Charlie Hunnam terrified fans as he showcased his dramatic transformation into murderer and necrophile Ed Gein for Netflix series Monster this week.
Hunnam, 45, best known for his hunky role in Sons of Anarchy, looked unrecognizable as he wielded a chainsaw, peeled off a skin mask and sported prosthetics for the controversial Ryan Murphy series, which drops October 3.
The Critics Choice Award nominee looked worlds away from his rugged onscreen persona as a further image showed him laying on his mother’s lap – signifying Gein’s warped relationship with his mom, which inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
Fans went wild over the shocking photos, with one writing: ‘This is going to be chilling. Perfect casting.
‘Ed Gein is such a disturbing figure, can’t wait to see how they pull this off. Ryan Murphy always delivers dark and twisted stories, this one’s going to be wild.’
‘Okay, I’m hooked.’
Charlie Hunnam terrified fans as he showcased his dramatic transformation into murderer and necrophile Ed Gein for Netflix series Monster this week
Hunnam will play his darkest role to date in the series which premieres on October 3
‘This one’s already giving chills.
‘Sounds like a chilling story! Charlie Hunnam is perfect for this role. Can’t wait for October 3rd.’
‘Holy f**k, it’s so scary how similar he looks to Ed.’
The series synopsis reads: ‘Serial killer. Grave robber. Psycho. In the frozen fields of 1950s rural Wisconsin, a friendly, mild-mannered recluse named Eddie Gein lived quietly on a decaying farm – hiding a house of horrors so gruesome it would redefine the American nightmare.
‘Driven by isolation, psychosis, and an all-consuming obsession with his mother, Gein’s perverse crimes birthed a new kind of monster that would haunt Hollywood for decades.
‘From Psycho to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to The Silence of the Lambs, Gein’s macabre legacy gave birth to fictional monsters born in his image and ignited a cultural obsession with the criminally deviant. Ed Gein didn’t just influence a genre — he became the blueprint for modern horror.’
Gein, who was known as the Butcher of Plainfield and the Plainfield Ghoul, was a murderer and body snatcher who exhumed corpses from graveyards to make a ‘skin suit’ from the bones and skin of the dead.
He told police after his arrest in 1957 that he used the skin suit to ‘become’ his dead mother.
Hunnam, 45, best known for his hunky role in Sons of Anarchy, looked unrecognizable as he wielded a chainsaw, peeled off a skin mask and sported prosthetics for the controversial Ryan Murphy series, which drops October 3
Fans went wild over the shocking photos for the series
Hunnam played Jackson ‘Jax’ Teller on FX series Sons of Anarchy for seven seasons between 2008-2014
Gein’s life has inspired a number of horror characters including Norman Bates from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film Psycho, Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in the Silence of the Lambs.
Gein was devastated by his abusive mother’s death and felt like he had ‘lost his only friend and one true love,’ biographer Harold Schechter noted.
He continued to live and work on the farm but boarded up his mother’s rooms while the rest of the home fell to ruin.
Gein started to become fascinated with the concepts of cannibalism and began visiting local cemeteries in just two years after her death to start his 10-year grave robbing spree, according to a biography by Judge Robert H. Gollmar – who presided at Gein’s trial.
Despite all of his notoriety as a serial killer, Gein has only been confirmed to have murdered two victims while robbing the graves and desecrating the bodies of nine others.
Gein’s first victim, tavern owner Mary Hogan, was killed in 1954 – nearly 10 years after the death of his mother.
Nobody linked Gein to her disappearance when she vanished from work leaving nothing but blood at the scene.
The second murder victim, Bernice Worden, owned a hardware store in Plainfield and disappeared on the morning of November 16, 1957. Her son Frank Worden, a deputy with the local sheriff’s office, found the store’s cash register open and blood stains on the floor around 5pm that day.
Gein was arrested while the Waushara County Sheriff’s Department searched his farm and found the woman’s decapitated body in his shed.
Worden’s body had been hung upside down to a wooden crosspiece and was ‘slit open from vagina to sternum,’ biographers noted in Obsession.
Inside the house, officers found human skulls attached to the posts of Gein’s bed and Worden’s heart in a saucepan on the stove.
Cops also found a trash can made of human skin, human skin covering several chair seats, bowls made from human skulls, a corset made from a female torso and leggings made from human leg skin.
Other items included the genitals of nine women in a shoe box, masks made from the skin of female heads, Mary Hogan’s face in a paper bag and her skull in a box, a belt made from female human nipples, and a lampshade made from the skin of a human face.
Despite all of his notoriety as a serial killer, Gein has only been confirmed to have murdered two victims while robbing the graves and desecrating the bodies of nine others
A photo shows a close-up of a chair upholstered with human skin found in the home of murderer and body snatcher Ed Gein in Plainfield, Wisconsin in November 1957
A photo shows a squalid room in the home of murderer and body snatcher Ed Gein in Plainfield, Wisconsin in November 1957
Despite the filth and horror in most of the farmhouse, however, authorities discovered a blocked-off, dusty yet tidy area: Augusta’s bedroom, which had been kept by Gein as a virtual shrine to his dead mother.
The amount of human trophies found in Gein’s home seemed to indicate that he had killed far more people than just Worden and Hogan. He admitted to both of these murders, though he claimed each was accidental.
Gein insisted he had not killed any other women, and instead studied death notices so he could engage in grave robbing.
Despite admitted to killing Hogan and Worden after his arrest in 1957, Gein was initially found unfit to stand trial.
He was sent to a mental health facility and was judged fit to stand trial in 1968, and was later found guilty of murdering Worden.
However, he was also found legally insane and returned to the psychiatric institution.
He died at Mendota Mental Health Institute of respiratory failure on July 26, 1984.
Hunnam played Jackson ‘Jax’ Teller on FX series Sons of Anarchy for seven seasons between 2008-2014.
He was the original choice to play Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey film series – but dropped out weeks before filming began -and was replaced by Jamie Dornan.
The first season of the Netflix anthology series detailed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s atrocities with Evan Peters starring.
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story chronicled the shocking murders of 17 young men and boys at the hands of the Milwaukee killer between 1978 and 1991.
Season 1 – which starred Peters and Niecy Nash-Betts – scored record ratings and was critically-acclaimed but faced backlash, as viewers hit out at Netflix for adding an LGBTQ tag to the series.
Many called out the streaming platform – who have now removed the tag – saying they were ‘gobsmacked’ and ‘disgusted’ at the choice.
The first season of the Netflix anthology series detailed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s atrocities with Evan Peters starring
The second season – Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story – starred Cooper Koch and Nicholas Chavez
The sister of Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey, Rita Isbell, speaking with Insider Sunday, said that Netflix never reached out to her about the series, calling it harsh and careless.
‘I feel like Netflix should’ve asked if we mind or how we felt about making it,’ she said. ‘They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it. But I’m not money hungry, and that’s what this show is about, Netflix trying to get paid.’