O Despertar de Um Assassino

Numerous serial killers have existed in the past 50+ years, yet the same names keep springing up over and over again as if they were some kind of rarity. I'm sure you know them: Ed Gein, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Edmund Kemper, Gary Leon Ridgway, Aileen Wuornos, etc. And, of course, Jeffrey Dahmer.

However, for some reason, the subject of Jeffrey Dahmer in particular is a constant in media productions, and also someone that tends to elicit strong responses from the audiences.

Maybe it is because his tragic story is an uncomfortable reminder that he was actually human-an incredibly damaged human being. How an awkward yet relatively normal man could have been driven to such total extremes, and when all was said and done, was able to recognize the moral gravity and consequences of his crimes, is quite a singularity. Yet it's simply easier to call him a "monster" so that we don't have to acknowledge his similarities with ourselves.

I watched "My Friend Dahmer" after the more recent take with Evan Peters, and I think I actually like Marc Meyers' work better. Based on a graphic novel by Derf Backderf, the film doesn't try to make a point or shoehorn any moral message; it simply sets out to ethereally capture Dahmer's profound sadness and growing descent into madness, maybe better than the actual comic book itself -- which I still recommend regardless.

The cinematography and setting is truly beautiful, and the pacing of the film is hypnotically slow. But, as others have pointed out, the highlight is Ross Lynch's performance. Lynch was really the first actor that effectively projected Dahmer's idiosyncratic body language.

Based on true events, this film tells the story of Jeffrey Dahmer's youth. Played by Ross Lynch, this is the awkward, mostly unknown, events that shaped the Minnesota Monster. Going through an education system where he didn't quite fit it, surrounded by a turbulent home life that didn't seem to give him much love. Dahmer decides to change the way he is perceived and manages to get in with some friends. They hero-worship him, considering him to be an untapped talent that they could vicariously live through - basically they use him to get their kicks. The pace of the film is purposely slow, and despite it, you always feel that an explosion is about to happen. Ross Lynch does a great job in convincing the audience that he's a push away from pushing back. Most people will be aware of what Dahmer goes on to do, but it's the exploits documented here that shape that monster. The film, thankfully, doesn't glorify the serial killer, it just biographs a time not many people know about. The cast is strangely authentic, everybody comes across as average, and the kind of people you might have met or still could meet. The screenplay and framing of it is hauntingly chilling. It's more of a drama film than a horror. It's definitely not what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it all the same. 6 out of 10.

Taking place over the course of Jeffrey Dahmer's last year in high school, and culminating with the fateful meeting between Dahmer (Ross Lynch) and Steven Hicks (Dave Sorboro), writer/director Marc Meyers's My Friend Dahmer is based on the graphic novel by John Backderf (played in the film by Alex Wolff), who attended the same school as Dahmer, and formed a pseudo-friendship with him. The film is tonally brilliant, coming across like Clube dos Cinco (1985) directed by David Fincher, perfectly capturing 80s tackiness. Narratively, however, it's extremely plodding, and could easily have been trimmed by 20 minutes.

It's also difficult to see what Meyers was trying to achieve; other than a couple of brief moments, we're never given any real access to Dahmer's interiority, so he remains an enigma, always at arm's length (which could have been the point). But is Meyers asking us to feel sympathy for Dahmer because he had a difficult adolescence, came from a broken home, couldn't make friends in school. Or is this simply a character study (if we didn't know it was about Dahmer, it could be any number of examinations of high school awkwardness)?

The lack of clarity regarding the film's theme is compounded by the scenes where it looks as if Dahmer is about to murder someone, only to stop at the last second. This is an especially strange way to generate tension, insofar as we already know his first murder was Hicks. Also, if the film is actually trying to say something of societal worth regarding serial killers, directionless youth, nature vs. nurture etc, trying to draw an audience into the narrative with the prospect of murder probably isn't the way to go about it. The film also fails to really get into the issues of Dahmer's sexuality, and his confusion and frustration about being gay. It's worth a look, and Lynch's performance is quite something, but if you're already familiar with Dahmer's story, you won't find much insight here.

I'm a fan of Derf's graphic novel about his teen experiences in the late '70s with Jeff Dahmer -- as a result I had mixed feelings about a film version. On the one hand, I was excited, but on the other was quite curious how the relatively brief story could be turned into a feature length film.

In terms of storytelling, the movie works. Yes, as a reader of the graphic novel may have suspected, the pace ends up being a bit slow, but it's still compelling stuff -- the viewer is there just as Dahmer arrives at a fork in the road of his life. Which way will he take? Will he end up just being an eccentric, or will he take that other, infinitely darker road?

We all know the answer, and of course the movie has a strong tragic element to it. It's all the more tragic -- for Dahmer's victims and their families, but also for Dahmer himself -- when we see that there was just enough to the guy ... just enough potential ... to make him possibly go the other way.

At times watching the movie can be tough going, but not for the reasons you might think. Watching a kid as painfully awkward and then as deeply depressed as Dahmer go through the torture of Middle American high school can be truly excruciating, all the more so because it seems to be happening in slow motion, like watching a car crash. But make no mistake -- it is absorbing human drama, quite unique in our age of comic book heroes and lurid reality TV.

Even if you don't particularly like slow-burn drama, see the movie anyway, for the performances. Lynch doesn't say a lot but he's truly engrossing to watch. Anne Heche is virtually unrecognizable as Dahmer's mother skating along the lip of sanity -- her manic performance is brilliant and unforgettable. And as usual Dallas Roberts impresses as Dahmer's father.

Highly recommended -- but don't go expecting a serial killer flick.

I gotta say, I liked the graphic novel much more than this movie. In film version, it moved very, very slowly. Still, the topic, Dahmer's high school days, drew me in, in a sort of twisted fascination. Ross Lynch does a very good job in the lead role, sort of a Napoleon Dynamite gone wrong, in an Ed Chigliak sort of way. I was able to feel badly for Dahmer in this phase of his life, and I was left wondering a lot of what if's. I guess every life has these what if's, and Dahmer's ended up taking the horrifying road that it took. Creepy. Even creepier, to me, are the people who "lived" through their encounters with him. What about the prom date? Holy mackerel! A unique look, the unveils itself slowly.