 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Dahmer • Year: 2002 • Country: USA • Director: David Jacobson • Main cast: Jeremy Renner, Bruce Davison, Artel Great • Runtime: 101 minutes • Production company: Blockbuster Films, DEJ Productions, Peninsula Films • TRAILER |
Everybody knows that reality can be more fucked up than fiction. Maybe that’s why in horror movies is pretty popular the sub genre of the biopic, to portrait the deranged murderers and also play sordid with the atrocities they committed. Probably the most notorious ones for the big audience could be Charles Manson or John Wayne Gacy, there have been rivers of ink and millions of hours on TV talking about them, but the list of killers is almost endless.
Dahmer is a thriller biopic that tells you part of the life and murders story of the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as “the Cannibal of Milwaukee”. This american despicable celebrity was found responsable of the death of 17 people, all male, between 1978 and 1991. The movie narrative is not linial at all, since it begins with an adult Jeff Dahmer but it constantly flashback to his teenage years when his first murder was commited. With a delicate care of the film photography and the acting, Dahmer (the movie) shows a little fraction of what happened to Dahmer (the person) to make steps forward into going from a normal middle class teenager with homosexual tendencies and alcoholic problems to turning into a calculative and meditative predator always looking for his next victim to satisfy his wicked sexual perversions.
Writer and director David Jacobson imprints in this his second film an atmosphere of sexual perversion and cruelty in the character of the murderer Dahmer that keeps the tension douring all the film. It is more a matter of detailing some selected moments, more than showing the 17 killings and rejoicing in the gore. That was a dangerous risk, because at times the movie becomes a little bit boring, but pretty much manages to keep the thrilling and tension until the end.
Also remarkable is the sublime work by Jeremy Renner as the title character. This was Renner’s first main role, and he totally nailed it. It is assumed that thanks to his portrait as the Milwaukee murderer he managed to get the roles that we know him for, as the star in The Hurt Locker (2008), Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) and the avenger Hawkeye in all these annoying blockbuster recreations of the Marvel universe. Without Renner’s cold and evil performance this movie wouldn’t be as attractive as it is.
Dahmer is closer to other based on serial killer film like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) than acts like Gacy (2003) or Citizen X (1995), just to name a few, but even with its minimalistic approach the result is an attractive and cold blooded thriller.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285728
