Deranged (1974)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Please don't spend money on this.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Serial Killers always were a subject of studies around the world and this case was one's most famous bringing to screen the Ed Gein's history and according some sources the most accurate ever done...even a low budge movie is remarkable well made, Roberts Blossom incredible portrait of Ezra/Ed's character from this bizarre true facts happened in Wisconsin state and had final chapter when Ed Gein was arrested in 1957....a minor mistake is about Ed's sexuality which wasn't not clear in the movie...maybe l don't appropriately released!!! Resume:First watch: 2017 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5

Real life serial killer Ed Gein has to be the one of the most notorious and sadistic serial killers to ever walk the face of the Earth. Countless stories and films have been made about him, or at least modeled after him. 'Silence of the Lambs', 'Psycho', and 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' was based off of Ed Gein's killings. Not only did Ed Gein kill his victims, but he cut their skin off and wore their skin on his body.He carved them up and took their organs and bones and decorated his house with them, and even made furniture with the body parts. Gein was into some other depraved acts as well, but we won't get into that. In 1974, 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' was released, and changed the horror genre forever. It gave us a look at a crazy family in Texas that killed and tortured a variety of people. It started with a narration by John Larroquette, telling us that what we are about to see is a true story.Even the movie looked like it could have been a hand-held documentary, and it gave the world Leatherface. That same year of 1974, a much lesser known film, known as 'Deranged: The Confessions of a Necrophile' was also released. While 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' only took a little bit from the life of Ed Gein, mostly being how he killed and tortured people, 'Deranged' pretty much followed closely the serial killer in his life before he started his killing spree, his motive to start, and him committing the heinous acts.One of the only things that was changed were the names, as we follow a farmer by the name of Ezra Cobb, played by Roberts Blossom. You wouldn't recognize Blossom here, but you'd remember him as Old Man Marly from 'Home Alone'. Ezra lives with his dying mother (Cosette Lee) on the farm, as she constantly yells at him about the evilness and sins of all women. After his mother dies and he buries her, Ezra starts to loose his mind. Several months later, he digs up his mother's corpse and decides to but her bones back together to make her a full person again, but he needs skin. That's when he starts digging up other corpses and soon starts murdering fresh people and "experimenting" with their insides to further is creations and decorate his house.This film is quite suspenseful and has a good flow to it, never slowing down to a crawl, but what makes this movie work most is the character development we see with Ezra. There is even a documentary feel to it, as a "reporter" enters the screen to narrate what's happening on screen. It's a fantastic addition to the storytelling in this film. In so many movies like this, we only get the crazy murderous people from the start, never understanding why they do what they do. Here, we get a glimpse of what a terrible life Ezra had under the clutches of his sadistic and bible thumping mother. You begin to sympathize with him, and that makes him have a human quality throughout, rather than the monster he really was.Blossom does an amazing job conveying Ezra's transformation into a killer, as well as showing those tender and raw emotions in dealing with his evil mother. It's a truly satisfying performance, as is the whole film. The blood, guts, and gore are magnificent too, as makeup legend Tom Savini was the makeup artist on this movie, making this his debut film to work on. 'Deranged' is a long lost film that most people don't know about that follows one of the most vicious serial killers that ever lived, and it holds up through the test of time as well as can stand with the other iconic movies mentioned in this review.

Bob Clark will probably always be remembered for directing and producing "A Christmas Story," (or in some circles for the "Porky's" movies), but for me he is the director of "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" and the producer of this odd little gem. In spite of the lurid subtitle, there is no on screen depiction of anything like necrophilia, just a very matter-of-fact retelling of the story of Ed Gein, backed by a sparse organ score. There are elements of black humor, as when the ghoul tells the corpse of his mother that he thinks that maybe a woman he recent met "isn't quite all there" because she talks to her dead husband in séances. Mostly though, the very convincing portrayal by Roberts Blossom makes this an effective and interesting movie, better - in my humble opinion - than the better-known "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" which came out the same year and claimed to tell the same story (it didn't).

This movie is a (somewhat) accurate movie on Ed Gein. Ezra Cobb (Roberts Blossom) is a middle-aged man who has cared for his ill mother for 12 years. She dies and he's all alone and slowly goes mad. He digs up her body from the graveyard and brings it home. He also digs up other bodies and uses their various limbs or organs. Then he decides to go after live humans...I originally caught this on VHS back in the early 1990s. Back then it was uncut and had a doc on Ed Gein as an extra. The 2002 DVD release from MGM looks fantastic but is, sadly, edited. This got an R rating back in 1974 but the ratings board insisted that an eye gouging and brain scooping sequence be removed to get an R rating today. That makes no sense. The scene wasn't THAT graphic and it was obviously fake. Idiots. That aside this is a creepy, unsettling film. It was made on a VERY low budget and has its slow spots but it works on you. It isn't that gory either but pretty sick. There are only three killings here but there are the various rotting corpses and, at one point, Ezra wears the skin of one of them (which Ed Gein did do)! Also there's an absolutely revolting scene at the end showing what Ezra did with his last victim (a young blonde here--in reality it was a middle-aged woman). This isn't all grim and violent. There's a very funny séance scene that works well. Blossom is excellent as Ezra. It's his movie and he knows it. He shows Ezra's madness slowly growing until it overcomes him. Also there's a VERY creepy music score that adds to the unpleasant tone of the film.This is a must-see for horror fans but the casual movie goer might want to steer clear. If you can, see the unedited version. I give this a 7.