Jeffrey Dahmer: Selbstporträt Eines Serienmörders

Truly touching and devastating tale about the human monstrosity. It gives us a look into the mind and life of Jeffrey Dahmer, even though they could have done a much deeper dive into the psychology of it all. Some things were poorly explained, including his potential diagnosis and the cannibalism aspect. It was interesting to hear different perspectives from various people about the story. Labelling these tapes as "unheard" was surprising because Dahmer didn't say anything particularly new or unknown to the public. I'd say it's a very well-edited and thought-provoking series that's mostly skilfully constructed, but it lacks depth in some parts.

Netflix has done the same thing it did the Ted Bundy duo. They released 'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile' (2019 with Lily Colin's & Zac Efron), and a week later released 'Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes'. The latter being far superior to the former. If I knew 'Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes' was being released, I wouldn't have watched 'Dahmer - Monster'.

These confessional documentary type mini series are full of witness accounts, conversations with his defence attorney, the people who knew the victims & were the last people to see them before Dahmer took their life. This is the stuff that makes a series interesting, news report clips, policemen on the record saying they stand by the actions of those on duty at the time.

Everything is laid out in a very logical fashion. It made things clear which had been muddied by the 'Dahmer - Monster' dramatisation. No recreation. You HEAR the phone call made by the neighbour asking about the 14 year old boy who was found stumbling out the apartment building, no clothes on, incoherent. You HEAR the officer inform her it had "been dealt with" & the boy had been returned to his boyfriend's (Dahmer's) apartment.

The final episode closes off with individual testimony that is deeply respectful to the victims. Their friends, their neighbours talk about the kind souls who were taken by Dahmer. Victim names are repeated, displayed at the end.

The series ended with my thoughts reverent for everyone who had been forever changed by the hurt caused by Dahmer that had spread like a disease in that community. I wish I could erase that Netflix dramatisation from my mind, by comparison it is camp, jumbled and very distanced from the facts.

Interesting and very eerie to hear Dahmers voice speak about these horrific acts, as we have never heard this before.

The thing that bothered me was the over the top and near CONSTANT cut scenes of creepy masks, melted face masks, film, and other super random imagery that honestly reminded me of Gabes Cinema of the Unsettling video from The Office which took me out of it.

The editing was weird and annoying. There's so much information and it would have been absorbed and more compelling if you weren't constantly distracted by the stupid choppy and unrelated videos interspersed throughout. They're trying to overly dramatise something that is already dramatic enough.

After the more than excellent dramatization of the Dahmer murders in Netflix' release in september 2022 - which I rated with an exceptional 9 stars - any follow-up documentary will have a difficult time to even come close to the experience of that dramatization.

The documentary makers however were able to get not only on board the prosecutor and defense attorney, but also the more than renowned psychiatrist dr. Park Dietz. The latter one is not only famous for his link with the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI, but also for his interviews with several serial killers. Apart from Dahmer, he is known for his very excellent interview of the "iceman killer": i.e. Richard Kuklinski. I have seen those interviews several times already.

What makes this documentary also interesting, is that it explains some things that I couldn't explain after watchting the dramatization of the Dahmer murders. It for instance explains why Dahmer decided to buy and use yellow contact lenses.

Overall, I think this documentary may come a little too soon after the release of the Dahmer show. Many events are still so fresh in my memory that the documentary is in part just a repeat of events. Instead of two weeks, I would have preferred this documentary to be released at least one year after the drama show was released. Watching the documentary in one year would surely trigger me to again watch (part of) the drama show.

Overall, I still think this documentary deserves 6.8/10, which I round up to a 7 star IMBd rating. This documentary would have scored way better if they had included more of dr. Park Dietz.

This is another well produced crime documentary from Netflix, again from Joe Berlinger who did the Ted Bundy Tapes. Hearing Dahmer's voice recount all of the horrific acts he committed was obviously disturbing but fascinating as to how completely open he was about it, with no deflection like other serial killers, and that he seemed to be just unsure of why he did these things as everyone was and wanted answers.

It works really well, whether intentionally or not, as a companion piece with the very recent Dahmer Netflix show starring Evan Peter's and reinforces just how incredibly accurate that show was in it's telling of the Dahmer story. It could've maybe been another episode longer but perhaps that's just me..