Production designer Matthew Flood Ferguson says his work on Netflix’s “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” started with a childhood memory of “Night of the Living Dead” — and an effort to turn that hollow, scary feeling into real set materials, scale, tone, and textur
When you’re making a horror story, the jump-scare isn’t the only threat. Sometimes it’s the quiet details: the way a space feels when it first appears, the picture you notice because it seems wrong, the way the light and the space conspire to make your skin tighten.
Matthew Flood Ferguson knows that. During IndieWire’s Craft Roundtables, the production designer looked back at what stuck with him most — including a moment from age 11 that he still remembers down to the horizon line.
“I remember when I was 11 years old, I saw ‘Night of the Living Dead,’” Flood Ferguson said. “And most of the film takes place in a dilapidated farmhouse. The first time you see [the farmhouse]. you see it from afar and there’s a horizon line and the house sort of rises up like a tombstone. It had this very hollow, scary feeling.”.
That memory became a kind of blueprint when he was asked to shape the look and mood of Netflix’s latest entry in Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s anthology series built around history’s most horrifying real people. The project stars Charlie Hunnam as a man so sick he helped inspire a roster of classic horror films. including “Psycho. ” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. ” and “The Silence of the Lambs.”.
Flood Ferguson said that when he got the call for “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” he didn’t just reach for research and Ed Gein’s house. He also went back to the feeling he described from that first distant view of the farmhouse.
“When I got the call to do [‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’]. obviously I thought of research and Ed Gein and his house. but I remembered that moment and I remembered how I felt. So then I think. OK. [how do I] take that feeling and turn it into materials. turn it into wallpaper. space. scale. wood. tone. and try to hopefully evoke that same feeling to the viewer and to the actors?”.
To him, fear isn’t just something you build with one big moment. It’s the cumulative effect — wallpaper and wood and scale, all tuned toward the same emotional target.
This conversation is presented in partnership with Netflix.
IndieWire’s TV Craft Roundtables is now streaming on @PBSSoCal and the PBS App as well as IndieWire.com and our social channels.
Matthew Flood Ferguson Monster: The Ed Gein Story Ed Gein Netflix Ryan Murphy Ian Brennan Charlie Hunnam production designer Night of the Living Dead horror craft
Wait so they just used a childhood movie as set design?? Sounds like a stretch.
I don’t even know who Ed Gein is but if Netflix is making it scary it’s probably just gonna be jump scares nonstop. Like the article says “wallpaper and wood” but I’m sure it’s still chaotic.
So he’s saying fear comes from like… a horizon line? That’s not how fear works lol. I think what people should be scared of is Netflix greenlighting this stuff in the first place. Also “Psycho” and “Silence of the Lambs” are way different.
As soon as I read “Ed Gein house” I already hated the idea. Then it’s all “turn that hollow feeling into real set materials” like ok sure… meanwhile I’m wondering if they’re copying the actual house or just making it look the same? The quote about age 11 and “Night of the Living Dead” is kinda random too, but I guess they needed a vibe. Still sounds a bit like marketing words.