Monster: The Ed Gein Story has given Netflix its latest hit, but fans obsessed with this Wisconsin serial killer have been warned not to take their morbid fascination a step too far.
Starring Sons of Anarchy breakout Charlie Hunnam in the lead role, it follows the twisted exploits of one of America’s most infamous serial killers.
At the same time, it details how his twisted murders, corpse fascinations, and tendency to make things out of human skin inspired many of the biggest horror movies of all time, including Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.
Posting to TikTok, a man who lives in the area where Gein committed the majority of his heinous crimes has taken fans on a virtual tour.
In just under two minutes, the owner of an account all about the great state of Wisconsin shows social media exactly what Gein’s stomping ground looks like today.
Spoilers: It’s not much to look at.
The TikToker posting under @wonderfullywi also shares a sobering warning to fans who may be considering embarking on a pilgrimage to Gein’s old haunts.
His advice? Please don’t.
In addition to highlighting the fact that many of the key places featured in the show are now closed to the public, on private property or just plain long gone, he also suggests that visiting would be in pretty bad taste.
Despite these crimes happening around 58 years ago, the video reminds us that "the people of Plainfield don't want to relive the worst part of their history."
Fair enough, to be honest.
The real locations in Netflix hit Monster: The Ed Gein Story
As showcased in this viral video, a lot has changed since Gein was active in Wisconsin.
Transporting viewers to “the real Plainfield,” we’re shown some key sights from the notorious serial killer’s life, crimes, and death.
Among them are the site that once housed Worden Hardware, a store owned by one of Gein’s victims, Bernice Worden.
This particular crime is brought to grim life in Murphy’s new show, with British actress Lesley Manville playing a fictionalised version of store owner.
In the show, we see Worden engage in a relationship with Gein prior to her murder, although there’s no evidence to suggest this actually happened in real life.
Elsewhere, we also see Plainfield Cemetery which houses the remains of Gein and his family, with the former laid to rest under an unmarked grave.
This is also one of the spots where he is believed to have stolen bodies from their graves throughout the late 1940s and 1950s.
We also see the location of Gein’s old house, but as the TikToker points out, “there's not much to look at” as the house burned down in 1958.
He continues to reveal that "there's only a shed left."
Ending his video, @Wonderfullywi suggests that fans of the show instead visit Plainfield to soak up many of the “amazing things” on offer there and not “focus on a piece of history that’s terrible.”
Did Ed Gein kill his brother?
Monster: The Ed Gein Story follows perhaps America’s most notorious serial killers. Gein’s crimes mark one of the darkest moments in the country’s history, with the murderer even fashioning household items out of skin, bones and bodyparts.
Much of this story is chronicled in Murphy’s new Netflix show, where we see Hunnam’s soft-spoken Gein delve deeper into madness.
One key sequence shows Gein murdering his brother Henry while in a fit of anger over a conversation regarding their overbearing mother.
However, it’s unclear whether this incident ever actually took place.
According to Britannica, Henry is known to have died following an out-of-control fire at the Gein property.
Shortly afterwards, Ed contacted the authorities saying that his brother was missing but was somehow able to lead them directly to his sibling’s lifeless body. Suspicious.
The official cause of death was asphyxiation and Ed was not directly blamed for Henry’s murder.