Julie Spry

I have just finished watching Monster and I have to say Hannans performance in playing Ed Gein was amazing. Initially, I was unsure about watching it as I tend to get bored with lots of episodes. However, this get me gripped right through. Monster really depicts the impact of a dysfunctional childhood and Eds childhood certainly was abnormal. His parents were abusive abd his mother Augusta had an extremely warped religious view of the world. Ed was stopped from socialising with others as a child and in his teens blocked from having a normal experience of his own sexual identity. He witnessed so much abnormal behaviour in his environment too. It it later on that Ed gets to understand the extent of his crimes and whilst in a mental institution, he learns that he is schizophrenic. Hannan plays this part as well and he brings out the extent of Eds illness so we'll. I cried on a few occasions through the series on what Ed had gone through in his early childhood and youth. I studied abnormal psychology whist doing my degree and it took me back to this abd indeed the importance of family social norms in child development. Absolutely shocking, gruesome and chilling events in this too