I think this series takes the top spot for the most uncomfortable film I have ever watched. I felt so weird for a majority of the film and it took me about 6 months to watch all 10 episodes (majorly cause I was doing other things) , but I wanted to complete it because I am simply that curious and strong headed and I was able to complete it. I have heard the stories of Jeff Dahmer in the past but I didn't know how crazy it really was, so when I saw this online, I decided to check it out. It is a great work of cinema, but the story...Let's get into it.
Dahmer is actually the first season of a series called Monster, which takes us into the lives of some crazy people in the past. It was released on September 21, 2022, and has just 10 episodes.
PLOT
We are dragged into the life of Jeffrey Dahmer also known as the Milwaukee Monster, a middle aged man who was a serial killer and a sex offender. Between the years 1978 and 1991, he was on a killing spree before he was ultimately caught. We are taken through his childhood, his teen years (where he had his first kill), his adult life, the lives of some of his victims, and some of his interviews. Leaving the question, of what could make him do all of this. During his killing spree, some of his neighbours who were getting suspicious would try to alert the police of their concerns, but they were snubbed because they weren't white.
MY THOUGHTS
There are a lot of things to be discussed in this movie, I don't even know where to start. Was he deranged? Of course, he was, he had to be, but he was still found sane and perfectly normal. He was also smart to an extent. He moved to a predominantly black neighbourhood. During that time there was a lot of racism and the police didn't care too much about what happened to blacks and they would wave it off. He claims he didn't have that in mind, but the fact that his only two victims (at least that we know of) who are white were killed by "accident". Then there's the question of how he got comfortable with blood and guts. He was taught how to dissect dead animals by his father when he was very young. They'd go on the road, find some road kill, open it up and do whatever they do with it. I think it's called Taxidermy. So yeah, Taxidermy was his hobby thanks to his dad. But while his dad has some blame, his mum also has hers. When she was pregnant she was always overdosing and no one knows for sure (cause the father refused them to examine his brain after his death) but it may have affected his brain. She also left him alone in the house after she divorced his father (which was when he scored his first kill). That was also when he started drinking which was another one of his problems.
While all of that happened and may not entirely be his fault, I feel no remorse for him, and I thank the showrunners for not trying to make us feel any remorse for him cause what he did was just plain horrible. I don't think I want to narrate any of his encounters, but he would go to gay clubs, look for vulnerable people, try to befriend them and get them to follow him home. Then he'd drug them, have sex with them, kill them, harvest their organs, and do crazy experiments, he was even known to eat some of his victims. I think this should paint a picture of just how vile it was. If it wasn't a true life story I'd have said the producer needed a mental evaluation cause some of these things can't even be thought of by a sane person.
The racism at that time was crazy too, because despite everything his neighbour who had been reporting him for suspicious behaviour didn't even get interviewed so people could hear her story and the victims weren't even remembered with a monument or anything, it was just like it never happened after everything and that pissed me off a lot.
But that is not the sickest part of it all. The sickest part of it was that after all of this, while he was in prison for what he'd done, he still had fans. People were writing him letters, asking for autographs, ladies were sending him nudes (he was gay btw), and people were dressing up as him for Halloween. He was considerably happy in prison, and people even made reference to how he'd added weight a couple of times. To say I was pissed at that point is an understatement. He then proceeded to give his life to Christ, and even get baptised (which is another major talking point, but I won't be getting into it) right before he was killed by another inmate who had had enough of what was going on.
Ultimately, I'll say it was a great work in terms of the movie production and everything (telling the full story), but then I disliked the story, and the fact that it even happened is mindblowing. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's not thick-skinned, but I'll give the movie (purely based on telling the whole story) a 9/10. If you're curious and thick skinned you should watch.
