Monster: The Ed Gein Story is the third and most harrowing installment of Ryan Murphy & Ian Brennan's anthology series. The Netflix show tells the story of a simple man in Plainfield, WI, who became a serial killer, grave robber and overall psycho.
Adam Penn (pictured) served as an editor on the project, cutting four of its eight episodes.
"Beyond the day-to-day responsibilities of watching and cutting dailies, building sound design, temp score, etc., I believe my primary responsibility on this show was to convey Ed's inner life, to do whatever I could to put the audience in his head," Penn shares.
Gein's shadow looms large over the horror genre, and Penn says it was important to show him as an actual human being who was lonely, isolated, abused, misunderstood and suffering from mental illness.
"My approach was to let Ed's mind dictate the pacing and sound design," Penn explains. "Sometimes measured, quiet and still, like when Ed is tending to his farm after his mother dies. And other times, like when his dead mother appears and talks to him, yells at him, orders him around - the pacing becomes quicker, more frantic and angular, with sharper sounds and music."
Penn points to a scene in Episode 2 of the series as a highlight, where the edit helps plant the viewer firmly in the mind of Psycho actor Anthony Perkins as he prepares for the role of Norman Bates - a character inspired by Gein.
"In this Episode 2 scene, Alfred Hitchcock is giving Anthony a tour of the Psycho house set," Penn notes. "As Anthony walks through the house, burdened by his own inner demons and guilt over his sexuality, he finds himself literally stepping into Ed's world. Loud reverberating hammering draws him to a back room, where Ed is building a chair made from human skin. Anthony is horrified, though he tries to keep it together. But as Hitchcock continues the set tour, all while explaining to Anthony that he chose him for the role because, like Ed, Anthony too has secrets that are eating away at him, Ed walks in again, staring Anthony down, confronting the actor with all that he's trying to conceal."
For Penn, that sequence, with its expert performance, direction and cinematography, represents the season as a whole.
"It shows Ed's influence on movies, horror and the world at large, but does so in a hyper-subjective way, peeling back layers of both Anthony and Ed, planting us squarely in this fever dream where secrets, guilt and confusion threaten to expose what both men are hiding from the world."