Few real-life people have inspired more box office screams than the legendary 'Butcher of Plainfield', Ed Gein.Without Eddie, there would be no "Norman, bring me my chair!", no "Look what your brother did to the door!", no "It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again."One of the more accurate cinematic accounts of his monstrous deeds came in 1974 when uncredited producer Benjamin "Bob" Clark handed the directorial reigns of tonight's review to Alan Ormsby and Jeff Gillen, who he'd worked with on Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things(1972) and Deathdream(1974), after deciding that the script was too distressing for his tastes.The film, considered lost for years after its initial release on the drive-in circuit, marked the beginning of a long and illustrious career in special make up effects for a young Tom Savini, who shared the grue duties with writer/co-director Orsmby.The movie turned up as half of a MGM Midnight Movies double bill dvd with Motel Hell(1980), and then a lush 30th Anniversary Collectors Edition popped up five years later in Germany, which restored a notorious brain-scooping sequence ommitted from U.S. prints, offering an anamorphic widescreen print, a booklet, and a slew of excellent documentaries and extras(Of course, I had to have both, genre snob that I no doubt am).A grim black comedy benefitting from an effective star turn by Roberts Blossom as "Ezra Cobb, the Butcher of Woodside" and Carl Zittrer's creative use of The Old Rugged Cross hymn as a moody instrumental throughout, Deranged remains a must see cult classic for horror-hungry woprophiles and true crime buffs alike.Forwards!
"I thought SpaghettiOs were yer favorite, Mama!"
An onscreen narrator(Leslie Carlson)sets us off on our journey into the psychosis-ridden mind of one Ezra Cobb(Roberts Blossom), a backwoods shut-in whose world revolves around his domineering, bed ridden, bible thumper of a mama(Cosette Lee) who warns,"...the wages of sin are syphilis, gonorrhea, and death!" and rants about "sluts with pus-filled sores".She finally turns her toes up one fateful day as he's spooning hot green slop down her throat, geysering blood from her nose and mouth which Ezra flaccidly tries to spoon back into her deceased yap.A lonely year later, he decides to rescue his mother from the coffin she's spent the last twelve months rotting inside.He's pulled over by a policeman as he's bringing the stench-drenched wench back to the farmhouse, downplaying the foul odor as from a slaughtered pig and later apologizing to her decayed cadaver for calling her a hog(!).A year long dirt nap has taken its toll on Mrs. Cobb's grill-piece, leading her faithful son to study taxidermy and embalming, robbing random graves for spare parts to preserve and repair her worsening condition after a neighbor explains the concept of newspaper obituaries to him.At the behest of his mother/own twisted mind, he agrees to meet up with Maureen Selby(Marion Waldman),a portly local psychic and long-time friend of his mother's, who they both trust because she's fat(!!).When Maureen uses a hokey seance as an excuse to hurl her tonnage at Ezra, he panics and shoots her in the face through a down pillow.Soon, Cobb is exhuming more corpses to keep his mother company, and for making soup bowls out of their skulls and drumheads and clothing out of their tanned and stretched skin.Creativity has no boundaries when you're mentally insane.
Ya got yer Cobb-wear that's made of embalmed ladies, a heart in a frying pan and lips on a string...
A bartender named Mary(Micki Moore) tickles Ezra's fancy, and when she turns down his amorous advances, he slashes her car's tires, then shows up offering her a ride and tire change with no romantic implications whatsoever.Instead, he takes her back to the farmhouse, tying her down to a dining room chair amidst his collection of putrefying trophies, proudly showing her his handiwork and even donning a human skin mask himself before she breaks loose, tossing the brittle bodies at him in attempt to escape.He finally propitiates her minor revolt by braining her in the skull with a human femur.Next, general store clerk Sallie Mae(Pat Orr)becomes Ezra's object of obsession, and while his neighbors are off hunting, he wings the young innocent with a .22 in broad daylight while she's working, and throws her unconscious body into the back of his truck.On the ride back to the farmhouse, she regains consciousness and jumps out, leading Ezra on a wild goose chase through the surrounding woods before he finally dispatches her with another shell.As Sallie has gone missing, the authorities deduct that Ezra was the last customer in the store, and a posse races to the Cobb farmhouse to rescue the poor girl.Meanwhile, Ezra has strung Sallie's body up like a freshly killed deer, gutting her appropriately to the delight of his mother's wishes.When the group arrives, they find Ezra sitting among his morbid collection, giggling uncontrollably, another one for the rubber room.The narrator tells us that a few nights later a similar posse gathered itself up and burned the Cobb farm to the ground.
One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong...
Co-director Gillen spent most of his career playing small roles in Bob Clark's films, most notably, the department store Santa in A Christmas Story(1983) before passing away at the tender age of 53.Though most of you will remember Alan Ormsby's cornea-searing seventies wear and obnoxious demeanor in Children Shouldn't, he makes a bald wigged cameo here in a picture frame as Maureen Selby's dead husband.Harvey Keitel(!) auditioned for the role of Ezra.I'll give you a few minutes to visualize the impersonation of how that went that I'm currently embarking on...Deranged remains one of the most accurate screen depictions of the sordid Ed Gein story to date, heads and tails above Ed Gein(2000) and the embarrassing direct-to-video Ed Gein:Butcher of Plainfield(2007) with the laughingly miscast Kane Hodder portraying Eddie as a muscle-bound meathead.Uhhh, fail?Though more humorous than scary, Deranged maintains an eerie mood throughout, and scores three big ones on the scale.Necessary viewing.
# of blood-drenched milkwagons in "Deranged": Two big ol' good 'uns.
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