Were Psycho and Norman Bates really based on Ed Gein?

The latest season of Netflix's true crime anthology, Monster, tells a shocking real-life story that the streaming service says was the basis for a number of classic horror movies.

All episodes of The Ed Gein Story are now streaming from today (October 3). Netflix claims it is the "most harrowing installment yet."

The streaming service's synopsis goes on to say that the eight-part series "tells the story of how one simple man in Plainfield, Wisconsin, became history's most singular ghoul. He revealed to the world the most horrific truth of all - that monsters aren't born, they're made... by us."

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Gein was known to kill at least two women - a hardware store owner and a tavern keeper. However, it is the gruesome items discovered in his home that led to his infamy.

Police found items made from human skin and body parts, including skulls fashioned into bowls. They also found the head and decapitated body of his victims. He is also said to have a suit made of skin to resemble his mother.

The shocking crimes are said to have inspired a number of horror movies, including The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Another classic reportedly inspired by Gein is the novel and adaptation of Psycho, and its character Norman Bates.

In the story of Psycho, Bates has a similar relationship with his mother that Gein had in real life. Following the death of Augusta Gein, her son boarded up rooms she used, kept them preserved, and installed a shrine to her.

The Netflix series leans heavily on this aspect of Gein's life. It also suggests this was a direct influence on the story and film of Psycho, suggesting that Bates was basically a depiction of Gein.

It even has director Alfred Hitchcock and author Robert Bloch as characters discussing Gein's crimes as if they are Psycho's plot points. Hitchcock is seen showing actor Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates, a recreation of Geins' home, despite the fact the film was set in a motel.

The 1960 classic sees a secretary on the run after stealing a huge amount of money from her employer. She spends the night at Bates Motel. Owner, Norman Bates seems to have an unusual relationship with his mother as well as a strange interest in taxidermy.

The film was an adaptation of Bloch's novel, which had been published in 1959. Bloch lived 35 miles away from the location where Gein was arrested.

A post on Bloch's official website includes a transcript of an interview conducted with the author. The conversation took place during the World Horror Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1991.

Bloch was asked directly about his influences. The interviewer recollects that, while the question about the infamous killer might have been predictable for the writer, Bloch offered a definitive answer.

Bloch responded: "I didn’t know anything about those aspects (Gein's case) when I wrote Psycho. I did not use Ed Gein as a basis for Norman Bates at all; I used the circumstances, which were: somebody could live in a small town, where everybody knows everybody else’s business, and conduct a series of murders without anyone suspecting."

He continued: "When you get right down to it, Ed Gein did not run a motel. He killed nobody in the shower. He did not preserve the body of his mother. None of those things were part of Mr. Gein’s background.

"I invented a character at the time which, not having read the details, which were not being printed initially or immediately, because they were very prudish in most cases... I would not have used it even if it had been available, because it didn’t meet with my particular plot requirements."

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is streaming on Netflix while Psycho is streaming on Sky Cinema and NOW.