By Geno McGahee
In 1974, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE was released, based on the true story of Ed Gein, a man that killed a few people and made some furniture out of human skins and bones. For the record, Gein never chased anyone with a chainsaw or referred to himself as “leatherface,” but the TCM used a little poetic license and made the story that much more interesting.
PSYCHO was another movie based on the strange killer and so was SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Trying to capitalize on the Gein sensation was also the 1974 film: DERANGED: CONFESSIONS OF A NECROPHILE. Written by Alan Ormsby, the film is presented in a strange fashion with a narrator breaking into the film every other scene or so, explaining what it going on. It was an attempt to add to the realism of the events it was based on, but turned out to be a distraction. Ormsby is responsible for one of my favorite films of all time: CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS.
Ezra Cobb (Roberts Blossom) lives for his mother. He takes care of her and is completely guided by her. His mother is anti-woman and especially anti-sex, and it has warped this farmer that has never had a relationship. When his mother dies, he goes over the deep end, and begins preparing for her return, even writing her letters, which eventually leads to Ezra digging up her body and bringing it home.
This leads to several more bodies being dug up and brought to the house in some attempt to make his mother look better by using skin from other bodies to make her look fresher. Eventually, he has several dead bodies all over the place, which turn into his company. He sits them together and even dresses up in their clothing and wears a mask of human flesh.
As he kills, he grows in confidence and hatred of women. He meets a waitress, Mary (Micki Moore), and offers to give her a drive home, bringing her to his home, where she meets his new family. Amongst the corpses is Ezra in drag and wearing a human skin mask, in one of the creepiest scenes of the movie. She takes off but doesn’t get away and gets tied to a chair at the dinner table, surrounded by dead bodies.
Cobb continues his killing spree, including the hunting and killing of a very young girl, which leads to his arrest, and the conclusion of the movie. DERANGED: THE CONFESSIONS OF A NECROPHILE does closely follow the story of Ed Gein, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the performance of Cobb as the killer. The tension does rise in the last 15 minutes, but it is a slow moving drama/horror that many might not make it through, especially those that are fans of the TCM, a much faster paced version of the Ed Gein story…with some extra fun stuff.
I do recommend this movie. It isn’t great, but those that are fans of the Gein story and have seen the other stories based on his serial killer run, you probably want to check this out.
Scared Stiff Rating: 6.5/10. Decent Gein Flick…
