“Monsters: The Ed Gein Story,” the third season of Ryan Murphy’s serial killer Netflix anthology series is here, and it offers the show’s most unsettling and riveting cast of characters to date.
Across eight episodes that debut on Oct. 3, the series explores the origins, crimes and aftermath of Ed Gein, a serial killer who, during the 1950s, killed at least two women and exhumed several bodies for heinous purposes. Raised by an evangelical mother that he obsessed over and having desecrated human cadavers to make a skin suit, Gein and his story are rife with disturbing, unprecedented psychological drama.
Gein redefined how Americans thought of serial killers and psychopaths, and his case inspired movies such as “Psycho,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Silence of the Lambs.” Now, Ryan Murphy brings the original story to life in his signature, dramatized manner.
Here is a look at all of the characters, each based off of real-life people, in “Monster’s”‘ most unnerving season yet.
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Ed Gein (Charlie Hunnam)
Image Credit: COURTESY OF NETFLIX Charlie Hunnam of “Sons of Anarchy” fame plays the titular serial killer in the series. Dubbed the Butcher of Plainfield, Ed Gein notoriously exhumed bodies from cemeteries near the Wisconsin town in the 1950s and eventually confessed to having killed two people. It’s suspected that he was tied to additional morbid crimes, which the show unpacks in excruciating detail. His unsettling roots, shocking violence, and notorious case redefined the image of the American serial killer and psychopath. Gein died in custody in 1984, but his brutal legacy continues in the form of unsolved cases, numerous horror films and ceaseless nightmares. Hunnam’s other notable credits include “Pacific Rim,” “The Lost City of Z,” and “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.”
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Augusta Gein (Laurie Metcalf)
Given that Ed Gein served as the inspiration for Norman Bates, it makes sense that Gein’s mother played a prominent role in his story. Augusta Gein, the woman who birthed and raised Ed, was a religious zealot who brought up her sons with a fear of God and a firm belief that the world was an immoral, sinful place. She raised her boys on their family farm in relative isolation. Ed developed an obsession with Augusta, which only deepened after his father and brother died and he was left to care for her alone. Augusta died in 1945. Laurie Metcalf of “Rosanne,” “The Conners” and “Lady Bird,” plays Augusta in the series.
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Alfred Hitchcock (Tom Hollander)
Image Credit: COURTESY OF NETFLIX Ed Gein’s story was so captivating that it inspired a slew of Hollywood characters. Most significantly, Gein provided inspiration for Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” which ushered in the slasher genre upon its release in 1960. Tom Hollander plays Hitchcock in the series, depicting how the master of suspense adapted the notorious serial killer’s story into one of the most influential films of all time. Hollander is known for his roles in “Pride & Prejudice,” the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, and, more recently, “The White Lotus” and “Feud: Capote v.s. the Swans.”
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Alma Reville (Olivia Williams)
Image Credit: COURTESY OF NETFLIX Olivia Williams of “The Sixth Sense,” “An Education” and “Rushmore” plays Alma Reville, Alfred Hitchcock’s wife and creative collaborator. Reville and Hitchcock were married from 1926 until Hitchcock’s death in 1980. During that time, she co-wrote screenplays for dozens of her husband’s films, notably “Murder!,” Shadow of a Doubt,” and “Suspicion.” She was also active in the editing room, providing notes on negatives and key scenes, including the infamous shower scene in “Psycho.”
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Evelyn Hartley (Addison Rae)
The disappearance of 14-year-old Evelyn Hartley is one of the several unsolved cases for which Gein is suspected to be the culprit. She went missing on the night of Oct. 24, 1953, in La Crosse, Wis. Though this was relatively far from Gein’s Plainfield home and Gein denied any involvement in the case after his arrest, the events coincide with his active years and no trace of Evelyn was ever found. Actress-singer-influencer Addison Rae from “He’s All That” and “Thanksgiving” plays the girl.
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