| Christi Leftwich |
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Draft 1: Ed Gein & Psycho
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In December of
1957, at 2:00 p.m. a Wisconsin elementary school let out for the
final time before the children would go on Christmas break. As usual
all of the children rushed away from the school as if they were
escaping from prison, when suddenly a large pack of children began
to chant:
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¶ 1
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Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the school,
Not a creature was stirring
Not even a mule.
The teachers were hung
From the ceiling with care
In hope that Ed Gein
Would soon be there. (Rebello 5)
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| Apparently,
long before Grandma got run over by a reindeer, and the bat-mobile
lost its wheel, there was Ed Gein (the original bogeyman). Mr. Gein's
story was not a popular yuletide tale, heavens no, he was simply a
man who in that year caught the attention of the nation. Every generation
has a man like Eddie, there was Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey
Dahmer, etc., but before any of these men there was Edward Gein, the
original serial killer. |
¶ 2
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| Gein's
story is simple enough. He grew up on a farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin.
After the death of his father Edward and his brother, Henry, were
raised solely by their mother. Now Ma Gein was a doozie. She taught
the boys that women were evil. She preached against romance, courting,
and aboveall sex. Throughout the years Ma Gein had succeeded in implanting
a fear of romantic relationships in her boys, while simultaneously
sanctifying their relationship with her. After, his brother died,
Ed Gein was left alone to tend to a controlling mother who had suffered
a stroke. A year after the death of his brother, Edward Gein also
"suffered" the loss of his mother, by then Gein was in his
thirties. This event left Gein alone in the world, yet free to finally
explore his sexuality and relationships with the opposite sex. |
¶ 3
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| To the
outside world Gein was regarded as an odd, but harmless man. That
is until November of 1957, when Frank Worden a local sheriff, came
home from a hunting trip to find his mother, the owner of a local
hardware store, missing. He noticed that the last receipt in the hardware
store was one for Ed Gein and remembered Gein's inquiry as to whether
Worden would be going hunting that morning. Worden soon notified the
police of his mother's absence and his suspicion of Gein. Gein was
not at home when the police searched his home, which was full of domestic
debris (dishes, newspapers, & magazines were spread everywhere).
While searching Gein's bedroom, police found "a soup bowl fashioned
from an inverted human half-skull...four women's faces, rouged, made-up,
and thumbnail tacked to the wall... [and] a skin ‘vest' including
mammaries" (Rebello 3) among other things. While searching the
darkened smokehouse shed the police found Bernice Worden, hanging
upside down by her heals, nude, beheaded, and disemboweled. |
¶ 4
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| Frank
Worden located Gein at which time he denied any wrong doing. Soon
Gein was tried, found insane, and sentenced to a life term in a state
mental facility where he died in 1984. After his arrest Gein admitted
to police that he often put on the "skin vest," the women's
faces, and stockings and paraded around the farm acting like his mother.
Since the events occurred in the 50's the newspapers could not give
detailed information about the murders, the other information in the
police reports surfaced years later. However, newspapers inadvertently
included one gruesome detail "when newspapers reported that Gein
claimed ‘I never shot a deer,' how many locals shuddered at the
memory of plastic bags packed with tasty ‘venison' given to them
by Gein" (Rebello 4). |
¶ 5
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| After
Gein's story broke, the nation was bombarded with stories of Gein's
atrocities and much like the Monica Lewinsky jokes that float around
now, people shared jokes called "Gein-ers." Even small school
children were aware of Gein and his actions. However, as years passed,
Gein's legend was overshadowed by the actions of his psychopathic
sons Charles Manson, Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, etc. Nowadays, few know
who Ed Gein was...or do they? |
¶ 6
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| In a
town just a few miles away from Plainfield a pulp fiction writer named
Robert Bloch got wind of Gein's story. Inspired by Gein's psychopathic
life style he soon wrote a story of a lowly motel keeper who would
have an oedipal relationship with his mother (not unlike Gein). The
relationship would produce the presence of a second personality, which
would be based on the keeper's dead mother. Realizing that the story
needed both a hero and a heroine, Bloch created a heroine who would
come to the motel from another place. He decided to take the unconventional
route. Bloch created a likable heroine (one which the reader could
become attached to) gave her a problem, and then suddenly killed the
character off. The remainder of the story is spent unraveling the
mystery of the woman's disappearance and the lowly motel keeper. After
Bloch's novel received rave reviews he was approached by his manager
about a proposal. In short, the Music Corporation of America (MCA)
wanted to buy the rights to the story. His manager advised him to
sell the story, despite the corporation's refusal to expose the buyer.
Bloch sold the rights for nine thousand dollars. He soon became aware
that the contract did not include a percentage of the movie's profits.
" ‘It was then,' said Bloch with a sigh, ‘I learned
that [the novel] had been bought by Mr. Alfred Hitchcock' " (Rebello
14). The motel keeper's name...Norman Bates, the novel, Psycho. |
¶ 7
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| Make
no mistake about it without Ed Gein there would be not Norman Bates.
Norman Bates is Ed Gein. Both grew up in a virtually fatherless environment.
Ma Gein and Mother have strong opinions about sex and romantic relationships.
Neither wants their son to be involved in either activity, at least
not with other women (both are suspected to have molested their children).
The two women have ultimate control over their son's lives for over
thirty years. The control they have over their sons is so great that
upon their deaths both boys feel the need to compensate for the loss
of their maternal figures by pretending to be their absent mothers.
Norman does not go to the extreme that Ed does (mostly because censors
wouldn't allow it). However in a later film, Silence of the Lambs,
Buffalo Bill and Hannibal Lector do what Norman could not (i.e. skin
vests & cannibalism). |
¶ 8
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Though there may
be some people in this world who aren't familiar with the movie,
there is not a soul in the land that is oblivious to the film's
famous shower scene. It is through this story that Ed Gein's legend
lives on in filmic form. Gein's legend is allowed to do what the
film was not, it includes every gory detail, still the film is more
popular. Why is it that Gein's story, a true story, has been overshadowed
by his cinematic counterpart, Norman Bates? As we embark on the
twenty-first century film has surpassed oral story telling as a
more accessible source of gory tales. In addition, film has the
advantage of providing a visual narrative of the story. So, although
Gein's legend is famed, Psycho is more popular due to innovative
cinematography, the film's compliance with visual pleasure, and
a musical score which evokes felling which words cannot.
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¶ 9
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| Before
making the film Hitchcock devised a story board that illustrated each
shot in the movie. While making the film he strictly followed the
story board. Each shot was created with the purpose of controlling
the viewer's perception of the film's plot and characters. Psycho's
effectiveness lies in Hitchcock's ability to make viewers trust the
film world, and then chaotically turn the situation into a surrealistic
experience that would leave the audience terrified. Hitchcock begins
the film with an establishing shot of a city. The words "Phoenix,
Arizona" appear shortly after that the words "Friday, December
the eleventh" fade onto the screen. After a sequence of pans
and fades to closer shots on one building the camera focuses one window.
"The effect of this is random selection; this could be any place,
any date, any time, any room; it could be us" (Wood). The sequence
establishes a normal setting, before a word is even spoken (Rothman
250). The presence of a reality-based setting and characters who seem
like everyday people makes it easy for viewers to relate to the characters.
Thus, later events in the film are that much more frightening because
they happened to ordinary people. |
¶ 10
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| Hitchcock's
uses cinematography to establish his much used normal vs. abnormal
theme. Abnormality becomes abruptly apparent during the films famed
shower scene. Marion Crane is in one of the most vulnerable positions
a human being can be in; she is naked and in a confined area with
no means of escape. Still, the situation is a common one, for people
who value hygiene it is a daily ritual. This ritual becomes a nightmare
when Marion is attacked by "Mother." The shower scene lasts
a little over a minute, yet it contains at least eighty-six shots.
Each shot is from a different angle. When Marion turns on the shower,
we see an extreme close-up of the shower head. She hums(as many of
us do) while in the shower. Suddenly, a shadowy character appears.
As the character gets closer and closer there are quick cuts between
shots of the figure's approach and Marion in the shower unaware of
her dangerous position. As the figure approaches the shape of the
shadow becomes clear. It is an old woman, "Mother." She
quickly snatches the shower curtain to one side. The camera cuts to
close-up shots of Mother's hand, which holds a butcher knife, rising
and descending in a stabbing action. Meshed with these shots are shots
of Marion's reactions. There is an extreme close-up of her screaming
mouth and one shot in particular shows the butcher knife about to
pierce Marion's midriff. This montage gives the viewer the impression
that Janet Leigh (Marion) is actually being stabbed, though in reality
accept for the midriff shot the knife never comes near her. Marion
soon falls to the ground. She desperately tries to uses the shower
curtain to pull her self up, but it breaks. When the curtain breaks
there is a cut to an overhead shot of Marion falling to the ground.
The remainder of the shots consists of an extreme close-up of the
shower head, which cuts to a shot of Marion's bloody legs in the bathtub.
The camera follows the blood as it mixes with water and goes down
the drain. In this shot of the drain an extreme close-up of Marion's
eye is supper imposed onto the drain and leads the way for a dissolve
to Marion's eye. The last time we see poor Marion a single tear falls
from her eye and her now dead body lies face first on the white tiles
of the bathroom floor. |
¶ 11
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| Hitchcock's
technique of switching between Marion and Mother's view points allow
the viewer to be the murderer and the victim. Each shot pulls the
viewer further into the events of the movie. The cinematography places
the viewer in a position in which they feel they are a part of the
story's events. Since the viewer already knows things that other characters
don't the surprise that Norman is Mother is that much more effective.
The film affects the viewer's personal emotions. Thus, Psycho affects
its audience on a larger level than the oral Ed Gein legend. |
¶ 12
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| In her
article, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," Laura Mulvey
states that film provides a number of different pleasures, among them
are scopophilia and identification (Mulvey 24). Scopophilia is defined
as pleasure in looking "taking other people as objects, subjecting
them to a controlling and curious gaze" (Mulvey 24). Normally
this gaze is known as the male gaze since most movies are made from
a male perspective and for a predominately male audience. In Psycho
Marion is the viewed as a sexual object. She is the typical high key
lighted, Coca Cola bottle figured, blonde haired, Hitchockian female.
From the very first shot of her she exudes sex (the first time we
see Marion she is laying on a bed without a shirt on). The shower
scene enacts a typical male desire to dominate a woman in a sexual
setting. Though the Ed Gein story also exemplifies a male's desire
to dominate a female there is a significant difference between a topless
Janet Leigh and a deceased, obese Grandma Moses. |
¶ 13
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The
pleasure of identification refers to the viewer's ability to look
at a character in a movie and be able to find similarities between
himself and that character. There is no possible way anyone could
(or would admit that they do) identify with Ed Gein. However, Norman
Bates, played by the handsome Anthony Perkins, is another story. First
of all, Norman's crimes are fictional. Secondly, Norman on some level
is a victim. He was raised by a woman who took too much control over
his life, once she died he didn't know what to do with himself so
he went insane. Mother, is an example of an archetype know as the
terrible mother. On this level most people can identify with poor
Norman. How often have we all complained about how nosey or annoying
our mothers can become? Furthermore, we witness the victimization
of Norman personally when Mother confronts Norman about his apparent
lust for Marion. By providing a common ground for the viewers and
Norman the film appeals to a level of pleasure that "Gein-ers"
just can't touch.
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¶ 14
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| Both
the legend and the film share one basic purpose, to terrify their
respective audiences. The Gein legend has the advantage of being true.
It is supported by police reports, newspaper articles, and entire
editions of both Life and Time magazines dedicated to the case. Still,
the film has a slightly more effective and personalized advantage.
Its audience is placed in a darkened theater, in which the viewers
are forced to give their undivided attention to the visual and auditorial
display created by the film-makers. Hitchcock's extensive use of camera
angles and stylistic editing is only half of why the film is so effective.
Bernard Hermann's musical score pushes the story and the cinematography
to a higher level. |
¶ 15
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Who can deny that
music expresses emotion in a way that words rarely can? Like a chorus
in a Greek tragedy Hermann's score moves us from emotion to emotion
and gives us a greater understanding of the story. When the establishing
shot of the film takes place, the frantic music that plays throughout
the credits comes to a halt as if to say that the city we see is
a safe one, a normal one. In contrasted in the shower scene Marion's
screams are replaced with the ear-piercing shrieks of violins. Incidentally,
how often have you snuck up on someone from behind while yelling
"WREEK! WREEK! WREEK!" It has a completely different effect
than simply saying "Boo." This is what I mean when I say
that Hermann's score has a way of expressing emotion in a way that
words alone just can't. The Gein legend lacks this auditory means
of expressing emotion.
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¶ 16
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| In 1957,
Ed Gein became one of America's first media hyped serial killers.
Even after his conviction his crimes served as a basis for urban legends
which were used for everything from humor to frightening children
into obeying their parents. For years American society was entertained
and terrified by the horrible crimes he committed. Still, after a
few decades the legend by itself became bland. Psycho gives the legend
a bit of kick by providing an ingenious visual narrative, a means
for experiencing pleasure in film, and an emotional attachment to
the characters and events of the story based on auditory appeal. All
that being said the horror genre owes its popularity to the Ed Gein
legend which is the basis of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th,
Halloween, When a Stranger Calls, Psycho, Silence of the Lambs and
just about every other psychopathic character ever to grace the silver
screen. |
¶ 17
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