Dahmer (film)

Dahmer

Official logo
Directed by David Jacobson
Produced by Larry Ratner
Written by David Jacobson
Starring Jeremy Renner
Bruce Davison
Artel Kayàru
Matt Newton
Music by Christina Agamanolis
Mariana Bernoski
Willow Williamson
Cinematography Chris Manley
Edited by Bipasha Shom
Production
company
Blockbuster Films
DEJ Productions
Two Left Shoes Films
Distributed by Peninsula Films
Release dates
  • June 21, 2002
Running time
 102 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $250,000[1]
Box office $144,008[1]

Dahmer is a 2002 American biopic horror film about the American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeremy Renner stars in the title role. There are two timelines in the film: The "present" of the film runs in ordinary chronological order covering the period of one-to-two days; the flashbacks go in reverse order, so that Dahmer is seen as successively younger until the film arrives at his first murder and its aftermath.

Plot

During his murder spree, Jeffrey Dahmer (Jeremy Renner) conducts sadistic experiments on his victims before he murders them. He killed one man this way in Bath, Ohio, and sixteen men in the metropolitan area of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At the same time, he rationalizes his crimes with the divorce of his parents and his emotionally isolated childhood; nevertheless, he can't stop inviting more and more young men from bars and clubs to his home, where he kills them. Jeffrey starts to be friends with a young man named Rodney and invites him to his house, but Rodney ends up getting attacked by Jeffrey and leaves.

Cast

The real-life counterpart to the fictional victim is in parentheses

Production

Although the script recreates actual events, the names are changed out of respect for Dahmer's victims. In reality, the escapee who led to Dahmer's capture was Tracy Edwards, portrayed by Artel Kayàru as Rodney, and Dahmer's first victim was a man named Stephen Hicks, portrayed in the film by Matt Newton as Lance Bell. Production took place in Los Angeles and one scene in Milwaukee. The mask special effects were created by Christien Tinsley and Kelley Mitchell, who were involved two years later in the makeup of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

Reception

Dahmer has received mostly mixed to positive reviews. It currently holds a 68% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[2]

Legacy

In the DVD commentary track for The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow said that she cast Renner in the lead role because of his performance in Dahmer.

Awards

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Dahmer (2002) - Box Office Mojo". 2002-08-11. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
  2. ↑ Dahmer at Rotten Tomatoes

External links

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