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My Friend Dahmer

  • 2017
  • R
  • 1h 47m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
25K
YOUR RATING
Anne Heche, Vincent Kartheiser, Dallas Roberts, Marc Meyers, Alex Wolff, and Ross Lynch in My Friend Dahmer (2017)
Before Jeffrey Dahmer became a notorious serial killer, he was a shy, alcoholic teen who never quite fit in. Based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Derf Backderf, this is the true, haunting story of Jeffrey Dahmer in high school.
Play trailer1:47
1 Video
99+ Photos
Coming-of-AgeDocudramaPeriod DramaTeen DramaBiographyDramaHorror

A young Jeffrey Dahmer struggles to belong in high school.A young Jeffrey Dahmer struggles to belong in high school.A young Jeffrey Dahmer struggles to belong in high school.

  • Director
    • Marc Meyers
  • Writers
    • Marc Meyers
    • John Backderf
  • Stars
    • Ross Lynch
    • Alex Wolff
    • Anne Heche
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    25K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Marc Meyers
    • Writers
      • Marc Meyers
      • John Backderf
    • Stars
      • Ross Lynch
      • Alex Wolff
      • Anne Heche
    • 159User reviews
    • 125Critic reviews
    • 68Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 2 nominations total

    Videos1

    Teaser Trailer
    Trailer 1:47
    Teaser Trailer

    Photos109

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    Top cast93

    Edit
    Ross Lynch
    Ross Lynch
    • Jeff Dahmer
    Alex Wolff
    Alex Wolff
    • John 'Derf' Backderf
    Anne Heche
    Anne Heche
    • Joyce Dahmer
    Vincent Kartheiser
    Vincent Kartheiser
    • Dr. Matthews
    Adam Kroloff
    • Mr. Burlman
    Brady M.K. Dunn
    • Bossy
    • (as Brady Dunn)
    Michael Ryan Boehm
    • Shorty
    • (as Michael Ryan)
    Dallas Roberts
    Dallas Roberts
    • Lionel Dahmer
    Liam Koeth
    • Dave Dahmer
    Tommy Nelson
    Tommy Nelson
    • Neil
    Harrison Holzer
    Harrison Holzer
    • Mike
    Cameron McKendry
    Cameron McKendry
    • Moose
    Jake Ingrassia
    • Gooch
    Ben Zgorecki
    Ben Zgorecki
    • Bully Jock
    • (as Benjamin Zgorecki)
    Kris Smith
    • Ms. Bowles
    Jack DeVillers
    • Oliver Zlatka
    Gabriela Novogratz
    • Lisa Watkins
    • (as Gaby Novogratz)
    Miles Robbins
    Miles Robbins
    • Lloyd Figg
    • Director
      • Marc Meyers
    • Writers
      • Marc Meyers
      • John Backderf
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews159

    6.224.6K
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    10

    Featured reviews

    7rnwilson1981

    It accomplishes what it sets out for.

    Most of the negative reviews are reflective of what those viewers want the film to be. Unfortunately for them that isn't how art works. I see complaints of "disgustingly making him sympathetic" or it was boring. How exactly can the filmmaker make him a villain before he's a villain? The whole point of the film is what leads up to the very well documented atrocities he commuted. I don't think we are in any danger of forgiving him through the lens of history. People just want to be offended. As for it being boring, I would suggest folks taking ten seconds to see what a film is about before they watch it and rip it for being something else. Again, the viewers problem not the film's.

    The acting is superb and it appears everything is pretty spot on to what we know about his teenage years leading up to his plunge into depravity.

    Sorry it didn't make things up to entertain people or avoid other's indignation.

    If you're a rational adult with a grasp on the concept it's a rather well-executed indie adaptation of an interesting graphic novel. Worth a watch, unless you want to see the exploitation of 17 innocent guys being murdered of course. That's not here.
    8js-66130

    SPAZ

    Not a comedy. I repeat, this is not a comedy.

    Also of note for the squeamish set: no serial killing here, just the seemingly mundane life of a high school misfit. Jeffery Dahmer is a mopey, four-eyed moptop, shuffling through adolescence, dealing with a fractious household in the bland and brown seventies.

    Of course we all know how this plays out, and that ominous shadow creates a vicious tension throughout this excellently unsettling film. Collecting and dissolving road kill in his makeshift shed lab, is certainly cause for concern, but it is Dahmer's awkward interactions with his peers, family, and authority figures, that bring the shivers. We know there is an explosion coming, but we just don't know how or when.

    Based on a graphic novel by a high school chum, "My Friend Dahmer" focuses on the usual tribulations of teenagers searching to belong. Either bullied (nasty) or ignored (worse), Dahmer gains a strange semblance of attention by spazzing out in school. If fake epileptic convulsions means popularity, then so be it.

    Former Disney star Ross Lynch brings a perfect blend of desperation and dread to the complicated lead. He has issues, but what outcast teen doesn't? Among his many quirks, Dahmer's seemingly innocuous interest in a neighbourhood jogger (a running theme throughout) is one hell of a creepy sequence, even though nothing comes of it. We see a series of small events that may point to the evolution of a monster, or to a weirdo biology major. There's a fork in this road!

    This all foreplay movie succeeds brilliantly because it plays the audience, who for once, are itching to spoil the ending.
    6one9eighty

    Strangely hypnotic and authentically average

    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.
    5Bertaut

    Tonally brilliant, narratively weak

    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 The Breakfast Club (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.
    6kevin c

    Growing pains

    Curious biopic that can't quite decide whether it should be a coming-of-age tale or something more chilling. The confusion unfortunately makes this seem at times sympathetic to the serial killer.

    Yes he is obsessed with dead animals and dissolving their remains in acid, but he seems little different from the awkward adolescents of countless other high school movies. Lynch is good and definitely creepy, but not that creepy....

    If you're looking for explanations as to why Dahmer went on to murder, necrophilia and cannibalism; this will only partially satisfy you. We see hints that he is becoming isolated and morbidly inclined. He has a strange obsession with a neighbour jogger and is spending too long in the shed carrying out his infernal experiments. And the family background is troubled in the extreme. With a domineering but neurotic mother, and a weak-willed father.

    Throughout the film, Lynch always seems to be fighting to keep his demons in check. At one stage it looks as if he is about to murder their pet Labrador, but he pulls himself back. The film constantly make us feel sorry for him. He's a loner trying to fit in, but his dark side eventually overwhelms him. Every time he reaches out to someone, he is rebuffed. As the rejections mount, his behaviour becomes only more erratic.

    The film stops just as his murdering career kicks-off. The film lets us make up our own mind about where to place the blame.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      My Friend Dahmer (2017) was filmed in Jeffrey Dahmer's actual childhood home in Bath, Ohio. Location Manager Kathy Ruggeri also wanted to film scenes that took place at Revere High School, Dahmer's alma mater, at the actual high school in Richfield, Ohio itself, but the school administration declined her request.
    • Goofs
      When Jeff gets kicked out of a supermarket for goofing off, several modern cars pass by from outside.
    • Quotes

      Jeffrey Dahmer: I'm just like anybody else.

    • Crazy credits
      Epilogue:  "On June 18, 1978, Steven Hicks went back to Jeffrey Dahmer's house.  He was never seen again.  In July, 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested and confessed to murdering 17 young men."
    • Connections
      Featured in Becoming Evil: Serial Killers: 21st Century Serial Killers (2019)
    • Soundtracks
      5.7.0.5
      Written by Steve Lunt (as Stephen Lunt) and Lol Mason (as Laurence Mason)

      Performed by City Boy

      Courtesy of Cherry Red Records

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    FAQ19

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 2, 2018 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official Instagram
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Mi amigo Dahmer
    • Filming locations
      • 4480 West Bath Road, Bath Township, Ohio, USA(as Jeffrey Dahmer's home)
    • Production companies
      • Ibid Filmworks
      • Aperture Entertainment
      • Attic Light Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $1,361,611
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $35,545
      • Nov 5, 2017
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,436,751
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 47 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.39:1

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