‘Monster’s’ Tobias Jelinek Reveals Dark Connection Between Serial Killer Drama and His First Film, ‘Hocus Pocus’ (Exclusive)

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is a harrowing true crime series about the titular serial killer and the other criminals (real and fictional) he inspired. Hocus Pocus is a Disney movie about teens who accidentally resurrect a trio of witches. Tobias Jelinek, who appeared in both, links the two together — but he tells PEOPLE he thinks there’s a deeper connection, too.

Jelinek, 48, plays Richard Speck, a.k.a. the Birdman, in Monster. His very first role, when he was 15 years old, was in 1993’s Hocus Pocus as Jay, a teenage bully and best friend of Larry Bagby’s Ice. 

“I wasn’t very familiar with Richard Speck before auditioning,” Jelinek tells PEOPLE. When he first read the script, he did a bit of research but tried to rely only on the script. “I went straight to imagination before going too much into everything he did, because that can get dark real quick. It was more exploring the world and how he related to Ed Gein,” he explains.

After he landed the part — which had him filming in the real Stateville prison — he dove deeper into the life of Speck, who is less well-known now, but was notorious at the time of his 1966 murder of eight nursing students.

Jelinek says that the series, created and written by Ian Brennan, was about sparking conversations. He notes that in real life, Speck and Gein (played by Charlie Hunnam) didn’t really exchange letters, “but you see how much it lends itself to pushing the narrative forward and the conversation. That’s what I like, I love that it stimulates conversation.”

The series also links Gein — who confessed to killing two women, robbing countless graves and making items of the body parts of his victims — to both the sensation about true crime stories and to many horror films that featured over-the-top killers. 

But Jelinek would go even further. “To draw a strange parallel, I feel even my first film ever, I feel Hocus Pocus very much participates in that conversation,” he says. “I do think the Salem Witch Hunt reminds me of Ed Gein and this fascination of these darker aspects of humanity.”

In Hocus Pocus, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy star as the Sanderson sisters, who are originally condemned to death in Salem in 1693 after they drain the life force from Emily Binx (Amanda Shepherd). They then return to present day Salem on Halloween after they’re accidentally resurrected by Max Dennison (Omri Katz). 

During the “hysteria” of the Salem Witch Trials, though people were condemning the so-called witches, they were also “drawn to the horrific possibilities of what we can do as people,” just like people are now with serial killers, the actor says.

Jelinek has also enjoyed the kismet of Monster releasing on Netflix on Oct. 3, since “this is a very popular time for Hocus Pocus.” He’s been amazed by the support he’s received from Hocus Pocus fans, but he sees the common DNA.

“[Producer] Mick Harris and [writer] David Kirshner, they were horror filmmakers, and that’s how Hocus Pocus began,” he explains. The working title was Disney’s Halloween House and it was darker and scarier than the final film. 

Jelinek says that darker tone “sneaks in” to Hocus Pocus. “I think it’s why people who grew up with it are able to continue watching it as adults. These witches are taking the lives of children, they’re capturing teenagers, putting them in cages. We’re taking the limbs of dead people,” he says. “It sounds a lot like some of what we’re discussing with Ed Gein and that fascination is similar to me. I was like, ‘Oh, the fans really, they’re along for this ride as well.’ ”

But Jelinek jokes that he’s not exactly part of the horror in Hocus Pocus. He jokes, “I’m comic relief. I don’t think Jay would last long in Stateville Prison.”