Wayne Noir

Netflix has finally dropped its latest entry in the Monster anthology, this time diving headfirst into the rotten, skin-crawling world of Ed Gein. If Dahmer felt claustrophobic, this one feels like the air itself has gone rancid.

From the opening frame, you know what you’re in for: bleak farmland, a farmhouse that feels more like a tomb, and silence that presses down until it’s unbearable. The show is filmed with a kind of slow, choking patience tight interiors, natural light, and a sickly glow that makes you squirm even when nothing is happening.

And then there’s Charlie Hunnam. Forget the charming rogue from Sons of Anarchy he’s gone. He dropped 30 pounds, unearthed a rare 70-minute police interview no one else had, and rebuilt himself as Ed Gein. His performance isn’t loud; it’s unsettlingly soft. He plays Gein as a man dissolving from the inside out stilted, tremoring, almost childlike in one breath and terrifying in the next. The way he looks at his mother (Laurie Metcalf, who absolutely scorches the screen) is enough to make you recoil. Their scenes together are the show’s black heart.

Production-wise, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan swing for the fences. They stitch together true crime with horror mythology, leaning into Hitchcock nods, Nazi allusions, and those infamous horror movies (Psycho, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs). Sometimes it works, sometimes it feels like too much theater layered on top of an already grotesque reality. But that’s their thing blurring history into nightmare. The cinematography in this season is straight-up suffocating. Wide shots of dead farmland give you that Midwest isolation, while the farmhouse interiors are shot so tight you feel trapped inside with him. Lighting is key here! All those dim, yellowed rooms feel like they’ve been frozen in time. Honestly, even the quiet moments feel dangerous.

Does it glorify Gein? Sometimes. Does it make you look away? Absolutely. But love it or hate it, you won’t forget it.

My take on the show?

Acting: Hunnam’s most daring work in years. Metcalf matches him pound for pound.

Visuals: Gorgeous in a disgusting way the farm itself feels like a character.

Story: Haunting, though it occasionally drowns in its own excess.

Monster: Ed Gein isn’t easy to watch. It isn’t meant to be. It’s the kind of series that stains you a little which might be exactly the point! This isn’t just a crime story it’s part horror fable, part psychological nightmare.

If you’re into true crime that blends fact with gothic horror, you’ll find it unforgettable. But watch it with the lights on and maybe don’t queue it up right before bed.

Rating: 3.5/5. flawed, haunting, and impossible to forget.