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| Obscure, yet a must watch. |
It's been a long while since I reviewed B-movies. The never-ending list of retro Anime I had to post, kept me in the Japanese field for several years, and it will continue for a while, as I'm still revisiting some I haven't reviewed yet. Anyway, streaming services sometimes provide you with a list of interesting more obscure films from decades past. Such is the case of today's review, a horror masterpiece that went under the radar for decades until it was rediscovered and properly issued on VHS format in the early 1990s by American International Pictures, owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, thus fully available now on Prime Video.
Allegedly, Deranged is based on the crimes of Ed Gein, an American murderer from Plainfield, Wisconsin. Legend has it, Psycho & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre where both based upon the crimes from this man. I'll spare the details so that you can enjoy the film, and Google details yourself. In a nutshell, this Canuxploitation psychological horror story, tries to retell the story from the earlier murderer in the fictional character of Ezra Cobb, masterfully portrayed by Roberts Blossom. Cobb is a middle-aged man from the rural midwest near an unnamed town.
Family dinner.
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| In-your face horror. |
Considering this is a 1974 movie, most of the elements that describe the lead and his victims may be seen today as derivative or stereotypical. Yet, the storytelling is compelling. The locations, soundtrack and few characters translate the idea of being a loner in the middle of nowhere for too long. Roberts Blossom, a classically trained theater actor and poet, really brings to life the disgusting psychopathic aspects of Ezra Cobb, yet he also unveils the scars, fears and weaknesses of a character that at times seems to be the actual victim of the story. You see, Ezra has seen no life outside his farm, and spent most of his life care-taking for his mother Amanda, a religious fanatic who managed to indoctrinate Ezra into abhorring women. Once his mother dies, he has no reason left to live. No one to talk to, no one to cook for, no one to see hours go by while hoping for a recovery that will never come.
A whole year goes by, and Ezra starts having aural hallucinations from his mother demanding to be brought back home, and here is where the movie actually starts. Ezra brings the corpse of her late mother home, but seeing her skin has dried and deteriorated he decides to find "spare parts" in other bodies of recently deceased people. The obituary proves to be more helpful than LinkedIn when searching for a job, and so does the horror story unravels.
Build-your-own mask.
Psychopaths also love boobs.
Deranged costed only US$20,000 to produce, a modest budget even for the 1970s. Yet, the true horror does not lay in the way victims are murdered but more into the process where Mr. Cobb works with, LinkedIn recruitment precision, to find the perfect match. Graphic violence, while moderate, doesn't truly carry the horror we're looking for. Performances are key on this film, where even though characters don't do much beyond what they're needed for, they do reinforce our main character's psychological profile, and having Roberts Blossom as the lead, truly brings this criminal to life.
The original cut of the film featured a scene where the lead killer feeds from a skull. The scene was removed from early releases, and it is sadly removed in the version you can stream on Prime Video, although the scene doesn't add anything new about the deranged Ezra, it graphically depicts his mental state.
Now, as above mentioned in the first paragraph, the story of Ed Gein has been taken to the small and big screen on several occasions, and now that streaming rules-supreme, Netflix did their own revisiting.On September 16, 2024, it was announced that the third season of Monster would focus on convicted murderer and suspected serial killer Ed Gein. On October 4,2024 it was confirmed that the season would be titled The Original Monster, exploring Ed Gein's life as the first "celebrity serial killer" and examining how true crime evolved into a pop culture phenomenon. Principal photography reportedly began the next month. The season was announced to be retitled to Monster: The Ed Gein Story in August 2025.
Here's the original TV Spot for Deranged:
