Ezra Cobb has been taking care of his bed-ridden, domineering mother all his life and has been listening to her hateful rants against evil women and diseased sluts for about as long. When the nasty old cow finally dies, Ezra - in his own quiet way - finally loses it. He digs up her corpse and brings it back home, placing it back in bed and carrying on as though nothing has happened. But as Mother continues to rot and decay, Ez realizes that he must replace her skin. And so she won't get lonely, he brings home the corpses of recently deceased matrons to keep her company. Ez becomes quite adept at making skin masks and other nifty trinkets out of dead flesh and bone. But alas, grave robbing isn't enough for Ezra after a while. Soon, he's kidnapping and murdering live women. But nobody suspects the dumb and seemingly harmless Ezra who was once so devoted to his sick mother...at least, that is, until a young local girl goes missing and the trail leads right to Ez's house.
"Deranged" is based, obviously, on the true case of Ed Gein, and actually sticks pretty close to the facts. Roberts Blossom as Ezra is truly creepy with his Elmer Fudd appearance and wardrobe and his wide, freaky eyes. He's also rather pathetic, and even though he's committing some of the most reprehensible acts known to man, you can't help but feel terribly sorry for him. Micki Moore as Mary is also really good in her role of the promiscuous waitress that Ezra brings home to be his wife. She's cool and level headed, a rarity in a 70s horror movie. Some of the sets are cheap looking and some of the cast can't act, and the whole film suffers from a dreadful soundtrack featuring the world's most depressing funeral home organ, but it's not a bad little film, really. It's not something I'd watch over and over again,but I'm not sorry I sat down to watch it.
"Deranged" is based, obviously, on the true case of Ed Gein, and actually sticks pretty close to the facts. Roberts Blossom as Ezra is truly creepy with his Elmer Fudd appearance and wardrobe and his wide, freaky eyes. He's also rather pathetic, and even though he's committing some of the most reprehensible acts known to man, you can't help but feel terribly sorry for him. Micki Moore as Mary is also really good in her role of the promiscuous waitress that Ezra brings home to be his wife. She's cool and level headed, a rarity in a 70s horror movie. Some of the sets are cheap looking and some of the cast can't act, and the whole film suffers from a dreadful soundtrack featuring the world's most depressing funeral home organ, but it's not a bad little film, really. It's not something I'd watch over and over again,but I'm not sorry I sat down to watch it.