I came across Deranged while perusing the streamer sites one day a while back. Touted as “a story guaranteed to make you squirm” it instantly caught my attention. I figured, what do I have to lose and added it to my queue. Fast forward a few months and I had completely forgotten about it. So here we are. I went into this blind, not knowing much beyond the synopsis on Tubi. Now usually when a film makes those kinds of claims it rarely tends to live up to the hype. But honestly, I ended up enjoying this one.
Just like Texas Chainsaw Massacre this film was loosely based on the crimes of Ed Gein. They do differ though. The duo of Gillen and Ormsby kept their story a little closer to the truth and Deranged ended up beating Tobie Hooper to the box office by 7 months.
The film opens up with an ominous title card reading “The motion picture you are about to see is absolutely true. Only the names and locations have been changed.” Fading into a news reporter by the name of Tom Simms who is supposedly recounting the story of Ezra Cobb (Robert Blossom). A middle-aged man on a rural Midwestern farm. Raised by a religious zealot of a mother and groomed to be a misogynist. Completely afraid of women, aside from her, of course.
Ezra is caring for a mother on the brink of death. With her last breath she tells him to contact her friend Maureen Selby. Upon her death, Ezra withdraws and slowly slips into insanity. A year later he experiences auditory hallucinations compelling him to dig up his mother. So he does and brings her back home. The next few months are spent digging up other bodies to salvage parts for upkeep and to keep mother company. It doesn’t stop there though. This starts an avalanche that eventually leads to murder. Nobody suspects quiet old Ezra…yet.
One too many kills close to home and all evidence leads to Ezra’s farm. There they find him laughing at the dinner table, surrounded by well dressed corpses and a fresh body hung up in the barn, ready to be skinned. Then our reporter chimes in again stating “A few days later a group of townspeople, under the cover of night, burned the Cobb farm to the ground.”
Although it takes a few liberties, this flick follows pretty close to the actual story of The Butcher of Plainfield himself. Right down to the two murders Gein confessed to. The only difference being the film depicting a clerk at the hardware store being killed and not the owner. They even borrow set design from actual crime scene photos. Instruments and home décor fashioned from human skin. This would probably be the closest true crime reenactment of the time.
The gore was kept to a minimum. Probably due to the fact that they tried to maintain an “R” rating. Still it’s pretty tame by 70’s horror standards. But there are some extended scenes you can find online and on a German 30th Anniversary Collector’s Edition release if you want to dive deeper.
Blossom’s nuanced performance is what sealed it for me. He lent a believability to the character, garnering sympathy for a man who led a sheltered life. Left to the wolves with the death of his mother. Not having any knowledge of how the world works. Quite convincing if you ask me.
Deranged definitely qualifies as horror albeit true crime horror. It shows what utter ghouls people can become when led down the wrong path. Nature vs. nurture and all. As strange as it sounds, I’ve always had a morbid curiosity when it comes to serial killers. I guess it’s wanting to know what you fear. I’ve always wondered how many times I may have passed one on the city street. Not knowing how close I was to a real monster. Well now, that’s something to think about.
Thanks to earlier me for throwing this on in my queue. I enjoyed it and more than likely, it will end up in my regular rotation. If you want to experience it for yourself, I recommend you track it down. It’s currently streaming on Tubi as of this writing.
3 out of 5
So grab your popcorn, kill the lights and join me again tomorrow as we continue our journey on this strange little trip down the 31 Days of Horror rabbit hole. See you soon…
