[yasr_overall_rating]
A young Jeffrey Dahmer struggles to belong in high school.
Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer who admitted to murdering 17 men. He would lure them to his apartment, drug them, then while they were passed out, he would rape and kill them. It later emerged that on many of his victims, he performed necrophilia and cannibalism, and preserved their skeletons, along with several of their decapitated heads. He was eventually caught and sentenced to 16 terms of life imprisonment and while serving his time at Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, he was murdered by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver. Before any of you bloodhounds race out to rent or buy “My Friend Dahmer,” know that it is not a splatterfest, but rather an account of Dahmer’s life right up until he killed his first victim in 1978. The film is based on the 2012 graphic novel of the same name by cartoonist John “Derf” Backderf, a man who went to high school with Dahmer and who had become good friends with him until college life led them in separate directions.
Ross Lynch plays the titular character and does so with unnerving assuredness. His every awkward move, and nuanced glance, immediately puts you on edge as you never know what he is going to do next. This is not the Jeffrey Dahmer you read about and the horrible acts he committed, it is an account of a very troubled young man leading up to those events who, later it would be revealed, was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and a psychotic disorder. Jeffrey lives in Bath, Ohio with his mother and father, Lionel and Joyce Dahmer (Dallas Roberts and Anne Heche) and his younger brother Dave (Liam Koeth). Throughout his senior year in high school, he becomes friends with John “Derf” Backderf (Alex Wolff) and his friends and with Jeffrey performing a series of pranks, from fake epileptic seizures to appearing in every club yearbook photo, Dave sets up the “Dahmer Fan Club,” and Jeffrey continues to pull pranks around the school and out in public for his friends.
But behind this playful facade, Jeffrey is tormented. Intrigued by dead animals, he picks up roadkill whenever he can and dissolves the bodies in acid, thanks to his father being a chemist. He also becomes infatuated with a male jogger who passes by his house daily. He fantasizes about lying next to his dead body and when he finally plucks up the courage to kill the man, he waits in the bushes by the road with a baseball bat but when the jogger does not appear, it only heightens Jeffrey’s anger. Shortly thereafter, Jeffrey’s mother informs him and his brother Dave that she is getting a divorce from their father and Jeffrey’s life continues to spiral out of control. When he brings a dog into the woods to kill it, he cannot go through with his plan and runs the dog off but later on, a young boy and girl, cutting through the woods on their way home from school, come across the corpse of a dog that has been cut open with its entrails spread out all over the place. Word gets out about the gruesome discovery with some people even putting it down to the work of a supposed local coven of witches.
Watching Jeffrey unravel one day at a time was difficult to view but almost impossible to look away from. As his life progressively got worse, he turned to alcohol to drown his sorrows and this became a big factor later on, one which would prevent him from holding down jobs. Much of what transpires herein is thanks to Dahmer’s real-life friend John Backderf, who would later go on to write the illustrated graphic novel, ‘My Friend Dahmer,’ which the movie is based on. Towards the end of their friendship, and immediately after graduation, out driving one night, John spotted Jeffrey walking home on the side of the road. He stopped to give him a lift and when they reached Dahmer’s house, he invited him in for one final drink as John was heading off to college the next day. John was initially hesitant but said that Jeffrey changed from his always-serious demeanor to being lighthearted, and as a result, John agreed to have one drink with him. But when he noticed blood on Dahmer’s hands, he made an excuse to leave and got back in his car, only to see Jeffrey standing in the driveway with a baseball bat in his hand. That would be the last time John would ever see Dahmer until he was arrested in 1991 for the grisly murders he committed.
“My Friend Dahmer” is a slow-moving but captivating descent into madness and director Marc Meyers has crafted a well-balanced account of one of the most notorious serial killers of the 20th century. While the acts he would later go on to commit were horrendous, you can’t help but feel sorry for the man in his earlier years as he tried to deal with the demons in his head. The movie tastefully ends with Dahmer picking up his very first victim, Steven Mark Hicks, a young man who was hitchhiking home after a concert, and instead of witnessing the heinous crime, the film fades to black as both men drive off in Dahmer’s Volkswagen Beetle. The movie shows that you never know who could be a monster, your best friend, your next-door neighbor, even someone from your own family, and that thought, is absolutely terrifying.
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