Movie Review: Dahmer

Dahmer (2002) 

Directed by David Jacobson

Written by David Jacobson 

Starring Jeremy Renner, Bruce Davison

Release Date June 21st, 2002 

Published July 28th, 2002

The mind of the killer is one that has fascinated filmmakers for decades. The question of what drives someone to kill is very conducive to drama. It involves conflict, emotion, action and intellect. Films like Silence of The Lambs or Henry: Portrait Of a Serial Killer attempt to make sense of psychotic behavior. In the new to video, Dahmer, writer director David Jacobsen looks into the mind of real life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and like Silence and Henry it comes away without any real answers.

The story of Jeffrey Dahmer is well known; he was sentenced to 900+ years in jail for murdering and eating 19 men. What isn't well known is what drove Dahmer to be a killer. The film has two competing theories, first is his struggle with his homosexuality. Dahmer was openly gay but still ashamed of his sexuality.

The other theory involves the divorce of Dahmer's parents when he was 18. In flashbacks we meet Jeffrey's father well played by Bruce Davison as a cold but caring father completely at a loss when trying to understand his son’s odd moods.

In the present tense we meet one of Dahmer's victims, a 14-year old Asian boy who Dahmer offers to buy shoes for in exchange for letting him take his photograph back at his apartment. We see Dahmer's mind twisting and turning as he decides just what to do with his victim. We also meet the potential victim that would go on to be Dahmer's downfall, a young black hustler named Rodney (Artel Kayaru). Dahmer meets Rodney at a hunting shop where Dahmer purchases a hunting knife. They have an immediate attraction and are soon at Dahmer's apartment.

Jeremy Renner plays Dahmer and looks strikingly like the Dahmer I remember from TV. That greasy haired creepiness. Renner is very good at playing Dahmer's strange insecurity. It's one of the most unusual parts of Dahmer's story that many of his gay victims would have come to him willingly, but Dahmer still choose to drug them before having his way with them. Renner and Artel Kayaru as his last victim have a fantastic series of scenes where they challenge each other with intelligent dialogue and each scene has an undercurrent of twisted humor as Rodney trades irony-laced dialogue with Dahmer while not knowing how ironic it is.

Renner and writer director avid Jacobsen succeed in humanizing Dahmer, not so much that you identify with him, but enough that you understand why his neighbors were so shocked by his crimes. Dahmer was a quiet gay, a chocolate factory employee who kept to himself and never bothered anybody. Isn't that what they all say after they find out their neighbor was a serial killer? The film Dahmer gives you a sense of why they say that.

While the film isn't entertaining, it works on an intellectual level as a psychological profile of Jeffrey Dahmer. And while we will never really know what drove Dahmer to such sickness, we can at least learn a lesson from this film in perhaps how to spot the next Dahmer.