wes-connors Wisconsin weirdo Steve Railsback (as Ed, Eddy, Edward Gein) runs a small town eatery catering to overweight women. The twist is that the lucky ladies are on the menu! Yup, they get butchered and eaten. Everyone in town seems to know something is not quite kosher with the local fruitcake. In fact, he demonstrates all the characteristics of your average psycho. Folks are mostly disturbed by the fact that the beans-for-cereal killer dude never married. Gasp. Most women outside of this town would not be surprised.In an early scene, two teenagers are apparently killed during a make-out session. Then, the movie forgets about them. Next, two other teenagers are inexplicably left at Mr. Railsback's rat-infested abode for "babysitting" (huh?). While the older "baby" plays Go Fish with his host, younger "baby" discovers a bedroom full of shrunken heads and other body parts. For some reason, the babies decide to remain "mum" for the rest of the film. The ghost of mother Carrie Snodgress (as Augusta) probably rendered them mute.By the time Ms. Snodgress literally telephones Railsback at a murder scene and directs him to "Hurry, boy!" you could be laughing out loud. There is also a kabuki dance. "In the Light of the Moon" aka "Ed Gein" is more confusing than chuckle-inducing, however. The bar scenes are nicely done, with Sally Champlin (as Mary Hogan) neatly filling her bra shots, and Craig Zimmerman (as Pete Anderson) showing why someone should cast him as the lead in one of these pictures. And, give Railsback meatier roles.**** In the Light of the Moon (11/17/00) Chuck Parello ~ Steve Railsback, Carrie Snodgress, Sally Champlin, Craig Zimmerman

Michael_Elliott Ed Gein (2000) * (out of 4) Steve Railsback plays the infamous Ed Gein, the man who killed woman so that he could wear their skin, eat them and so on. I've seen a lot of movies based on Gein's life (Deranged) and a lot of films influenced by his story (Psycho, Texas Chainsaw) but this here is without a doubt the worst of the worst. I'm really not sure where to start but I guess I'll go with the screenplay, which seems to think it's a good idea for a horror film to go the first forty-minutes without a drop of gore or violence. When Gein finally gets on his murdering spree nothing is shown but instead we get countless dialogue scenes that are as boring as I'm sure Gein was in real life. Railsback gives a so-so performance, which means he tries hard to get Gein down right but he's just not good enough of an actor to pull it off. Go rent Deranged instead.

winner55 This was clearly made for the small screen, although I do remember it passing through western New York theaters briefly. I didn't see it on original release, because I happen to be somewhat fascinated by the Ed Gein story and have read up on it, and I was afraid the film would be a B-movie exploitation of one of the most bizarre episodes in the history of American crime. Gee, I wish it were.This film is really a pretty mediocre docu-drama that attempts to explain away the more disturbing aspects of the Gein story with cheap and easy Freudian references, down to having Gein see and listen to his dead mother urge him on to do "God's work" by "punishing" wicked women for their sexuality.Unfortunately, this explanation doesn't tell us anything at all about Gein's cannibalism, nor about his almost childish fascination for body parts. In one scene in a bar, Gein suddenly asks the other customers whether any of them know about sex-change operations. I take it this was cut into the movie to explain Gein's efforts to wear the skin of some of his victims, and certainly the real Gein was interested in the issue. What gets lost here is all the rich sense of transformation that might go into a sick fascination for donning the skin of another human being. This isn't simply changing one's sex - this is becoming something other than human.One other point - as a Freudian explanation, the film has Gein denying responsibility for his murders - either he can't remember them, or it was "mom's fault". Wait a minute - could Gein have just ignored all those body parts cluttering up his house? Obviously not; in fact the real Gein was aware of what he was doing - he just didn't think there was anything wrong with it. The only reason we know parts of his story is because he was able to give detailed descriptions of what he did. He approached murder, dismemberment, and cannibalism with a clinical disinterest in any of the moral implications of these acts. It was simply Gein's way of living in the world.Now that is truly frightening. The terrible thing about Gein was that he was utterly bland - he was the guy next door, the quiet neighbor, not very interesting, not much to say.Few films have managed to capture this quality about any serial killer. This film certainly hasn't. A real missed opportunity.

DJAkin I am fascinated with historical figures such as this strange man. I saw a TV special about Ed Gein and decided to rent this movie. I was not too impressed with the movie. It was interesting but very shallow. Ed Gein was a very strange man who ate soup out of skull caps to name just one of the many disgusting things. What surprised me is how when he shot that one bartender, how she just kind of kept living as if she had not been shot at all! That was very strange. And Ed's mother was very odd in my opinion as well. I was told by Jake that his Mom molested him or literally tried to have or DID have sex with her son, Ed Gein. I am going to have to see if this is true in the book. Yes, I bought a book about this man who was the inspiration for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So, all in all, a mediocre rental.