Its plot, loosely based on the crimes of Ed Gein, follows Ezra Cobb, a middle-aged man in a rural Midwestern community who begins a string of serial murders and grave robberies after the death of his mother, a religious fanatic who raised him to be a misogynist.

Funded by an American concert promoter on a small budget, the production took place in Oshawa, Ontario in the winter of 1973, with a largely Canadian cast and crew.

[2] Middle-aged Ezra Cobb helps operate a farm in the rural Midwest with his elderly mother, Amanda, a religious fanatic who has indoctrinated him since childhood to abhor women.

He arrives at her grave one night and digs up her decomposed body, returning it to his home where he cobbles it together using discarded fish skin and wax.

In the house, she finds Ezra in a bedroom surrounded by the corpses of his mother and others, his face obscured with a mask made of human flesh.

She manages to smash a bottle over his head, but he beats her to death with a human femur bone after she enrages him by flinging his mother's corpse at him, damaging it.

Harlon's teenage son, Brad, arrives with his girlfriend, Sally Mae, who immediately catches Ezra's interest.

The picture freezes on this shot and a voice-over by Leslie Carlson states that "A few days later a group of townspeople, reportedly led by Harlan Kootz, under cover of night, burned the Cobb farm... to the ground.

[1] Producer Tom Karr, who had been fascinated with Ed Gein for many years, funded the film himself with income he had earned as a concert promoter for Led Zeppelin and Three Dog Night.

[1] In 1994, to celebrate its 20th anniversary, producer Tom Karr released the film on VHS through an independent distributor, Moore Video, based out of Virginia.

Its performances are surprisingly vivid and realistic, its script is smart and subtly funny, its gore is stomach-churning, and its suspense scenes are genuinely nerve-jangling.

"[11] Robert Vaughn from Diabolique Magazine praised the film for its dark sense of humor, creepy moments, and Blossom’s performance.

The film suffers from rough edges, the main problems being inconsistent pacing and a stilted framing device involving an investigative reporter, but remains compelling because it adds some perceptive social satire into the mix.