Deranged: The Confessions of a Necrophile (1974)
Directed by: Alan Ormsby, Jeff Gillen
Written by: Alan Ormsby
Starring: Cosette Lee, Leslie Carlson, Roberts Blossom
DERANGED: THE CONFESSIONS OF A NECROPHILE (1974)
Directed by Jeff Gillen and Alan Ormsby
Inspired by the true story of serial killer Ed Gein, Deranged acts as a reconstruction of Gein’s spiral into grave robbing, corpse skinning and murder. From what I can tell, this is almost a faithful telling of the much-adapted tale, with people’s names and places changed, as well as a few new ideas added into the mix.
Occasionally narrated by both an on-screen and off-screen reporter, Deranged follows the life of farmer’s son, Ezra Cobb, who’s entire life has been dedicated to his parents. With his father deceased and mother paralised from the waist down due to a stroke, Ezra dutifully serves his religious mother. Cooking, cleaning, bathing… Ezra adores his mother and doesn’t appear to have a life outside the four walls of their farmhouse. When his mother passes away, Ezra has trouble coming to terms with her death, and hearing her speak to him in his head, he brings his mum ‘back home’, by digging up her body. However, he doesn’t stop there. With Mrs Cobb resembling more of a skeleton than her once full-faced self, Ezra begins to ‘restore’ her back to her former glory and bring her some friends to ‘chat’ to too, not all of whom are dead when he finds them!
The way in which Deranged unfolds is quite human and that’s thanks to the tremendous performance by Roberts Blossom, who portrays this tragic character who’s socially and mentally inept. The only word that matters is his mother’s and her words begin to both comfort and haunt him as he goes on his way to dig up remains and lure in live flesh. Living such a sheltered life with mother leads to insecurities in life, one’s that are appeased by dressing in the skin of a woman or being as close to women and his mother as he possibly can be. As you’re reading this, Hitchcock’s Psycho should spring to mind, as do many other films, though it is Deranged that tells a more realistic tale of what happened, rather than Psycho or Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Deranged is a slow moving film, one that requires patience, and whilst I can imagine it being terrifying at the time, it isn’t quite as shocking as it would have once been. However, there are many a creepy scene involving scooping eyeballs out of sockets and scalping, complete with exposed brains, thanks to FX legend Tom Savini who works his magic on this, his second film. Savini also introduces the movie on this new release by Arrow Video.
Arrow Video have created a wonderful high definition transfer for the Blu-Ray of the film, which will be presented along with a standard definition DVD version for its dual format release. The Blu-Ray includes many featurettes discussing the film, star Roberts Blossom, the real life killer Ed Gein and the making of the film, as well as the original trailer and stills gallery. Reversible sleeve art is included, featuring the original artwork and newly commissioned artwork by Nathanael Marsh.
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