My Friend Dahmer Film Review – Have you heard this name before? Maybe many of you don’t know the figure of Jeffrey Dahmer, considering that this killer is not as famous as Ted Bundy or Jack the Ripper. Quoting from Britannica, Jeffrey, or ‘Jeff’ Dahmer, was an American serial killer, who was born on May 21, 1960. He committed his first murder in Ohio in 1978, and was then arrested in 1991 in Wisconsin.
Not only did he kill, he also committed several other crimes against his victims, such as harassment, mutilation, necrophilia and cannibalism. During his life, Jeff killed 17 men and children, before he himself died from severe head trauma in 1994.
The film My Friend Dahmer itself is a film made by Marc Meyers, which was released in 2017. This film is adapted from a graphic novel by John ‘Derf’ Backderf, who in the film is described as Dahmer’s teenage friend. Curious as to what the film? Check out the following review.
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Synopsis of “My Friend Dahmer”
In romantic films, high school is depicted as an exciting and romantic time for young people. However, My Friend Dahmer is not one of them. For young Dahmer, high school was far from exciting. Never mind romance, he doesn’t even have any friends.
Quiet and strange, that’s how people saw Dahmer when he was in high school. Having a hobby of collecting dead animals from the streets is not something that many people do, except for Dahmer. This is one of the reasons he is considered strange by his peers, even his own father. His addiction to alcohol and the fight between his parents are also two things highlighted in this film.
With his bookish appearance and quiet character, Dahmer had no friends. However, everything changed when he started doing strange acts, such as pretending to have an epileptic seizure to get attention. This effort was successful in getting the attention of Derf (Alex Wolff) and his circle who then made Dahmer their ‘mascot’. At least, their friendship started from here, until finally Derf and his circle realized their treatment of Dahmer.
Does not show murder scenes
Even though this film has a biographical theme of a serial killer, My Friend Dahmer does not once show murder. This is because this film is set before Dahmer started his serial killing spree. However, this still does not reduce the tense sensation.
Instead of showing a sadistic murder scene, My Friend Dahmer actually shows Dahmer’s wild and dark fantasies which increasingly took over him. Several scenes towards the end of the film depict Dahmer wanting to fulfill his fantasy by injuring other people or even killing them, but he failed to do so.
The final scene in this film only shows a brief interaction between Dahmer and his first victim. There were no signs of violence at that time, only Dahmer’s hidden dark intentions that only he, the audience, and God knew.
