It’s no skin off my nose, but I’m going to go out on a limb and review a dramatic feature film for the first time in my illustrious career as a critic. This film is worth it. It is an usual piece of work that is both engrossing and appalling in it’s depiction of one of America’s premier serial killers with a hunger for new blood. Writer/director David Jacobson dunks us in a world of chocolate covered dementia that resonates hours after the last shot flickers from the screen. We are exposed for the first time to the unreality that formed young Jeffrey Dahmer, with glimpses of the characters in his life that may have influenced or in some cases tried to deny him of his cannibalistic forays. We see Dahmer’s early days working the graveyard shift in a candy factory, where he tells a new co-worker to be careful of the candy wrapping machine, ‘it will eat you up’. A sweet beginning which quickly turns to evenings spent dosing members of the gay dance-club scene. There are parts of this film experience that are brilliant and others that are merely outrageous. But all of these parts, when put back together, are a whole that is greater than it’s parts. Every performance is brilliant. Every single one of them. Nobody phones it in. Jeremy Renner’s cold and distant portrayal of Dahmer is edgy and satisfying. Bruce Davison, one of Hollywood’s most unsung actors is deserving of an Academy Award for his perfect depiction of Dahmer’s needy, immature parent. Raving about a film about Jeffrey Dahmer feels a little bit like patting Hitler on the back for a job well done, but I urge everyone in this man-eat-man world to experience this film on the big screen. Don’t take a date, don’t take your mother, but do take a close friend. And make sure to hold their hand, or any other body part that you cherish. Laugh.com awards Dahmer, 5 Pies. Our highest rating!

Reviewed by Neil Leiberman
6/28/2002

Trailer Available Here