This is a movie based on the life of the infamous serial killer Ed Gein during a breif section of his life that he was committing the murders he is so notoriously known for.
I want to go into this review saying that I have this huge interest in Serial Killers, I love reading articles on them, seeing what makes them tick, why they kill, what the hell they are thinking and everything involved with the gory details of the kills. Does that make me sick? Probably, but who cares, I'm not a killer, but Ed Gein was. He was a sicko redneck from Plainfield Wisconsin who was accused of killing and mutilating two women as well as graverobbing and cutting parts off of many dead bodies in the town cemetary. Of course it's not really known how many people he really killed, it is however known he was a sick bastard. Anyways he used the skin from all the women he took apart to make covers for his furniture, trophies for his house, an outfit made of women's flesh and a mask that he would run around his yard in screaming at the moon some nights.
With that said it's easy to see the inspiration of Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface in Ed, both were sickos with skin masks, both were cannibals, but the only difference between the two is that Ed wasn't a musclebound psycho, he was a wimpy little idiot, which brings me to the big point here, Kane Hodder is more like Leatherface, and didn't fit the body size of Ed Gein. Another thing I noticed with the movie is that it didn't stick to the real kills, which were gunshots. Instead Kane strangled the victims after going nutty thinking about his mother. Other things in the movie really didn't fit the stories about the real Ed Gein but otherwise this was a pretty damn good movie.
 
I didn't like that they spent more time telling the story of a cop and his girlfriend more than Ed's personal story but I DID like that during the opening credits they ran through pictures of his victims and himself, it was sick but awesome. That and a little cameo by Michael Berryman as his partner in graverobbing crime, I was torn between the lack of sticking to the truth and the fact that I'm a big fan of Kane and Michael. All around this is a great role by Kane and if they didn't tag on the name Ed Gein to the title I'd give this a really high rating. Either way I suggest this movie for what it is, and that's a pretty well adaptation of one of the sickest serial killer cannibals of all time, just not completely identical to what really happened.
I guess what you should ask yourself is although Henry: Portrait of a serial Killer was LOOSELY based on the real story of Henry Lee Lucas, did you like it? Yes? Ok then you'll like this movie.
If your a huge fan of serial killers you might be a little bit disappointed in this movie but not much, Kane is awesome and really should get more acting roles, just ones he fits, and that's roles of him being a billy badass of horror. This movie is still very much suggested and enjoyed.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2007
DIRECTOR: Michael Feifer
WRITING CREDITS: Michael Feifer
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Kane Hodder, Priscilla Barnes, Michael Berryman
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 89 min
RATING: 7/10
Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield Website/IMDB Click here
Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield Trailer Click here
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