Starting in July 25, 1991, notorious serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters) is arrested when Dahmer's potential victim Tracy Edwards (Shaun J. Brown) miraculously escapes and brings the police back to his apartment. Dahmer is arrested after uncovering the various horrors and mementos from Dahmer's murders, we soon go back through Dahmer's past to see what lead him to this point before eventually shifting focus to the stories of the victims, the fallout felt by the community and victims' families, as well as the bureaucratic and law enforcement failures that allowed Dahmer to continue indulging his twisted appetites.
Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is the latest project from noted producer Ryan Murphy whose prolific work on the likes of American Horror and Crime Story lead to him getting an overall deal with streamer Netflix. Beginning development in 2020, the miniseries is the fourth dramatic take on the infamous serial killer following three independent productions, 1992's The Secret Life, 2002's Dahmer, and 2017's My Friend Dahmer receiving very degrees of responses with My Friend Dahmer arguably the best of the three. When the miniseries was first announced I was skeptical because I didn't think there was any more to be told about Dahmer than we'd already learned from years of rubbernecking let alone three film attempts, but much to my surprise I found this miniseries to not only exceed my expectations, but shattered them as Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is one of the year's best TV shows and if you end up seeing only one Dahmer related piece of media in your life, make it this one.
While the show may be titled after serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, he's only half of what this movie is about. While the first 3 or four episodes dive extensively into Dahmer's childhood from age six where he first began to manifest his macabre interest in dead animals and dissecting them through his teens and 20s where we see the effects of Dahmer's unstable homelife, repressed homosexuality, and darkening appetites, the movie places more focus on the lead-up to Dahmer's actions as well as the fallout that came after the horrifying revelations came to light (and not just with Dahmer himself). Intermixed with the scenes of Dahmer socially engineering his victims, struggling with keeping his compulsions in check, or failure to maintain professional and personal relationships, we're shown a series of failures either through incompetence, apathy, distraction or neglect that disregard the obvious warning signs surrounding Dahmer as he deals with barely concealed issues that are missed by parents, educators, law enforcement, or administrative officials with those who actually try to shine a light on Dahmer's actions ignored at best or punished or threatened with punishment at worst. This is a show that despite being set in the early 90s is no less prescient today with issues such as systemic racism and homophobia still very much allowing inaction or harm to victims, and an award ceremony scene where two police officers are rewarded for simply avoiding responsibility for handing a child over to Dahmer will make your blood boil with how little has changed in regards to the "blue wall of silence" and the corruption of police unions in keeping unfit officers out of the profession.
The acting is solid across the board. Evan Peters is really good is the titular Dahmer as he captures the tragedy of his situation in the early years, but Peters and the creative team don't try to use this as an excuse or easy answer (an epilogue says as much there's no simple answer) and Dahmer's metamorphosis from struggling confused adolescent to cold calculating opportunistic predator who justifies his actions with a false victimhood complex makes it clear that Dahmer's actions have no "out" from his responsibility for them. The movie is an ensemble and features a number of characters either recurring or one off who are integral to the plot. Easily my favorite comes in the form of deaf actor Rodney Burford who plays Dahmer's victim Tony Hughes and the entire episode is anchored to the POV of this character with characters using ASL to communicate, muffling the audio to create verisimilitude, and you feel like you get to know Hughes in a way we've never been allowed to see before. Make no mistake, this is a starmaking performance from Burford so expect to see much more of him in the future, I guarantee it. The show also features terrific performances from arguably the two "cores" of this movie, Niecy Nash as Dahmer's neighbor and until now unsung hero of this story Glenda Cleveland, and veteran character actor Richard Jenkins as Dahmer's torn and conflicted father Lionel.
With Nash's Glenda, we get the feeling of powerlessness and helplessness from the people on the ground affected by Dahmer's actions as noted in the movie that Dahmer lived in a cheap rundown part of Milwaukee and targeted mostly people of color as his victims. While Glenda reports the awful smells coming from Dahmer's apartment to the landlord as well as sounds of screening of fighting to the police, not only is she often ignored, but is shouted down by the police such as the infamous incident wherein officers John balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish took Dahmer's word that 14 year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone was actually his drunk 19 year old boyfriend instead of his victim who'd been given an amateur lobotomy by Dahmer instead of an escaped victim despite Glenda's pleas. The movie isn't excessively gory as the gore is limited to only plot important scenes, but just because it's not as bloody as Saw or Hostel doesn't make it easier to watch and in some cases it's actually harder. Richard Jenkins is really strong as Dahmer's father Lionel and the different points of the story that portray him as wanting to help his son but not knowing how are heartbreaking because you see in Lionel the confusion and discomfort that make him unable to give Dahmer the help he needs because he very much denies there even is a problem and tries to write it off as something that can be cured with tough love or firm guidance. There isn't any singular point of blame you can link to Dahmer (as the show isn't about "understanding Dahmer"), but the show does give us some potential issues such as a mentally unstable mother, a distant father, and internalized feelings of abandonment, but even then these aren't frame as excuses. The show stays good even after the actual crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer are over and done with by the halfway point, as the show shifts focus away from Dahmer and looks at the media fallout, the insane fandom surrounding Dahmer, the exploitation of tabloids and indie comics that trivialize Dahmer and his victims, and to watch these victims and their families be at the mercy of harassing phone calls and invasive pictures by rubbernecking tourists is painful to watch.
If I haven't made it clear, Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is one of the best TV projects I've seen this year and I can't recommend it enough. My one point of criticism is I felt certain tangents related to Ed Gein and John Wayne Gacy seemed a little out of place and I wasn't sure why they were presented the way they were with such polished detailed flashbacks, but other than that one misstep I really think everyone should see this show.
Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is the latest project from noted producer Ryan Murphy whose prolific work on the likes of American Horror and Crime Story lead to him getting an overall deal with streamer Netflix. Beginning development in 2020, the miniseries is the fourth dramatic take on the infamous serial killer following three independent productions, 1992's The Secret Life, 2002's Dahmer, and 2017's My Friend Dahmer receiving very degrees of responses with My Friend Dahmer arguably the best of the three. When the miniseries was first announced I was skeptical because I didn't think there was any more to be told about Dahmer than we'd already learned from years of rubbernecking let alone three film attempts, but much to my surprise I found this miniseries to not only exceed my expectations, but shattered them as Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is one of the year's best TV shows and if you end up seeing only one Dahmer related piece of media in your life, make it this one.
While the show may be titled after serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, he's only half of what this movie is about. While the first 3 or four episodes dive extensively into Dahmer's childhood from age six where he first began to manifest his macabre interest in dead animals and dissecting them through his teens and 20s where we see the effects of Dahmer's unstable homelife, repressed homosexuality, and darkening appetites, the movie places more focus on the lead-up to Dahmer's actions as well as the fallout that came after the horrifying revelations came to light (and not just with Dahmer himself). Intermixed with the scenes of Dahmer socially engineering his victims, struggling with keeping his compulsions in check, or failure to maintain professional and personal relationships, we're shown a series of failures either through incompetence, apathy, distraction or neglect that disregard the obvious warning signs surrounding Dahmer as he deals with barely concealed issues that are missed by parents, educators, law enforcement, or administrative officials with those who actually try to shine a light on Dahmer's actions ignored at best or punished or threatened with punishment at worst. This is a show that despite being set in the early 90s is no less prescient today with issues such as systemic racism and homophobia still very much allowing inaction or harm to victims, and an award ceremony scene where two police officers are rewarded for simply avoiding responsibility for handing a child over to Dahmer will make your blood boil with how little has changed in regards to the "blue wall of silence" and the corruption of police unions in keeping unfit officers out of the profession.
The acting is solid across the board. Evan Peters is really good is the titular Dahmer as he captures the tragedy of his situation in the early years, but Peters and the creative team don't try to use this as an excuse or easy answer (an epilogue says as much there's no simple answer) and Dahmer's metamorphosis from struggling confused adolescent to cold calculating opportunistic predator who justifies his actions with a false victimhood complex makes it clear that Dahmer's actions have no "out" from his responsibility for them. The movie is an ensemble and features a number of characters either recurring or one off who are integral to the plot. Easily my favorite comes in the form of deaf actor Rodney Burford who plays Dahmer's victim Tony Hughes and the entire episode is anchored to the POV of this character with characters using ASL to communicate, muffling the audio to create verisimilitude, and you feel like you get to know Hughes in a way we've never been allowed to see before. Make no mistake, this is a starmaking performance from Burford so expect to see much more of him in the future, I guarantee it. The show also features terrific performances from arguably the two "cores" of this movie, Niecy Nash as Dahmer's neighbor and until now unsung hero of this story Glenda Cleveland, and veteran character actor Richard Jenkins as Dahmer's torn and conflicted father Lionel.
With Nash's Glenda, we get the feeling of powerlessness and helplessness from the people on the ground affected by Dahmer's actions as noted in the movie that Dahmer lived in a cheap rundown part of Milwaukee and targeted mostly people of color as his victims. While Glenda reports the awful smells coming from Dahmer's apartment to the landlord as well as sounds of screening of fighting to the police, not only is she often ignored, but is shouted down by the police such as the infamous incident wherein officers John balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish took Dahmer's word that 14 year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone was actually his drunk 19 year old boyfriend instead of his victim who'd been given an amateur lobotomy by Dahmer instead of an escaped victim despite Glenda's pleas. The movie isn't excessively gory as the gore is limited to only plot important scenes, but just because it's not as bloody as Saw or Hostel doesn't make it easier to watch and in some cases it's actually harder. Richard Jenkins is really strong as Dahmer's father Lionel and the different points of the story that portray him as wanting to help his son but not knowing how are heartbreaking because you see in Lionel the confusion and discomfort that make him unable to give Dahmer the help he needs because he very much denies there even is a problem and tries to write it off as something that can be cured with tough love or firm guidance. There isn't any singular point of blame you can link to Dahmer (as the show isn't about "understanding Dahmer"), but the show does give us some potential issues such as a mentally unstable mother, a distant father, and internalized feelings of abandonment, but even then these aren't frame as excuses. The show stays good even after the actual crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer are over and done with by the halfway point, as the show shifts focus away from Dahmer and looks at the media fallout, the insane fandom surrounding Dahmer, the exploitation of tabloids and indie comics that trivialize Dahmer and his victims, and to watch these victims and their families be at the mercy of harassing phone calls and invasive pictures by rubbernecking tourists is painful to watch.
If I haven't made it clear, Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is one of the best TV projects I've seen this year and I can't recommend it enough. My one point of criticism is I felt certain tangents related to Ed Gein and John Wayne Gacy seemed a little out of place and I wasn't sure why they were presented the way they were with such polished detailed flashbacks, but other than that one misstep I really think everyone should see this show.