I’ve been a busy bee this month working on a longtime dream of mine: launching my own fiction publication, Still Life Fiction.
Inspired by the still-life art form, the publication focuses on the elements of storytelling that endure: themes, characters, and ideas that linger long after the page is closed.
Still Life Fiction is a digital publication, with plans for an annual print edition featuring selected stories at the end of the calendar year. I’m starting simply, with a streamlined website, so that I can invest more time and energy where it matters most: reading and recognizing stories that resonate with me and with readers.
Our first submission window will run April 17 – May 15, 2026, with the inaugural theme: Freedom.
Please explore the site and share your thoughts in the comments. I would be thrilled to read your work, so start thinking about stories you want to submit.
How the Series Became a Love Letter to Gen X, Xennials, and Millennials
By now, most viewers have seen the Stranger Things (ST) series finale, so there shouldn’t be any spoilers. Instead of doing another hot take on the last season and ending of the series, I’d like to tap into that great ocean of nostalgia that ST represents for Gen X, Xennials, and older Millennials.
Before I started season 5, like everyone, I rewatched seasons 1-4 so that I could remember the major plot points, characters, and to tap back into this nostalgic feeling that this era represents for me as a Xennial (born between 1977 and 1983).
The show takes place between 1983 and 1989. For many of us who grew up or were exposed to the music and other popular culture during that time, the show represents some of our fondest memories from our childhoods. Sure, there were some really scary real-world things going on around the world. ST did a strong job of weaving those realities into the storylines, such as America’s ongoing Cold War tensions (the Russians are coming!) or the “Satanic Panic.”
Now, I wasn’t old enough to remember being terribly concerned about those things, but I did see the movies and films during that era that reflected the paranoia embedded in the American psyche. But I digress, there were so many other things in the show that sent those of us from those three aforementioned generations swooning, like the sense of adventure, the era of analog technology, video and board games, synth music, banana seat bicycles, and the latchkey kid era (Will was all of us at that age in the 1980s).
I distinctly remember sitting in front of the fan in the window on hot summer days listening to Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Whitney Houston, Cyndi Lauper, and a whole host of other artists who transcended race or national borders to reach the hearts of fans around the world. It felt like a magical time, before cell phones, when we played outside until dark, ate cereal for breakfast, and watched cartoons and Kung Fu movies on Saturday mornings… together. Now, everyone has their own screen for entertainment. Back then, we had to share one television.
The Duffer Brothers not only tapped into the nostalgia of those generations, but they introduced the 80s era to two whole new generations that learned what it was like to live during those times of old tech, including landline telephones, video arcades, and hair-sprayed styles. Most importantly, I believe the younger generations resonated most with the underpinning theme of friendship. ST reached global audiences from multiple generations, which is difficult to do, but I believe this happened for the aforementioned reasons.
Despite how you feel about the ending, the Duffer Brothers wrote this love letter to all of us and reminded the fans that friendship can and should be unbreakable, and that “friends never lie.” Now more than ever, we all could use that message, especially as the world has been so chaotic: old friends (countries) are now enemies, or indifferent to the suffering of others. While this isn’t new, it does give the younger generations a bleak view of our future. I hope that this show made folks believe in magic again and the value of true friendship, but if the global popularity of the show is any evidence, I think the Duffers nailed it.
Netflix will drop a behind-the-scenes documentary of the show, called, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, on Monday, January 12, 2026, at 12am PT/3am ET.
Check out a previous article I wrote about film and TV reboots to follow the nostalgia breadcrumbs.
Posted on January 11th in honor of our girl Eleven.
What Writing My Own Stories Revealed About Creative Worldbuilding
Now that fans of the hit IT: Welcome to Derry TV show are discovering the ties between Stephen King’s various TV and film adaptations of his novels, I think I have a deeper insight into how writers build interconnected story universes.
I wrote a short story called Delphine the Hag and the main character was part of this family of supernaturally gifted women. I also wrote a short story called Healing Magick with another main character who went to her grandmother’s home for healing. I never sold that story, but it ended up giving me the idea for merging all of the worlds together for a TV pilot.
AI-generated TV series poster
I thought, what if the young woman in Delphine the Hag and the woman in Healing Magick were related and their grandmother was looking to pass down her magic to one of her granddaughters? I started pulling together all kinds of details about how the magic worked, who the villains were, what the family dynamics were, and ended up with a supernatural TV drama, The Bryant Women.
Needless to say, I freaking loved dreaming up my series bible for this TV pilot. I didn’t want to spread it out in separate short stories, so I merged it all together. And I keep wanting to go back to that well and think of other spinoff ideas, but I’m not there yet.
So, for me, I can see how Stephen King, who published The Shining first in 1977, then IT (1986), and Doctor Sleep (2013), finds it endlessly fascinating to keep wanting to go back to that world he created. I totally get it.
And in preparing to write this blog post, I thought about all of the other book series that I love. This is what drives fans wild, seeing how they can piece together Easter eggs from one book to another. You saw that happen when book fans patiently answered questions from TV-first fans about Stephen King’s books that were the source materials for IT: Welcome to Derry. It was an amazing one-week post-mortem of who, what, when, and why.
In addition to Stephen King, I also really enjoy book series by other fiction authors:
George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones fantasy universe
N.K. Jemisin is a prolific speculative fiction author and she’s written multiple book series. My favorites are: The Broken Earth, The Inheritance Trilogy, and the Dreamblood series.
Kresley Cole’s paranormal romance book series, Immortals After Dark, and her young adult fantasy series, The Arcana Chronicles
Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone fantasy series
Karen Marie Moning fantasy romance Fever series set in Ireland
Daniel Jose Older is a Latinx author who has a few young adult fantasy series under his belt that you should check out. He also wrote the novelization of a few Star Wars stories.
Finally, although he doesn’t write any universes, this author has written really good science fiction novels about living in space. I can’t forget Andy Weir’s The Martian.
In addition to being a film buff (I did not go to film school, but I have an MFA in Creative Writing), I’m also a huge book nerd. Definitely find me on Goodreads.com and friend me there. I listen to more audiobooks these days, but I also indulge in turning pages every now and then.
Eventually, I’m going to write book reviews on this site, but I’m not there yet. I want to reserve my time for writing about writing and actually getting my projects out there first.
Anyway, please feel free to post your book recommendations in the comments.
I had to give myself a few days to process the IT: Welcome to Derry TV series finale on HBOMax. As a fan of Stephen King and his Shining universe (The Shining, IT films, and Doctor Sleep), I was super excited to see that there would be a TV series so that we could spend more time exploring some of the backstory.
I was pleasantly surprised that Bill Skarsgard came back to reprise his role as Pennywise. I’m not sure the show would survive without his quirky yet terrifying rendition of the this cosmic entity. I also thought that the TV series was a great way to answer fans’ questions about how the Shining works, learn more about Dick Holleronn’s past, and BONUS: see the ancestors of the kids who gave Pennywise an eternal sleep… or so we hope is the case.
Here’s my take on some of the elements of the series that really worked for me:
Time as a Setting
The show could’ve started anywhere on Pennywise’s 27-year cycle timeline, but they chose 1962, a period when America was undergoing significant turmoil. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing, massive changes in society were met with racial violence, and so many other “fearful” things were happening. Pennywise feeds on fear and it makes sense that he would’ve enjoyed this era.
Welcome to Derry follows the 1962 version of The Losers Club (more on that later): Lily, Ronnie, Will, Marge and Rich. The catalyst of the show begins when a young boy disappears and his friends are violently murdered by a mutant baby in a movie theater while searching for him. Police suspect Ronnie’s father, a Black man, of the murders, but Lily and Ronnie were there and they know that something more supernatural happened. But they can’t tell the adults because who would believe them?
Throughout the season, Ronnie’s dad is captured, escapes, and then he’s found again by a group of vigilante white male citizens of Derry that are convinced that he murdered the town’s kids. The penultimate episode features the inevitable clash between this group and Black military servicemen enjoying themselves in “The Black Spot,” a local juke joint. Pennywise shows up in the middle of the skirmish and has his big “meal” of fear after The Black Spot is set on fire with dozens of people and The Losers inside.
Luckily, Hallorann is there and a benevolent Native American warrior spirit helps them escape the blaze but not before Pennywise gorges himself on the fear of those trying to survive the fire and the bullets. By the end of this episode, you can see exactly why the 60s was the perfect time for this New England town’s reckoning with Pennywise’s return.
Origin Stories Beget Origin Stories
The TV series allowed the writers to explore some of the origins of The Losers featured in the reboot of the IT films (Chapters One and Two). By the last episode, we learn that Will is Mike Hanlon’s father; Marge (a later member of the 1962 Losers Club) is Richie Tozier’s mother and that he’s also named after Rich “the Knight” Santos; and that Ingrid is the old woman in the rebooted films who attacks adult Beverly Marsh in the IT: Chapter Two film.
The show also features an origin story of the Native American that trapped Pennywise on the outskirts of the town of Derry, and the weapons that could destroy him or slow him down. The shards or “pillars” come from his original cosmic star that he fell to Earth in when he first landed in what is now Derry.
We actually get to see just how powerful Dick Hallarann’s psychic abilities are (who we were introduced to back in The Shining film), and how much control he can exert over Pennywise through his psychic manipulation, even if for a short time. Many fans have asked for a full-on Hallorann spinoff series.
Welcome to Derry also shows us the original Pennywise aka Bob Gray, a clown whose identity he took on because he saw how kids (his favorite victims) responded to him like a rock star. The series has been renewed for two more seasons and it will go back further in time to 1935 and then 1908, each time when Pennywise awakens from his 27-year slumber.
We also learn that Pennywise perceives time differently than us mortals and he sometimes gets confused between the past, present, and future. Series showrunner, Andy Muschietti, alludes to this in interviews, so I look forward to that being a part of the lore when they go back in time in the next two seasons.
They really packed so much into this eight-episode season, but it was very satisfying for fans of the books and the TV/film universe. We got to see how interconnected Stephen King’s universe is, while also diving deep into how a previous generation has battled him. The ending of the season was very satisfying and throughout the whole series, I felt deeply for those children and their secret battle to stay safe and sane, while the adults struggled to process who or what Pennywise was. In the end, the kids saved the day and it’s sad to know that their offspring will face his evil once again in a future 27-year cycle.
Okay, okay, I haven’t seen all of the films that are making the rounds during this year’s awards season yet, but I’ve seen quite a few of the top contenders from the IMDb Best Movies of 2025 list. Of the commercially successful films on the list, I still need to see One Battle After Another, F1 (starring Brad Pitt), and Wicked: For Good.
I still feel strongly that Sinners is the top film of 2025. It not only served horror fans a unique setting in the Mississippi Delta instead of New Orleans, but also gave us some new vampire lore to drool over (Irish vamp Remmick FTW!). The film also introduced or further endeared us to the blues and a fresh new voice in Miles Caton. And through that lens, director Ryan Coogler also educated audiences about the horrors of the Jim Crow era.
Why is Sinners the Best?
There are so many personal reasons that I connected with this film as both a horror fan and a person of color with roots from the American South, but at the end of the day, Ryan Coogler’s direction, Michael B. Jordan as the lead playing gangster twins, and an outstanding supporting cast tipped the scales for me.
The technical aspects of the film were also impressive, which the film industry is appreciating this awards season. Coogler’s cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, became the first female director of photography to shoot any movie on large format IMAX film. Coogler also used “halo cameras” to film Jordan as twins, among many other techniques he used in this film.
There were also some really cool in-universe newspaper clippings revealing some backstory you can find by clicking through the Sinners Official Playlist on Spotify or by reading Gizmodo’s article. Some of the incidents include the fallout between Irish and Italian gangsters that we learn the Twins are running from in the film, and a mysterious Irish ship that washed ashore in Boston with blood-soaked decks and no one aboard.
Cultural Inclusivity
In this film, we see Native American vampire hunters, the Choctaw Nation, hunt Remmick in the beginning of the film. This short bit of screen time was so popular among fans that they started asking for a spinoff film.
Remmick is an Irish vampire who claims to Smoke that he resonates with African Americans’ suffering in order to get into the juke joint, but due to his vampire nature, it is revealed that he sought to siphon Sammie’s talent. He also leads the new vampires in a rendition of the Irish folktale song, “The Rocky Road to Dublin,” a surprisingly upbeat song and dance sequence.
The Chinese American characters, Grace and Bo, are grocers who serve both the white and Black communities, and long-time friends of the Twins. Grace also joins the fight with the survivors of the vampire attack on the juke joint after her beloved husband is turned.
All of these communities actually coexisted in the Mississippi Delta.
Finally, some people may not have been familiar with the concept of “passing” in the Black community prior to seeing the movie. Mary is technically considered Black in the Jim Crow laws, but because she is white-presenting, Stack believed that it was safer for her to continue passing and to have a white husband. If you’re interested in learning more about miscegenation (intermarriage between racial groups), visit the Americans All history page.
In summary, Sinners ticked many boxes for me. I feel like the more people went down the rabbit hole of lore about this movie, the more they learned about life for people of color (Blacks, Chinese, Native Americans, and Irish folks by way of Remmick) during the Jim Crow South, the real horror for Black Americans. Not only that, but we got some really cool vampire lore out of it. How many genre films can you truly say accomplishes so much while also entertaining fans of horror? Not many.
I’m pleased to announce that my Young Adult science fiction feature script, Worlds Apart, placed as a Quarterfinalist in the Outstanding Screenplays Feature Competition among a large volume of submissions from around the world. While I did not advance to the Semi-Finals in this particular competition (my TV pilot placed in a previous competition of the same name), having my work recognized in this way is a meaningful step in my screenwriting journey.
It’s always encouraging to see the worlds I build on the page resonate with readers in the industry. I’m continuing to revise and shape this story, and I look forward to sharing updates on this project as I continue to pursue opportunities.
I don’t know about you, but the guilt I feel about not having the energy to write or edit/revise my work ebbs and flows, depending on the day. It’s after a holiday week as I write this, and I am thinking about writing, but I haven’t had the time to do so while visiting family. So, I’m writing about writing instead of creating or revising a creative project and that’s totally fine with me. It’s like riding my bike on the runway and taking in the pre-departure peace and calm instead of taking off on a plane.
I’m here to tell you that it’s perfectly fine to write when you feel energetically ready to do so. Unless you have a clear deadline, it’s best not to force creativity. If you’re truly in your creative period, then you’ll be inspired by almost anything when you are ready to write. I get inspired by my (sleep) dreams. Many of them are like little movies with a clear plot, beginning, middle, and end. My dreams usually form as high concept action, fantasy, or sci-fi films. That’s how much I eat, sleep, and consume those genres.
Back to creativity cycles. Of all my years of writing, I’ve always had spurts of creativity when I focus on a project. However, when I take a break, I truly take a break. I don’t immediately go work on another project, unless there’s a deadline.
One of the most invaluable pieces of advice that I came across was from Stephen King’s book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft(2000),where he said that he steps away from a project that he’s been working on for about six weeks. When he comes back to his draft, he can revise it with fresh eyes. (He also said that he writes two drafts and a polish as his revision process).
I’ve found this to be true in my own writing. I started out writing fiction, my novel Worlds Apart (unpublished), and I totally resonate with King’s advice. Now that I’m a screenwriter, I think that six weeks is too long in between revisions. I like to churn out screenplays in short spurts so that I keep up the momentum of the story, especially my TV pilot projects, because those stories need to introduce the protagonist and the journey they’re going on, and establish worldbuilding.
But don’t take my or Stephen King’s word for it, I found a few articles that explain these creativity cycles. Some of the articles were more geared toward creative problem-solving (STEM fields, for example), but I found one that is specific to creatives by Dana Wood at The Integrative Counsel called, “The Gears of Creativity: Creative Cycles Explored.”
In the article, the creative cycle goes:
Preparation: This stage or “gear” is pretty self-explanatory, but for a screenwriter and author, it’s the stage when you’re doing your research. If you’re a worldbuilder like me, you might be looking up real-world settings or imagery of distant worlds, or finding inspiration from your sleep dreams and seeing if it already exists in the real world.
Incubation & Insight: This gear is where you might start thinking about what you want to do. For the trained or educated writer, you may have been asked to declare in school if you’re a “pantser” or a “plotter,” meaning that you either write by the seat of your pants, or you start with an outline first. If you start with an idea, you might be thinking: TV series, short, or feature film? As a plotter, this phase of development is a big deal.
Evaluation: This gear asks you to evaluate whether this project is worth advancing to execution. Let’s say you have three story ideas and you need to choose one, perhaps, you want to enter a film festival or screenwriting competition and you need to write something that would do well for that audience.
Integration, Imagination & Iteration: This gear is when you actually sit down and produce without fear. I highly recommend you go from Preparation to Integration and Iteration in a pretty short span of time. You need to create when you feel that creation energy take over you so that you don’t lose the momentum.
Upleveling: Now we’re circling back to Stephen King’s advice. After you’ve created your masterpiece and you’ve taken some time away from it, revise and polish your work. Don’t be afraid to do it, but make sure you’re not skipping this step before sharing your work with others.
Hopefully, this post gives you some relief from beating yourself over the head for taking the holidays off from writing. When your creativity feels like work, it can make you think that you’re blocked, but as you can see, creativity ebbs and flows. However, if you develop a process, it can help you feel like you have some type of structure to complete your work. And with that, you’re totally winning.
Drop your writing advice in the comments, on how you stimulate your creativity or how you take breaks from writing. What’s your process?
Professional industry panel discusses film distribution and acquisition.
This week, I went to the FilmQuest Festival in Provo, Utah. It’s the first exclusively genre film festival I’ve attended (although I’ve been to plenty of Cons and other film fests). I was a judge for the feature films, but the festival had so many other categories, from shorts to music videos.
Directors of the sci-fi film block during Q&A.
I was only in attendance for the last three days of the conference, but the workshops I attended about distribution and acquisition, and producing and directing were very insightful about the business side of the film industry. If you’re doing TV, then this festival is not for you as there isn’t very much representation there, which makes sense.
Jon Fitzgerald, founder of Cause Pictures, shares his years of knowledge about film distribution with the audience.
Some of my favorite takeaways:
Film distribution modelsand platforms for indie films, such as Gathr, Kinema, Bingeable, just to name a few. This is a much better avenue for film distribution than theatrical releases, however, Fathom is looking for more indie films.
Marketing: The most important part of getting your films out there is to make sure that your marketing materials are visually appealing, especially your trailer and poster. Social media marketing is key as well. Comps are important for marketing/pitching. Make sure you find your trailer moments. Sometimes that’s all streaming viewers need to watch.
Perhaps, the most informative panel for me was about acquisitions. Here are those takeaways:
X-Factors: Horror has a built-in audience and it’s still a growing genre, but don’t count on that lasting forever. However, Slashers are back, and short films, in general, can move to feature development.
Movies on the streaming platforms need to perform, meaning audiences have to watch until the end to trigger the ads that generate revenue.
Reviews matter. Make a compelling story that generates word-of-mouth recommendations.
Things to Consider: 1) Make the film with the audience in mind. 2) Stick to one genre during your pitches. In between genres are tough to sell. Understand what you’re making and why. 3) It’s fine to take feedback from your film fest screenings and make changes. It makes the film even better when you try to sell later.
Know your genre and make sure the film opening sets that expectation.
Trends:
Creature features
Sci-fi has more legs in overseas territories
Small and big budget films are selling, but the small films need to sell well to get pre-buy offers.
Overseas markets:
No beheading scenes in horror films in the Middle East.
Family-friendly and adventure films sell really well overseas because they’re good for all ages.
Selling films to airlines add up in sales. Don’t leave this out of your sales strategy.
Horror still sells well, but no ghost stories in some territories.
American movies are not selling well in these territories as the focus is on their domestic film industries: France, Japan, South Korea, to name a few.
Drug use, nudity, foul language, and suicide scenes in films are a no-no in many overseas territories.
AI will make translation in foreign territories much easier, but bad news for voice actors who dub films.
I met a few new friends along the way.
Besides learning about the business side of filmmaking, attending this genre-focused film festival brought back memories of the vibe from my creative writing MFA program at Seton Hill University . I love hanging out with genre nerds like me! While my stay was brief, I did manage to meet a few cool people at the festival. Perhaps even future film collaborators.
If you’re looking for a fun film festival that specializes in genre films, definitely check this one out.
Beautiful backdrop of the mountains (and the moon) in Provo, Utah.
FilmQuest Film Festival official poster in collaboration with Bloody Disgusting. Artwork by @Tentaclesandteeth.
I just finished watching 17 feature films over a period of two weeks for this year’s FilmQuest Film Festival that will be held in Provo, Utah from Oct. 23-Nov. 1, 2025.
This was my first time being a judge for a film festival, so I wasn’t sure how many films I could review in such a short time, but I made it through.
As a longtime lover of genre films, this was a dream come true. I enjoy watching and writing genre TV, films, and fiction, so this experience gave me greater insight into the next steps after you’ve completed the project. For some filmmakers, that might look like festival submission, distribution, audience reception, and awards! Just being nominated must be something special for the film’s crew, cast, and producers.
FilmQuest is one of the top-rated genre film festivals in the world and boasts the distinction of being the #1 best reviewed film festival on FilmFreeway. If I were an independent genre filmmaker, this festival would be one of the main stops for me because I watched films that had large budgets, and some that were clearly made with heart and passion on small budgets. In this festival, they were all on the same playing field.
Some of the genre films that I reviewed ranged from comedy musicals to gory horror to thrillers. I viewed them all and I can truly say that each one stood out in their own way. There were a handful of thought-provoking international films as well, both in English and other languages.
Not only did I rank the films, but also nominations for other categories, such as: Best Actress, Actor, Sound, Direction, etc. I actually found this the most difficult to rank these categories because some of the nominees were good for different reasons.
Some of the features that have stuck with me stood out for their creative story structure and pacing, out of this world plots, and some took visual storytelling to the next level. I was very pleasantly surprised by one of the comedies that made me laugh out loud (which is hard to do) and one that had a Tarantino flavor to it. I can definitely see a few of them hitting the theaters over the next year or on a streaming channel. They were just that good.
You can find a link to all of the features and short films (which I did not judge), and other category nominees here. The festival is on its 12th run, and based on the notable actors that I saw in some of the films, you may see some familiar faces if you attend in person. Tickets are on sale on the FilmFreeway and festival website as of the writing of this blog post, but they’re selling out fast.
Check out the 2025 Schedule to see which days you’d like to attend if you’re like me and can’t attend all of the days. There is also an option to view the films virtually if you want to get ahead of the festival and see what all of the films are about.
It’s been such an honor to review these films and I hope that this is the first of many more opportunities in the future. Future filmmakers, screenwriters, and film lovers can participate in film festivals in other ways like volunteering. I’d love to learn more about how others stay connected to the film community.
Full disclosure, I submitted my own screenplay to this festival, but it was not selected. Being a judge was a great cancellation prize.
This past weekend, I binged all of the Monster: The Ed Gein Story episodes on Netflix. It was a tough watch, but I powered through them to see how his nefarious deeds were depicted and whether the series could offer any new perspective on his life.
I have not been able to watch the first season that focused on Jeffrey Dahmer because I was sure it would give me nightmares afterward, which is hard to do based on my love of horror and dark fiction. So, on to my take on the show without spoiling too much.
I found episodes 1 through 6 to be very solid. We got the setup of Gein’s life while his mother was alive. He was an emotionally stunted and abused man who lived under the thumb of his ultra-religious mother who despised both women and men. In her mind, she was protecting him from the outside world by forbidding him from fraternizing with others and dating women. This, unfortunately, did not prepare him for life after her death.
So, it was no surprise that when she passed away, he could not handle being on his own without his mother’s guidance. Shortly following her funeral, he dug up a corpse from a graveyard and dressed it to resemble his mother. There were other women that he dug up and used their skin and other body parts to fashion gruesome furniture pieces like lampshades, chairs, and a skull as a bowl. Yikes!
The series explores a still unconfirmed romantic interest based on a real-life woman who claimed that she and the serial killer were close. In real life, she eventually pulled back her statements and claimed that she barely knew him, most likely to avoid being directly tied to Gein’s crimes.
And the show delves into Gein’s imagined connections to his idols. He may have been influenced to commit some acts after reading a comic book/graphic novel about Ilse Koch, a real Nazi woman from World War II, that was accused of inflicting pain and horror on Jews and of creating equally gruesome furniture pieces similar to Gein. The show also weaved a transgender celebrity, Christine Jorgensen, into the story to reflect some of Gein’s delusions, but there is no evidence to support his fascination with her in real life.
In the end, Gein only admitted to killing two women and digging up the bodies of several more. He’s long been rumored to have murdered his brother, a couple of hunters, and a young girl. None of these accusations led to criminal charges, but nonetheless, the series dramatizes these claims that were never proven.
Perhaps, the most interesting B story in the first half of the series was the time spent on the Alfred Hitchcock/Anthony Perkins collaboration on Psycho, which was purposely influenced by Gein’s case. The show spent quality time on the development of the film as well as insight into Perkins’ own thoughts around his sexuality and the infamous gay therapy he went through to stay in business in Hollywood. It was a part of film history that I was not familiar with and I appreciated the side quest from the show’s heavy theme.
Warning: Creative License
Episodes 7 and 8 are where I couldn’t quite follow where the story was going. The show alludes to other serial killers that were influenced by Gein, however, in my light research, I haven’t found that to be the case.
One particular serial killer on the show, Richard Speck, was featured as being a fan of Gein, but I found it to be a diversion, particularly the amount of minutes of screen time spent on a gratuitous prison sex scene. Whether this was one of Gein’s delusions of grandeur in real life, I’m not sure, but it was not necessarily needed to send home the message that he influenced many different aspects of society, including pop culture.
Then there was a mini crossover with Netflix’s other (now canceled) TV show about serial killers, Mindhunters, that featured another serial killer and the famed FBI agents who interviewed him. I found this thread to be more interesting to pull on if it were true, but it was not the case in reality that they met with Gein.
The last 20 minutes or so of episode 8 was filler. I actually would’ve preferred the final episode to focus on his trial where he was found to be legally insane, and to dive deeper into the psychology of Gein. Instead, we got some fictional delusions of Gein prior to his passing, which made me think it was meant to endear the audience to him. But if the purpose of the anthology is to answer the question if serial killers are born or nurtured, then it may have missed the mark.
My take is that Ed Gein’s life was a case study in the psychological profile of how a killer was made. How someone left to their own devices without the ability to manage their emotions and mental illness (in Gein’s case, schizophrenia) becomes more than just their personal problem, but society’s problem if they become violent. Not that not everyone who is schizophrenic is violent, but it’s important to look into how these sorts of violent criminals can be detected earlier in life.
Version 1.0.0
I wrote this review because I wanted to watch the show and see if the screenwriter came to similar conclusions about Gein’s disposition as I did when I wrote a short story called “The Time Killer” in the horror anthology, Jane Nightshade’s Serial Encounters.
I was assigned by the editor to write about a fictional encounter with Ed Gein. I did not have a lot of background on him at the time, but I quickly understood how he influenced many other pop culture films and shocked the nation with his gruesome killings and pastimes. There was a sadness and loneliness there that I think came across in my own story similar to the show, and I too gave him a romantic interest to explore those themes in his life. I was pleased to see that the screenwriter found that to be an interesting way to reflect how the world saw him versus how he saw himself.
In any case, check out the series on Netflix if you can stomach it and check out my story in the aforementioned horror anthology and let me know what you think in the comments.
Gina N. Anderson 