The Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein trailer reveals never-before-heard recordings of the man who inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and other films. The upcoming docuseries follows the serial killer and body snatcher Ed Gein, who is known under many other names like the “Butcher of Plainfield” and the “Plainfield Ghoul.” His crimes inspired the character of Norman Bates in Psycho and other iconic films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.
Today, MGM+ released a trailer for Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein which features unearthed recordings of the serial killer. Watch the trailer below:
The trailer provides a brief overview of Ed Gein’s life and a preview of what the docuseries will explore. This includes Gein’s upbringing and twisted relationship with his mother, his early grave robbing and murders, and the police’s discovery of his terrifying house of horrors.
Who Was Ed Gein?
Gein’s gruesome crimes, which were committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, started gaining notoriety in 1957 when authorities discovered that he had exhumed corpses from local cemeteries and fashioned their skin and bones into various trophies and keepsakes, including masks made from the skin of female heads. He also confessed to killing two women, Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan. After Gein was tried and found guilty of Worden’s murder, he was remanded to a psychiatric institution where he died from lung cancer in 1984.
Gein was also known to have a complex and tumultuous relationship with his mother, Augusta, a domineering and deeply religious woman who discouraged him from forming relationships with women and instilled in him a sense of guilt about sexuality. Soon after his mother died from a stroke, Gein began to create a woman suit so he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin. This provided the inspiration for Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel Psycho, which was adapted into Hitchcock’s iconic horror film of the same name in 1960.
Related: Every Horror Movie Inspired By Serial Killer Ed Gein
In addition to Norman Bates in Psycho, Gein inspired the character of Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. The upcoming docuseries will submerge audiences in the perverse mind of the man who has had a lasting effect on popular culture. Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein premieres September 17th on MGM+.
