Ryan Murphy’s latest installment in the Monster anthology, The Ed Gein Story, has been branded too gross even for horror fans. One review even said: “Ryan Murphy’s questionable universe of serial killer tales reaching its lowest point with a morally dubious look at a grave-robbing murderer.”
Everyone agrees on one thing – it’s gruesome. Disturbingly so. But still, we can’t stop watching.
Across the show’s eight episodes from the mind of Ryan Murphy, there’s a constant awareness of this moral tension: the series is vile, and we might be too for indulging it. Ed Gein even says it himself in the series: “You’re the one who can’t look away.”
Credit: Netflix
Murphy has argued that the graphic, grotesque show forces people to question whether they enjoy consuming true crime as entertainment. As one person on X put it: “[The series doesn’t] just show the dark abyss of such monstrous minds, but also holds up the mirror to how sick society can be.”
But really, this is just peak Ryan Murphy. His trademark embellishment and fetishisation of horrific stories certainly isn’t new. Honestly, The Ed Gein Story isn’t even his most twisted work. The early seasons of American Horror Story were genuinely unhinged, and people seem to forget just how bleak they were. It’s been over a decade since Murder House and Asylum first aired, but those storylines were darker, gorier and more psychologically disturbing than most horror films today.
Here’s a reminder of when Ryan Murphy’s gone even further.
The addiction demon scene in American Horror Story: Hotel
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A faceless creature assaults a man in a neon-soaked hellscape of a hotel room. It’s disturbing, graphic, and still one of the most talked-about (and regretted) scenes in TV horror. The Ed Gein Story has nothing on this.
Dandy’s bloodbath in AHS: Freak Show
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The spoiled rich boy who decides murder is art. Dandy literally bathes in the blood of his victims in a gold claw-foot tub. Murphy at his most deranged.
Lady Gaga’s blood orgies in AHS: Hotel (again)
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The Countess slicing open lovers mid-threesome while wearing Versace is iconic, insane, and deeply disgusting.
Pretty much the whole of AHS: Asylum
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Murphy took one look at the Catholic Church, mental health institutions, and World War II atrocities and said, “Yes, all three.” Asylum mixed demonic possession, human experiments, and mutilation.
Madame LaLaurie’s torture chamber in AHS: Coven
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A real-life serial abuser of enslaved people, turned into a camp horror villain played by Kathy Bates. Gory flashbacks, blood rituals, and zombie ex-boyfriends. Coven made “too far” its brand.
The Assassination of Gianni Versace in American Crime Story
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Murphy swapped gore for moral decay — a chilling portrait of Andrew Cunanan’s charm and cruelty. The murders are filmed with eerie intimacy, turning violence into spectacle. It’s less blood, more psychological rot.
All the horrific deaths in Scream Queens
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Scream Queens took college life and cranked it up to a blood-spattered fever dream. Someone was deep-fried alive, and another was mowed down by a lawnmower in full designer couture. Dean Munsch also casually ate a human liver at one point.
The horror of being observed in The Watcher
Credit: Netflix
Murphy’s creepiest recent work is quietly sick: paranoia, voyeurism, and people turning monstrous under pressure. It’s a horror story about being watched, and becoming the watcher yourself.
It’s Ryan Murphy doing what he’s always done: Showing us something we shouldn’t want to watch — and making sure we can’t look away anyway.
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Featured image credit: Netflix
