The gruesome story of Jeffrey Dahmer the infamous serial

killer and sex offender who murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, has already been the subject of several films and television programmes, and its highly questionable whether there is need for yet another take on these murders. 

Newbie writer/director Chris James Thompson,  a native of Milwaukee where the majority of the killings occurred, avoided both the sheer bloody gore and the sensationalism of the case by focusing his movie on how it affected the local community.  In particular three people : Pat Kennedy a retired Police Detective who had arrested Dahmer and took down his confession; Dr Jeffery Jensen who was the Medical Examiner at the time; and Pam Bass his next door neighbor. As they related their take on how this all impacted their own lives quite substantially, Thompson cleverly interspersed it with re-enactments of Dahmer’s mundane daily existence in between his killing sprees.

There was no attempt to throw any light on Dahmer’s actions and motives, or uncover anything new about the audacious crimes themselves, but just relating it all to how the people of Milwaukee came to terms with this unprecedented carnage.  It wasnt just the fact that Dahmer killed this innocent victims but also the reality that he subjected them to rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism.

Thompson’s spin is intriguing and extremely well done because his witnesses were both articulate and interesting,  (the neighbor’s naive remarks are quite engaging) but I simply cannot imagine who on earth would want to see this at all some 20+ years later, apart from people who are still obessesed with Dahmer (or compulsive cineastes like me).

If you do, and its not on at an Art House near you, its available now on VOD.