141) NEW HORROR RELEASES - Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022)

"Cops, and everything. Teachers. It's like everybody's had it out for me forever." 

Creators

Ryan Murphy

Ian Brennan

Cast

Evan Peters - Jeffrey Dahmer

Richard Jenkins - Lionel Dahmer

Molly Ringwald - Shari Dahmer

Niecy Nash - Glenda Cleveland

Penelope Ann Miller - Joyce Dahmer

Khetphet Phagnasay - Southone Sinthasomphone

Rodney Burford - Tony Hughes

It feels like it's taking me days and days to write my thoughts on the current Netflix series "Dahmer."

The 10-episode series, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, premiered on the streaming service on Sept. 21. I finished watching it in mid-October. 

It centers primarily on the life of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters), one of the worst murderers and sex offenders in American history. It's thought that this guy killed 17 victims starting in 1978. Dahmer terrorized the city of Milwaukee for several years before finally getting caught by police in 1991. 

I think it's a safe assumption to say that my initial reaction upon hearing about this series matches those of so many others in the audience. How many series on this guy do we need?

And by the end of the last episode, my mind still pondered why was this made?

Though "Dahmer - Monster" is a biographical true crime drama series, I include it on my horror blog simply because Jeffrey Dahmer was a horrific person. And this series was released just in time for the Halloween season. Was that intentional? I'll assume it is. So, I'm putting it here.

A documentary is one thing. There's a lot of them about this one psychopath. I couldn't find how many movies and documentaries there are about Dahmer. I found one website, bustle.com, that lists nine movies, documentaries and T.V. shows about him "to watch ASAP."  That makes an entire 10-episode tv series seem even more unnecessary. 

MSN posted an article headlined, "10 Jeffrey Dahmer Documentaries, Movies, and Series to Watch After ‘DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’."

Both articles pretty much list the same titles - "The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer" (1993), "Jeffrey Dahmer: Mind of a Monster" (2020), "Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes" (2007), "My Friend Dahmer" (2010), "Dahmer" (2002), "The Jeffrey Dahmer Files" (2012). Or you can just watch the trial itself which is currently available on YouTube. 

This series depicts moments from Dahmer's childhood, including his relationship with his mother Joyce (Savannah Brown as young Joyce, and Penelope Ann Miller as the older version), his father, Lionel (Richard Jenkins) and also his grandmother, Lionel's mother, Catherine (Michael Learned). 

It also covers specific moments during the period his killing spree terrorized the people of Milwaukee. 

The series does include episodes that focus on other people such as his victim, Tony Hughes (Rodney Burford), his suspicious neighbor, and his father. 

The final two episodes depict Dahmer's trial, his time in prison, the fan mail he received, and his final days. 

With the large number of films and such about Dahmer already out there, I don't see this as any different from them aside from details surrounding the events of Dahmer's life and murders. While I haven't watched any of these other productions, though I have seen various episodes of true crime TV shows about Dahmer, I fail to see what sort of new insight this new series covers. In fact, I fail to see why audiences need new insight into the life and crimes this psychopath. 

Audiences certainly have a fascination with the serial killers that have terrorized societies through the decades. And the more demoralized and debased they are, the greater is audience fascination.

While Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan boast that this series strives to put the stories of Dahmer's victims and their families at the heart of the production, it primarily feels like just another Jeffrey Dahmer story... approximately 10-hours long. 

Evan Peters as serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer.

As of Oct. 27, Murphy responded to the backlash from the angry families who voiced their displeasure at the idea of producing this show. 

During an event for his series at the DGA Theater somewhere in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Reporter quotes Murphy as saying, “And we — over the course of the three, three and a half years when we were really writing it, working on it — we reached out to 20, around 20, of the victims’ families and friends trying to get input, trying to talk to people. And not a single person responded to us in that process. So, we relied very, very heavily on our incredible group of researchers who … I don’t even know how they found a lot of this stuff. But it was just like a night and day effort to us trying to uncover the truth of these people.”

There are more episodes about Dahmer than episodes about victims, their families, and Dahmer's family. Afterall, the show is called "Dahmer." 

Episode six, "Silenced," is where the series really begins to veer attention off of Dahmer. 

It's about Tony Hughes (played by Rodney Burford), a young gay black man who's aspiring to be a model and happens to be deaf. 

He meets Dahmer at the night club the murderer would frequent to pick up young men, and the two start what could have been a solid relationship. But the demons inside Dahmer take over. The episode portrays how close Tony is to his mother and family, and his friends in the gay community.

Episode seven, "Cassandra," centers on Dahmer's neighbor, Glenda Cleveland (Niecy Nash), who's a combination of multiple people personified in Glenda. Nash portrays the character's frustration and anger as she calls police multiple times to report screams and rancid smells that intrude from Dahmer's apartment into her own. The Milwaukee Police ignore calls and concern from Glenda and others in the black community about Dahmer. Glenda is later visited by Rev. Jesse Jackson (Nigel Gibbs) who inserts himself into the situation primarily because Dahmer's victims have mostly been members of the black community.

Nash plays the role incredibly well. Her story is the one I was most invested in. 

The eighth episode, "Lionel" centers on his father and the demons he faces as the crimes of his son are exposed for all the world to see. 

While the series as a whole isn't as exploitative as something like "Dahmer vs. Gacy" (2010) - yeah, that's a thing - it still offers barely anything new on this particular topic. It's another showcase of Dahmer's abhorrent crimes and sick ways that go beyond perverse.  

It could certainly be much more focused on victims and family, but then again, that's not nearly as interesting. 

This series, while well-acted, especially on the part of Even Peters, is just the same sad, horrific true story about a loathsome and maniacal individual told once again. 

A documentary is one (informative) thing. Again, how many documentaries do we need on one murderer? 

Normally a drama series with however many episodes it includes is simply a TV show that's made to entertain. "Dahmer-Monster" is no different. Each episode leaves with a cliff hanger of sorts, making it "necessary" for viewers to quickly get to the next episode to see what happens. Why use the Dahmer murders as the basis of such a show? 

Having content in a series format based on actual people and events seems to be the current growing trend. Shows like "The Crown" and "Unorthodox," inspired by Deborah Feldman's autobiography in which she recounts her escape from a Hasidic Jewish community, come to mind. 

So does the Netflix true crime documentary series "Tiger King" which centers on big cat conservationists and collectors in the U.S. and specifically Joseph Maldonado-Passage, commercially known as Joe "Exotic." 

With that docu-series, underneath the eccentricities is a self-absorbed, greedy, selfish and sick man. Yet, people still love Joe Exotic thanks to all the notoriety he's received. The series ended up with a second season. 

I'm uncertain as to what "Dahmer-Monster" wants me to take from it. Does it want me to see Dahmer's life and crimes like a museum piece? Am I supposed to see him as a sympathetic character? I sure hope not. 

Or does it want me to see Dahmer as the monster that he is and will always be known as? I picked up on elements of each.

Niecy Nash as Glenda Cleveland.

There is a tone of sympathy that is sometimes subtle, and other times perfectly clear towards Dahmer. We see all the drama that he experienced in his life, starting with his parents' tumultuous divorce when he was a child. His mother also took a variety of antidepressants and sleep-aids when she carried him. He had an extensive drinking problem that got him discharged from the military. 

In one scene while in prison, Dahmer suggests to his father how much better he feels since he can't drink in prison. Otherwise, he just carries around this looming sense of failure, topped with more disapproval from his father, throughout the series. 

There's also an incident where during high school, Dahmer sneaks into a group photo of the honor society. However, when the yearbook committee spots him in the photo, he's darkened out of all the copies. When Dahmer sees his blacked-out image in the yearbook, a sense of sadness and dejectedness permeates from his character. 

At one point in the program it's suggested that if Dahmer just received the psychological help he needed, he may not have committed at least some of the crimes that he did. But circumstances prevented him receiving the necessary help. So, someone else is to blame?

Early in the series, Dahmer tells another character, "Cops, and everything. Teachers. It's like everybody's had it out for me forever. They just decide you're a bad guy, and there's nothing you can do about it. They get their mind made up." 

The most demonizing moment for Dahmer comes in episode six about Tony Hughes who is believed to be Dahmer's 17th victim. He was 31 at the time.

In an Oct. 10, 2022 article of "The Guardian" Hughes' mother, Shirley Hughes, stated that the events portrayed in this particular episode, "didn't happen like that" though she admitted she hadn't seen the entire series.

"I don't see how they can do that," she said. "I don’t see how they can use our names and put stuff out like that out there.”

Rita Isbell, the sister of Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey, who famously shouted at Dahmer and referred to him as "Satan" during his trail (also depicted in the series, with DaShawn Barnes as Isbell) wrote that this series is "harsh and careless."

The aspect of a "new angle" on such content seems like the only big selling point for such programs, unless some major celebrities are starring in the lead roles, like Charlize Theron playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos in "Monster," or Jared Leto as John Lennon's murderer, Mark David Chapman, in the 2007 movie "Chapter 27." 

In this case, we have Evan Peters, Richard Jenkins, Molly Ringwald, and Penelope Ann Miller.

With the claim that such content makes people and societies "aware" of serial killers, with "insight" as to what might make them commit such actions, I fail to see why a society needs to be so "aware" of each and every detail about a serial killer's horrific past and the murders they've committed, even when new information comes to light.

And the show goes out of its way to criticize the Milwaukee Police Department rather than let the carelessness and incompetence of the police department then speak for itself. 

The show portrays the officers who brought Dahmer's victim, Konerak Sinthasomphone (Kieran Tamondong), who was 14-years old, back to his apartment after he was found naked, bleeding and under the influence outside of Dahmer's apartment. Dahmer convinced the cops, John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish, that Konerak was his lover and was simply drunk. 

After the police left Konerak alone again with Dahmer, he was gruesomely murdered. Cleveland tried to persuade the cops to investigate the situation, as Sinthasomphone was clearly a child. But she was brushed off with the claim "Ma'am, we got this." 

Molly Ringwald and Richard Jenkins in "Dahmer - Monster."

Later in the show, Sinthasomphone's father, Southone Sinthasomphone, receives continuous threatening and racist phone calls about his involvement in Dahmer's trial. 

According to a Sept. 23 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the family did receive such threatening phone calls. However, the series depicts police officers as the culprits of those calls. I couldn't find any information claiming cops actually made those phone calls. 

The same Sentinel article states the calls stopped once the family placed a tracker on the phone. That whole premise seems odd and unnecessary. The facts speak for themselves. 

"Dahmer - Monster" feels completely unnecessary.

Perhaps there is something for some people to learn by Dahmer's actions. What that would be, I don't know. But this series in particular, like other such programs and documentaries of the past, attempt to put this monster into a human perspective. No wonder the families of victims found it contemptable. Despite the terrific acting and the effort to keep the facts straight, the entire thing is pointless.