On November 16th, 1957, officers of the Plainfield Police Department went to the house of Edward Gein to question him in the disappearance of Bernice Worden, a local shop clerk. Upon entering the house officers were horrified at what they discovered. Gein’s house was adorned with severed heads, human skin lampshades, necklaces made of varied body parts and most disturbing a skin suit complete with breasts and a vagina made from the remains of Gein’s other victims. His deeds became legendary and his actions would go on to inspire countless horror movies such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs, but to the people in the small Wisconsin town, he forever became known as The Butcher of Plainfield.

Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield is not the first movie about the life of Ed Gein, nor is it the best, but it may be the darkest.

The biggest problem with this film is that it takes great liberties with the story and life of Gein. Anyone who has ever read up on him will immediately take exception to the facts and truths in the story as many things are exaggerated and at times down right wrong, but the film does do one thing I found quite interesting, it shows Gein in a new light.

If you have ever seen a picture of Gein he looks like a human version of the cartoon character Elmer Fudd. He appears to be a weak, dim witted farmer with no social skills whatsoever, and this is how he is depicted in other films. Gein is small in stature and very physically unimposing, scary, but not by his physical prowess. In that respect this film on Gein does something very strange it casts Kane Hodder as Gein. Hodder, as most of you know, is most famous for playing Jason Voorhees in several of the Friday the 13th films. And I can tell you from meeting Mr. Hodder numerous times, he is physically imposing and looks nothing like Ed Gein, but he actually pulls the role off quite well and did something I didn't think was possible in his performance, he removed the stigma of Jason from his career for me.

Hodder's version of Gein is not the grave robbing, recluse who kills when the opportunity strikes, this Gein is a haunted man who breaks into a beastly rage when the voices in his head get to loud and that's where Hodder shines. He really impressed me with his acting abilities.

As you can imagine, he kicks ass in the sadistic torture scenes and he looks bad as hell wearing a blood soaked yellow apron while flaying skin from his victims, but Kane also proves he has a softer side as he dances around in his "woman suit", when his dark desires get the better of him.

The movie also has another subplot the centers around a young officer and his mother and girlfriend that really seem to drag the film along, in a film about Ed Gein you want Ed Gein’s life, actions and capture and that’s really about it, Gein is the reason you want to watch the movie in the first place.

All and all this is a fairly poor film, even with Michael Berryman and Priscilla Barnes thrown into the mix, the film just seems to dabble into too many useless story points throughout the course of it’s run that just make the film to blah for it’s own good. But Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield, does do one thing and it is able to do it quite well, at least for me anyway, is it gets Kane Hodder out from under the shadow, or should I say mask, of Jason Voorhees and shows that he has more acting range than just that of body motions and physical presence.

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