(Credits: Paramount Pictures)

The subject of the latest Monster anthology series on Netflix, Ed Gein, is said to have influenced the cinematic landscape quite incredibly with his heinous trail of crimes. And if The Ed Gein Story did anything, it confirmed how the serial killer’s unsettling technique of crimes turned out to be an inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s game-changing film in the horror genre, Psycho.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story highlights this connection with the inclusion of Hitchcock’s character in the Netflix series. If you failed to pinpoint it so far, here are the crumbs.

The Ed Gein Story introduces a local bartender, Mary Hogan, who becomes one of Ed’s several victims. He murders her in cold blood, stating how she quite reminds him of his mother, Augusta. That same episode, not-so-coincidentally, viewers are also introduced to the adjacent Hitchcock narrative, whose Psycho was based on Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel.

According to the Robert Bloch Official Website, the author made Gein’s murders the springboard for Psycho, which was additionally inspired by the Plainfield Ghoul. Gein’s extensive pop culture influence, from Psycho to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs, was a massive source of attraction for co-creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan to pick up and tell his story.

But what also drew them in was the lack of knowledge surrounding the butcher of Wisconsin. Speaking of Gein to Tudum, Murphy said, “He is probably one of the most influential people of the 20th century and yet people don’t know that much about him.” The Ed Gein Story sheds light on Hitchcock’s casting of Anthony Perkins, a man struggling with his identity as a closeted gay in 1950s Hollywood.

In fact, Monster also provides a sneak peek at Hitchcock’s stellar marketing campaign for Psycho, where theatres were requested to close the doors for anyone and everyone once the film had started. The standee was recreated in the series where Hitchcock is shown warning viewers not to be late while clocking his watch.

By bringing this into the tale of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Murphy and Brennan fulfilled a larger goal they had set their sights on: “depicting the birth of America’s fascination with serial killers.” Charlie Hunnam, who plays Ed in the Netflix series, specifically pointed out Psycho for its extensive influence in changing the game altogether in the horror genre. “Prior to Psycho coming out, monsters [in movies] were werewolves and Dracula and Frankenstein,” he recalls.

“They weren’t your next-door neighbour. They weren’t the person working in a hotel that might have a key to your room to come in at night. It was a complete reimagining of the horror genre,” he added.

But Monster: The Ed Gein Story doesn’t only touch upon Gein’s impact in pop culture through Psycho. It parallelly shows other influences when the audience is introduced to Tobe Hooper grappling with violent hallucinations while working on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Hooper’s Leatherface was reportedly drawn from Gein’s murders, specifically by the killings of two hunters, “a crime that was never definitively linked to Gein.”

The Ed Gein Story also shows behind the scenes of Jonathan Demme’s Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs. Gein, who wore the skin of his victims, reportedly inspired the character of Buffalo Bill. Surprisingly, the final episodes also link Gein’s influence on Mindhunter, the Netflix original that was abruptly cancelled. “We wanted to underline the last thing tonally that through Silence of the Lambs, he really influenced Mindhunter as well,” Brennan explained.