the smoke from the fire. Evelyn Hartley went missing and was never found. Lie detector tests also supported Gein’s innocence in being affiliated with those cases. Even so, the writers developed complex grisly murders of the two Wisconsin residents just for the sake of entertainment. If you think that’s demented, I’m right there with you. The majority of the fundamental plot points in the show were fabricated on some level, most being heavily fabricated.
That’s where that question of ethics comes in. Is it right to concoct an entirely new story out of a real-life gruesome one to entertain people who are sitting on their couches, eating popcorn unbothered? Or is it deeply disrespectful to the victims, spreading misinformation about the murders and making a mockery of the horrific acts that were committed?
Truthfully, fabricating real events has been a thing for decades, especially for horror stories. The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, The Conjuring, the list goes on. So what makes this situation any different? Why is MONSTER problematic?
The first two installments of MONSTER weren’t unfamiliar with harsh criticism either. The first one, MONSTER: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story faced extreme backlash for the same thing: fictionalizing the stories of victims and the monster that caused their untimely deaths. The creators, Ian Brennan (worked on Cooties, Glee, and more) and Ryan Murphy (worked on American Horror Story, Glee, Scream Queens, 9-1-1, and more) both were denounced for their storytelling on MONSTER. In the Jeffrey Dahmer Story, they reopened a long-closed book that was the sexual desire of Dahmer– yes, the CANNIBALISTIC SERIAL KILLER– by using shirtless, sweaty, sexually suggestive shots of Evan Peters, who portrayed the murderer (and is popularly admired for being handsome). Now, I’m not saying that just because Peters is good-looking, that makes it weird and the writers suck. In fact, Dahmer was also regarded as being attractive, which, of course, is why he had fans. I am, however, saying that in film and television, every scene is (or should be) intentional and included for a reason. In this case, that reason is to induce “thirst” from the audience. It’s sickening.
The show even humanized Dahmer by making a main focus of the show to be his upsetting past, which might’ve been the motivation for his twisted acts. None of that is necessary when you acknowledge the appalling things he went on to do; it’s the same argument that people use for school shooters– “They were bullied!” Maybe, but that doesn’t even begin to excuse their horrifying actions. They practically tried to paint him as a victim in the story of his own murders.
MONSTERS: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story, although it became a cultural phenomenon due to its music, aesthetics, and comedic aspects, was also criticized online. Now I’m beginning to see a pattern. After watching the show, I noticed strange things about the way the brothers’ lives were portrayed. The show seemed to have made the Menendez brothers have a romantic tension that made my stomach sit weirdly. Why are two blood-related brothers dancing together so suggestively?
And it doesn’t stop there. If you’re familiar with this case, you know that their explanation for killing their parents was that it was an act of self-defense. Specifically, the brothers claimed to have been verbally, physically, and sexually abused by their parents and even felt that their parents would eventually kill them. Their claim was never fully confirmed, as there were some flaws in their story. The series made the brothers look like spoiled brats who killed their parents to inherit their fortune. Which, let’s just say that everything the brothers have said is true, and they were the victims in this situation, their trauma would be made a mockery of completely. That completely contrasts with what I previously mentioned about Dahmer being painted as a saint.
The MONSTER shows’ over-the-top dramatization, unnecessarily sexually suggestive scenes, and insensitivity when going about delicate situations like these puts into perspective how much worse an event can become decades after its events unfolded. Given the writers’ controversial history on MONSTER, this show was doomed from the beginning. MONSTER: The Ed Gein Story could have been a fantastic way of delving into the psychology behind Gein’s decisions, or a tribute to the victims, or even just an accurate reenactment of these haunting events, but it got into the hands of writers who were some real MONSTERS.
