The Monster: The Ed Gein Story Scene That 'Excited And Terrified' Creator Ryan Murphy

After 12 seasons of "American Horror Story" and numerous other horror-adjacent projects, you'd think it would take a lot to unnerve producer Ryan Murphy. Even so, the TV mastermind isn't above being shaken by his own creations — and if there's one show that has all the requisite ingredients to put fear in just about anyone's heart, it's Netflix's "Monster: The Ed Gein Story." 

Based on the all-too-real story of Ed Gein, the third season of the "Monster" anthology series features the borderline unrecognizable "Sons of Anarchy" star Charlie Hunnam as the titular body snatcher and serial killer. The show doesn't skimp on Gein's gruesome deeds and sexual attraction to dead bodies, and the latter is precisely what fascinated and scared Murphy so. 

"I was at once excited and terrified by the challenge of depicting necrophilia on our show," the creator told The Los Angeles Times. "I'm fairly certain it's never been done before on TV, and I knew it ran the risk of seeming arbitrarily shocking or exploitative." Given that these events occurred in real life, Murphy felt that ignoring such harrowing moments would be even worse. That didn't make him any less anxious though, adding, "Needless to say, even after I'd written the scene, it preoccupied me, as I had to also direct it." 

The scene Murphy is referring to takes place in the uncomfortable fifth episode of "The Ed Gein Story," titled "Ice." Here, Gein gives in to Adeline Watkins' (Suzanna Son) encouragement to satisfy his primal desires, and imagines his dead partner is Nazi war criminal Ilse Koch (Vicky Krieps). Understandably, this was a tricky scene to shoot, but Murphy had plenty of dedicated help at his disposal.

"I felt greatly helped by the new industry standard of intimacy coordinators on set — and ours, Katie Groves, was spectacular — but still I worried about the scene just playing as cringey or unwatchable," Murphy said in the interview. "But Charlie Hunnam, as with every scene he acted in on the show, came at the sequence with honesty and deep concern to capture all of the strangeness of the bizarre, disturbing act we were depicting — and what it said about what was going on inside Ed to lead him to commit such an act."

Intimacy coordinators on shows like "Outlander" have become the norm in the business in recent years, and for a project such as this, having one on board was  a necessity. As Charlie Hunnam grappled with retelling Gein's story, offering him and Krieps all the backup they needed for one of the show's most uncomfortable scenes was no doubt welcome.