Deranged (1974)

If they'd made this one today it definitely would've been a lot more violent! Though as it is... I wonder if this really is how it was. They say it's based upon a true story, and that it's depicted in graphic detail no less, so nothing for the squeamish or weak-minded - so the narrator states as the movie begins. But then again maybe the narrator is just a part of the movie...

It's supposedly the filmatization of the real story behind Ezra Cobb - a farmer turned grave robber, after his possessive but much-loved mother dies...

Apparently it's really based upon the story of Ed Gein - who's an inspiration for many another horror movie with radically different premise - like Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So is this real or no? Supposedly it was the realest depiction available at the time...

But how would they really know the details.

Exactly how things went down with the victims is something only Ezra/Ed would know. Unless they've interviewed him. I wonder if he'd give up details if they did. If he was as crazy as they say. And I wonder if the conversations really played out the way they did in the movie. If he really saw his mom's face in front of him as he did his deeds. If it was all for her - and he attempted to preserve her as best he could - maybe all those other victims were just that for the sake of new flesh?

What do I know though. I'm not sure I want to know, either way.

The initial narration - in practice breaking the fourth wall - is not something a movie of this sort would've had today either. And the blood's clearly paint. But the dead... clearly ain't? I wonder if they actually used some live bodies with the initial brain scene. That was very realistic...

It's a good movie, but not as disturbing as it could've been. Ezra comes across psychotic as they'd portray a psychotic cray back in the day... and it's a little crazy how much that practice has changed in the fifty years since they made it.

It's another world now.

Hopefully guys like this existed more so in the old one too. Isolated, fanatically religious, with a mom complex... I might have one too but not like this! Mind you.

Good movie. Though it's all the more intriguing most of all because it actually was (supposedly, all) true...

 rated 3.5/5: not bad at all