Deranged
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
The ninth punch on the Thursday Thread-Up card was a psychological horror flick from American International Pictures that premiered fifty years ago.
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
The ninth punch on the Thursday Thread-Up card was a psychological horror flick from American International Pictures that premiered fifty years ago.
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| Show banner designed by Andrew Kern |
Deranged is a fictional story that is loosely based on the life and crimes of "The Butcher of Plainfield" Ed Gein. The movie doesn't mention Gein, but it presents its killer, "The Butcher of Woodside" Ezra Cobb, as a real person who existed and committed the crimes that you're about to see on the screen. Ed Gein was also said to be the inspiration for Norman Bates, as well as the killers in a horror classic that was released six months after Deranged, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The movie was shot as a reenactment documentary, sort of like the segments a show like Unsolved Mysteries where actors perform events that took place. It begins with newspaper columnist Tom Simms (played by Les Carlson) speaking directly to the audience about the crimes of Ezra Cobb and explaining that the movie that you're about to see is a recreation of those crimes which leaves nothing to the imagination. The Tom Simms character pops up throughout the film as a narrator that is unseen by the other characters, much like Rod Serling's segments walking though the set at the start of The Twilight Zone.
The film then introduces us to Ezra Cobb, and I immediately had a Rocky The Flying Squirrel moment: "Where have I heard that voice before?"
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| Roberts Blossom as Ezra Cobb in Deranged (left) and Marley in Home Alone (right) |
Ezra Cobb is played by actor Roberts Blossom. His name didn't ring a bell for me, but it didn't take me too long to remember where I recognized his distinctive voice from. Sixteen years after Deranged premiered in theaters, Mr. Blossom played Kevin McCallister's next door neighbor, Marley, in the holiday classic Home Alone.
As soon as I recognized his voice, I remembered the story that Kevin's brother Buzz tells him about Old Man Marley at the start of Home Alone when they see him salting the sidewalks from their bedroom window. According to Buzz, their neighbor is a serial killer known as The South Bend Shover Slayer who killed his family and half of the people on his block back in 1958, and has been hiding out in their neighborhood ever since.
Obviously the Marley character was not a killer, but if you ever want to have a bizarre double feature that will make you feel like Buzz may have been onto something, play Deranged and Home Alone back to back.
Deranged is an odd film because it makes you feel bad for just about everyone that you see including the killer. The Ezra Cobb character isn't likeable in the slightest, but he's played in a way that makes it crystal clear that he doesn't understand that what he is doing is wrong. Mr. Blossom's performance of a mentally ill middle-aged man who spirals out of control is brilliant, and it's frightening for how realistic it feels. It left me feeling that if a person like this was given access to support services, he probably would have been harmless, but left on his own with no such support, it doesn't take long for things to turn bad very quickly. This isn't a movie for everyone, but if you're a fan of horror or true crime, I highly recommend it.
