Osgood Perkins Takes Aim at Ryan Murphy’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story and Other Shows for Glamorizing True Crime

Osgood Perkins is having a moment. He is cranking out movies faster than studios can design the posters, and at the same time he is tossing a grenade at the current wave of prestige true-crime TV. Specifically: Ryan Murphy's Monster: The Ed Gein Story. Buckle up.

The horror hot streak

• 2015: Feature debut with The Blackcoat's Daughter
• 2016: Follow-up with I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House
• After a four-year gap: Gretel & Hansel
• Another four-year gap: Longlegs
• Seven months later: His Stephen King adaptation The Monkey hits theaters
• Nine months after that: Keeper is set for theaters on November 14
• And before Keeper even opens: He has already started shooting his next one, The Young People

The TV true-crime gripe

Perkins talked to TMZ (Deadline relayed the comments) and made it very clear how he feels about Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the latest season of Murphy's anthology that builds limited series around notorious killers. He has not watched it and has no plans to.

'I wouldn't watch it with a 10-foot pole.'

His bigger issue is not just the Ed Gein season, but the trend. In his view, shows like this take real-world murders and sand them into slick, bingeable entertainment. He argued that the genre is turning crimes into 'glamorous and meaningful content,' and warned that this wave's popularity has culture being 'reshaped in real time by overlords.'

'The true crime genre is increasingly devoid of context' and the 'Netflix-ization of real pain ... is playing for the wrong team.'

Translation: the packaging is getting shinier while the empathy and nuance are getting thinner. And he is not shy about saying it.

Why this one hits close to home

The Ed Gein season does not just recount the case; it positions Gein's crimes as inspiration for horror milestones like Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. That is an extra-sensitive angle for Perkins because his father, Anthony Perkins, famously played Norman Bates for Alfred Hitchcock.

The show reportedly portrays Anthony Perkins as a closeted actor, defined by his iconic killer role and feeling like a 'monster' for being homosexual. For the record, there is no reported reaction from Osgood Perkins specifically to that portrayal.

Another critic calls foul

It is not just filmmakers pushing back. Harold Schechter, who literally wrote the book on Gein — 'Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original Psycho' — says the series bends the truth hard.

'A very large percentage of the show is just made up' and this season 'veers so wildly from the reality of the case.'

'So much of it is pure over-the-top fabrication.'

So, on one side: a horror director on a heater calling out the ethics of turning real pain into glossy TV. On the other: a hit series tying a notorious case to Hollywood classics — including the role that defined his father. No wonder the temperature is high.