Raising Jeffrey Dahmer

Who'd have thought a movie about a serial killer would be boring? But this movie is. It's disjointed and dull, and less about raising Jeffrey Dahmer than his family coming to grips with his arrest. That would be OK, but even that emotional time isn't portrayed very well.

The acting isn't very good, but the script is even worse. It's difficult to sympathize with any of the characters, who are all pretty much one-dimensional: the self-questioning father, the steely stepmother and the distraught grandma. It seems impossible that any of them can feel those qualities simultaneously. There are tons of flashbacks, but they seem to come in no particular order, interspersed with comments such as, "That's it! That's when we knew!" I'm not sure if there are better movies about Jeffrey Dahmer out there, but I hope so.

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!

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.

I rented this movie with my girlfriend as a late night movie. We haven't seen a scary movie in a while, and I've always been fascinated with serial killers overall.

This movie was laughable.. The acting was a joke. The father made me laugh at him at parts I should have been feeling the shock and fear he was feeling. It did keep me interested with the flashbacks, but the movie would have been so much better if it actually showed what it was titled, Jeffrey Dahmer being raised. It showed it through a series of flashbacks, which were the only interesting parts in the movie.

I knew it was going to be a disappointment, but I saw it in the advertisement the guy at the movie store gave to me. Next time I go with my gut, which this movie should have showed more of.

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.