Hooper, who was scared when he was a kid by campfire-style tales of Gein’s depravity by an uncle who’d lived in the area, sees in his fictional reinterpretation of Gein’s crimes an opportunity to reflect America’s murderous war in Vietnam back at itself. “I’m makin’ the movie it deserves.” He prefaces the movie — also inspired by a daydream of cutting down an overlong Christmastime department store checkout line with a chainsaw — with an opening voiceover that claims the events of the films are true. I think Ed associates femininity and womanhood with sin and wantonness after years of brainwashing by his emotionally abusive fundamentalist mother, and so takes on those aspects himself to feel, in Bernice’s words, “naughty.” That’s a gross understatement for a man wearing a woman suit made of human skin, but it’s closer to the mark than “trans” or “genderqueer” would be.
Author: mliss1578
Published at: 2025-10-07 21:30:00
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