This is partly inspired by the real life murderer Ed Gein. Ezra is a middle aged momma's boy. He's also a pet moron.Mommy is a raving twisty herself as she is a zealot and always preaching about "dirty women"(finest kind).So when mom drops dead old Ez starts to get lonely.

Well Ezra starts hearing mom's voice after a year. She's lonely & so is he. He digs her up and brings her back home where everybody is happy.His neighbors try and set him up with a woman.This is a really funny scene as his date tries to seduce him. She's kind of crazy herself and tells Ez that her dead husband wants them to play beneath the sheets. Well, she winds up under the sheets permanently.

Ez starts digging up the graveyard and bringing mom some company.He also starts semi stalking a waitress.Finally he sandbags her, brings her back to his place and it gets wild from there.She finds herself trussed to a chair with a table full of rotting corpses.Ez is dressed in the skin of a dead woman.There is no way out of this house of hell.

Ez really goes off the deep end on a trip to town. It involves a rifle, a young girl and a harrowing chase through the woods.This is another gripping scene that spirals into complete madness.

There are a few drawbacks. This movie could have done without the narrator.When he popped up it seemed like we were in a different movie.Old Ezra is the most sympathetic person in the movie.Everyone else is cruel, stupid or as nutty as he is.

On the upside Roberts Blossom gives a great portrayal of Ezra. You feel for Ezra and can really understand his madness.There are many shocking and disturbing scenes in this movie. But it uses suggestion rather than out and out gore.It looks rather tame compared to slasher flicks but that's why this is better. I had to wait 25 years to see this film and all in all it was worth the wait.

If you can stomach the plot of this movie, then I think that it's fair to say that you will like it. The bloodshed is kept to a minimum (considering the subject matter), but the film should still probably be avoided if you are squeamish or easily offended. However, for people like me who can enjoy a warped sense of humour and don't mind a little gore, it's a pleasant way to spend some time.

• Deranged is a Ed Gein type story - a man takes care of his elderly mother and knows nothing else. After her death, he discovers he can't get on without her so he decides to dig her up and bring her home. She's been in the ground for over a year so she needs some work. In a matter of time, the graverobber discovers that fresh, living tissue will work better on Mama than dead tissue.

• I really enjoy it when I stumble across a film that I've somehow missed over the years. I finally picked-up the Motel Hell / Deranged disc from MGM. The reason was Motel Hell, not having heard much about Deranged. Discovering Deranged on the flip side of the disc was like finding money under a couch cushion - a very nice surprise. It's got most everything one could ask for in a horror movie - twisted characters, flowing blood, a familiar but compelling story, and dead bodies everywhere. But the thing that most impressed me was the acting. Roberts Blossom gives an outstanding performance as Ezra Cobb. There are actually moments when you forget you're watching an actor and really believe what the character is doing. Blossom did that for me. It was as if I was watching a real person. Mannerisms, facial expressions, voice, look, and actions seem absolutely real.

• Even though the MGM disc is cut, I still found many of the scenes very violent. I thought the waitress' death was brutal until I saw what Ezra had in store for the hardware clerk. It's not for the squeamish and not something you see in movies made today. It's raw and brutal. There's "real" violence without a happy ending. The movie is not, however, without a touch or two of comedy that work on some level. The best of these scenes is the contact with the spirit world scene. I actually laughed out loud.

• If you can find the Motel Hell / Deranged MGM disc, I would highly recommend it.