Raising Jeffrey Dahmer

Raising Jeffrey Dahmer is another bad seed movie. There are some out there that are just plain no good. We recently lost one with the death of Charles Manson. Dahmer who murdered and dismembered several young men during the 80s.

In trying to make Dahmer seem ordinary unfortunately they made him seem dull as well. Ditto for his family which was father, stepmother, and grandmother. When Dahmer played by Rusty Sneary is arrested the parents who are Scott Cordes and Kathy Barnett agonize over what should have they seen and what could have they done.

It's a cheapo production with a lot of dull patches. The story has been better told.

I read Lionel Dahmer's book. The film doesn't show any of the gore, blood, bones, and body parts but only allude to it. The film is about how a father like Dr. Lionel Dahmer deals with his son's brutal, horrific crimes. This film is low budget to begin with. There are some scenes like the flashbacks that seem repetitive. It's not a great film but low budget films don't have the financing to be better. This film actually centers on Lionel and his second wife, Shari Dahmer, and Jeffrey's paternal grandmother, Catherine Dahmer, whom he had a close relationship. I thought when I read the book that the Dahmers had left Catherine's house because of the press hounding on them. Jeffrey Dahmer was raised in a broken home with an unstable mother whom we never see so we don't' know her side. We do see Lionel as a broken man coming to terms with the realization of his son's crimes, There were signs but Jeffrey was skilled enough to be aware of his father's obvious questions. He wasn't close to his parents but to his grandmother. The male mannequin in the closet is a frightening clue to something wrong. There is a scene where Lionel tries to keep Jeffrey locked up but he can't do much. If you read Lionel Dahmer's book, he paints a portrait of a frustrating parent who knows something is terribly wrong but can't help his own son. Jeffrey had an alcoholism problem, pedophile, and terribly secretive which led to his compulsion to bury his victims. Lionel is ridden with guilt just as his second wife. Jeffrey's mother was not in this film. While it's an okay low budget film, the actors do the best they can with the material. The flashbacks help slowly unravel Jeffrey's behavior. Unfortunately, they don't mention the victims by names. They should have listed them in remembrance and not to forget them as well.

RAISING JEFFREY DAHMER is a poorly executed film, well below the level of Student Film, yet it does manage to touch on some provocative issues. RAISING JEFFREY DAHMER is not really concerned with the heinous murders and kidnappings that Dahmer committed, but seeks to examine his relationship with his family. The film forces the viewer to consider a few extremely difficult positions. Can a parent continue to love a child who is a convicted sexual predator, murderer, and cannibal? Also, Dahmer's behavior could be viewed as someone who was deeply repulsed, yet morbidly attracted to men. Dahmer did admit that the reason he killed and dismembered was to reassemble the parts, and then, create sexual slaves for his personal ratification. I wonder if this psychotic sexual identity might have been caused by something in his upbringing, and had his family encouraged and accepted his latent homosexual nature, could the killings have been avoided? Did his parents ever consider this? These questions are not really answered in the film, however they are certainly areas worthy of inquiry.

We have 3 cats and 2 dogs. I think we could have organized them to do a better re-enactment of Jeffrey Dahmer's childhood than this film. The movie is 100 minutes long; we made it 60 minutes--so, to be fair, I haven't even seen the whole movie. I just couldn't bear it. This looks like a film put together by a group of high school students in a movie-making class. And not even high-achieving students. The acting was awful, although I felt a great deal of pity for the actors in this film. They really never had a chance. Lots of corny flashbacks. Not even sure of the film's accuracy based on other things I've heard and read on Dahmer. I have to say...might be the worst movie I've ever seen. I can't believe this was even in the video store. Please, spare yourself! Avoid this one at all costs!

This movie is informative, but too bad it looks like it was made using a $1000.00 camera from 1970. It looks just like a home-made movie. The quality is about on the same level as Blair Witch. If you can get past the cheapness of the film, there are some interesting information to be had in this film. Also the acting is really bad, to the point that it hurts you watching it. Still, you are fascinated by Dahmer or his crimes, or if you want to know what the big fuss is about Milwaukee's most popular serial killer, give this movie a watch.