Monster: The Ed Gein Story, released on October 3, 2025, is the third installment in Netflix’s Monster anthology series. With high expectations following Dahmer and The Menendez Story, this season promised a haunting dive into one of America’s most infamous killers. But has it delivered? In this review, we’ll break down the strengths, missteps, audience reception, and available data on its impact and earnings.
What Monster: The Ed Gein Story Tries to Be Premise & Cast
Netflix describes the series as probing how an unassuming man from rural Wisconsin becomes a monster. Netflix
- Charlie Hunnam leads as Ed Gein Netflix+1
- Other cast members include Suzanna Son (Adeline Watkins), Tom Hollander, Laurie Metcalf, Vicky Krieps, and Olivia Williams
- Co showrunner Max Winkler notes that the series tries to explore the monster within us and how media and technology feed a cultural fascination with real evil.
The show blends biographical drama, horror, and metafictional elements including scenes that reference Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and other works allegedly inspired by Gein.
Critical Review | What Works & What Doesn’t
Highlights & Strengths
- Charlie Hunnam’s performance is widely praised. He brings a physical and psychological transformation to Gein, sliding between creepy stillness and bursts of rage.
- Production values the set design, costumes, practical effects, and cinematography create a suffocating, visceral atmosphere.
- The series occasionally reflects on our media obsession with violence how images of atrocity spread, repeat, and distort. That layer gives some thematic depth.
Key Weaknesses & Criticisms
- Factual inaccuracies & sensationalism: Many critics and historians point out that the show embellishes or fabricates narratives for example, depicting romantic relationships, linking Gein to other killers, or dramatizing events with no historical evidence.
- Tonally unfocused / jarring shifts: The show often hops between horror, surreal sequences, pop culture commentary, and melodrama. Some storylines feel underdeveloped or inserted for shock rather than narrative necessity.
- Victims’ stories sidelined: Critics argue the victims are often rendered as narrative props rather than fully realized, reducing the emotional weight of Gein’s atrocities.
- Audience feels manipulated: Some commentary suggests the show displays contempt for the viewer e.g. breaking the fourth wall, speaking directly to watchers, or layering in moral gestures that feel disingenuous.
- Mixed reviews / polarizing reception: On Rotten Tomatoes, Monster: The Ed Gein Story holds a 19% critics’ score (from 32 reviews) and a 53% audience (PopcornMeter) rating. Rotten Tomatoes
- Variety’s blunt take: They call it “overly graphic rehashing” and argue it lacks focus and restraint
- Roger Ebert’s verdict: He calls it “one of the most unfocused” of Murphy’s works, noting ambition but lack of cohesion.
The show dazzles visually and demands your attention, but often at the cost of clarity, historical truth,or empathetic depth.
Viewer & Public Reaction
- Among fans and critics, reception is divided. Some are enthralled by the aesthetic and Hunnam’s portrayal, while others are repelled by what they see as exploitative dramatization.
- The show’s biographer critics: Harold Schechter, a renowned Gein scholar, has condemned the dramatization for “pure fabrication” and misrepresentation of known facts.
- On social media, fans express outrage over narrative looseness, disturbing content, and romantic or glamorous depictions of Gein.
- Some outlets call the show “unforgivable” in how it revels in depravity. The Guardian
Earnings, Viewership & Comparative Performance
While Netflix (as is customary) hasn’t released exact breakdowns for Monster: The Ed Gein Story, we can glean clues from industry patterns and prior installments:
- The Monster franchise has been profitable for Netflix. Ryan Murphy’s Netflix originals overall have generated substantial revenue his projects are cited as generating ~$341 million globally (combined) for the streamer.
- Netflix earlier credited Dahmer: Monster with more than 1 billion hours viewed (within months) a hallmark success.
- The Menendez season opened strong: 97.5 million hours viewed in the first 4 days
- Because Netflix uses hours viewed, ranking, and retention a visually bold, controversial show like Ed Gein may attract initial attention (clicks) but sustain long term viewership only if the narrative holds.
- Even without public numbers, the Monster brand, built in fan interest in true crime, and Hunnam’s star power give it high potential for reach.
In short: Monster: The Ed Gein Story is unlikely to match Dahmer’s astronomical success, but it can still be a commercial win for Netflix given its built in audience and buzz generation.
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