User Reviews

David Berkowitz. John Wayne Gacy. Ted Bundy. Ed Gein. It's fascinating how the names of some of North America's most sensationalized serial killers have their names as familiar through cross-generational age groups as George Washington, Martin Luthur King and Michael Jackson. Pop culture seems equally enamored by rampages of the more infamous multiple murderers and have dedicated innumerable television episodes, podcasts and theatrical releases to their subjects taking dramatic licenses to piece together the anatomy of a killer.

One of the more interesting films to premiere with the weight of factual atrocities associated with the title character is My Friend Dahmer which dramatizes the complex high school life of renowned serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer who was responsible for the butchering of 17 young men between 1978 and the late 1980's.

Based on the book by Derf Backderf and co-written by director Mark Meyers, My Friend Dahmer attempts to show us the events in the life of the protagonist before he began to take human lives. Former Disney alum teen idol Ross Lynch accepts the responsibility of channeling a teenaged Dahmer through the events of his life that would eventually culminate in the carnage associated with the name. Lynch embodies Dahmer as a loner with shrugged shoulders who meanders through his relative non-existence at both school and at home. With no friends and a family engorged on their own turmoil, Dahmer finds exultant refuge in a small shack in the woods by the family home where he experiments with dead animals soaked in acid. Dahmer does not hide his fascination with dead animal bones and his passion for the macabre would eventually lead his father (Dallas Roberts) to destroy his son's secret sanctuary.

Meanwhile, at school, Dahmer becomes a casual teen celebrity among the halls when he begins acting out in relative random outbursts. The outbreaks of mania result in a bonding with three classmates that champion Dahmer's ambition for attention and exploit his mannerisms for childish euphoria.

Being accepted as part of a group does little to slow the progression into madness that eventually ensues. As the marriage between Dahmer's parents dissolves we witness the unhinged neuroses of his mother played wonderfully by Anne Heche. Her manic attention to only herself fuels Dahmer to begin drinking and it's the alcohol fueled mindset that propels Dahmer to progress into darkness.

My Friend Dahmer concludes with the connection to Steven Hicks, a young hitchhiker who would become Dahmer's first victim. We watch as Hicks and Dahmer drive off but only a title card reveals Hicks' ultimate fate.

It is this restraint that separates My Friend Dahmer from its peers. Director Marc Meyers weaves us through a story that doesn't humanize the man who would become Milwaukee's most prolific cannibal. Nor does the film sensationalize the events to which Dahmer is associated. Instead, My Friend Dahmer focuses on what life offered a quiet outcast without any violent behaviors leading up to his first submitted impulse of murder.

And it's this glimpse into a young man's troubled past that propels My Friend Dahmer towards our strong film recommendation. The cast surrounding Dahmer's coming-of-age are exceptional. In particular young Alex Wolff who as Dahmer's best friend becomes a participant in a profile that would eventually result in horrific consequences.

Marc Meyers and his crew are able to flawlessly project the year 1978 around the characters. From the costume designs to the cars and music, the look and feel of 1978 is authentic. The references to the era may be subtle, but they are effective establishing the setting.

The challenge of making a serial killer movie interesting before the killer takes a life must have been daunting. But Mac Meyers maneuvers through the rapids determined to give backdrop to our subject. There are flaws. The film takes only a shallow toe dip into the homosexuality pool we now know Dahmer would eventually bathe. But the film doesn't try to sensationalize anything. It stays the course and easily becomes one of the better serial killer prequels ever made.

My Friend Dahmer sheds light into the early life of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. It details his friendships in high school and dilemmas facing him back at home.

Most of the film is displayed in decent fashion. The camerawork and lighting is brilliant and the clothing definitely fits the real life 70's era to a tee.

Ross Lynch gives a great performance as Dahmer, straying away from various Disney works he participated in beforehand.

The pace of this film is almost perfect. It gives viewers the perfect amount of time to collect information and move on without feeling rushed or sluggish.

However, with every film, there are flaws to it. Most of my problems with the movie have to do with the acting or how some of the scenes are portrayed.

The dialogue flip flops sometimes between seeming very realistic to our own colloquialisms we use today and completely bland narration.

Some of the scenes came of as cringe worthy, mainly scenes where Jeffrey Dahmer was spazzing in his school or out in public. However, after viewing the film, I am undecided on whether this is intentional, or truly bizarre. It may be a good thing I am feeling a true emotion from Lynch's performance. It strikes off as being something intriguing.

Overall, I enjoyed watching My Friend Dahmer and it gave me more of an insight into the future killer's youth. I give this film a very respectable 7/10.

The true life serial killer genre isn't exactly over-crowded, just more that there's fictionalised ones that take more of a forefront - Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates, Freddy Krueger all for instance - and they always portray those characters with a certain degree of appeal. However, when I was watching this movie, I was thinking of a less violent but just as emotionally wringing version of the brilliant Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, based heavily on Henry Lee Lucas.

My Friend Dahmer comes at the story of Jeffery Dahmer from an interesting angle; it follows Dahmer growing up at school, following from aged 17 to his first murder at 18 - the film stops just after he picks up Steven Hicks. The story as written by John Backderf, played by Alex Wolff in the film, follows him and his various friends as they both invite Dahmer into their group to use him in various pranks, but also try and be friendly with him - or as friendly as you can be to an asocial, seemingly asexual outcast who fakes seizures to get attention.

The film does have certain benefits that I would say raise it above the bar of simply "good" to great. Firstly, the cinematography is first class; there is so much boldness and colourfulness that does associate it much more with a coming-of-age film - the sharpness of colours does remind me a lot of The Spectacular Now, and that type of look helps the movie have a groundedness to it and make you almost forget you're watching a film about one of the most infamous serial killers in history. The script is full of very interesting scenarios about both the characters and the town that we're growing up in. You get to see the individual disintegration of the lives of both Dahmer's parents, which are brilliantly realised by both Dallas Roberts and Anne Heche, you get to see the conflicting dynamic between Derf and his friends over their treatment of Jeffery and how their whole lives are currently going off course.

The cast is strong - small, and full of little parts that still stick with you. Alex Wolff is kind of nerdishly charming as John Backderf, who views what him and his friends are doing as harmless fun and does seem to like Dahmer, really. There's a recurrent role of a doctor played by Vincent Kartheiser who Dahmer starts to fantasise over, played with a normalcy that makes the part stand out.

However, BY A MILE, the best part of this move is Ross Lynch as the young Jeffery Dahmer. The thing that makes this performance as Dahmer so interesting is that he's not an overly awkward, nerdy, introverted guy at the start of the film - he's just someone who has problems but isn't overall bad. However, as the film goes on, you see this guy growing more and more dangerously in upon himself, and the few good qualities leave him overtime - his willingness to make people laugh, his academic interests, and even his acceptance of Derf's drawings for him are completely gone over the course of the film. I won't say the film made me feel sad for him, but more despair watching someone become more and more lost than anything else.

From his graduation towards the end of the film, when he literally left entirely alone by his family, just left with a bottle of Vodka, the film's tone shifts from amusing to soulless, and it's a tone that Ross Lynch fully embraces, through an unbelievably tense scene with Derf, to the brilliant final scene where he picks up hitchhiker Steven Hicks, that felt me very emotionally shook. I really liked this film, a lot. It shows a great showcase of acting from Ross Lynch, who looks more than capable of shedding his Disney Channel image, and also Marc Meyers for directing such good material.