‘The Jeffrey Dahmer Files’ Review

Release Date: February 15, 2013 (Limited)
Currently Available via OnDemand Platforms
Director: Chris James Thompson
MPAA Rating: NR
Film Pulse Score: 5/10

The public has always been equally fascinated and repulsed by serial killers.  Whether “Jack the Ripper,” Ted Bundy, or Aileen Wuornos, this particular class of murderers has interested the media and media consumers.  Jeffrey Dahmer and his crimes are no exception.  From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Dahmer killed 17 boys and men – most of them from the late 1980s up to his arrest in July 1991.  We know so much about him, including that he was a homosexual who found many of his victims in gay bars, inviting them back to his small Milwaukee apartment from whence they never left.  He dissected and desiccated his victims, keeping skeletal remains in his refrigerator, a portable cooler, and several industrial barrels.  We also know that he engaged in necrophilia, cannibalism, and attempted to create passive sex partners by drilling holes in some victims’ skulls and filling the cavities with acid and other dangerous liquids, hoping to make living “zombies” who would do his bidding.

Clearly, this story about a mild-mannered, alcoholic loner who spent his last free years quietly working in a chocolate factory and killing males during his free time lends itself to film, television, and written word exposés.  Chris James Thompson’s The Jeffrey Dahmer Files is primarily a documentary, though it recreates moments from Dahmer’s life in fictionalized vignettes where Dahmer’s day-to-day creepiness and crimes are shown or suggested (in these scenes, Dahmer is played by Andrew Swant).  Some archival footage is shown of investigators emptying Dahmer’s apartment and of Dahmer himself in a few brief courtroom scenes.  Where Thompson’s documentary includes real insight is in the stories told by three main characters from the “Dahmer files”:  one of his African-American neighbors, Pamela Bass; medical examiner Jeffrey Jentzen who oversaw the removal of human remains from Dahmer’s apartment as well as the investigation of those remains; and detective Pat Kennedy who questioned Dahmer after his arrest and became a kind of confidant for the primary suspect in an ever-expanding set of grisly crimes.

Bass’ story presents perhaps the most interesting take on the Dahmer saga.  She speaks about how kind Dahmer was and the shock she experienced as events unfolded and she learned what he had done.  I had never thought about Dahmer’s neighbors who lived in the apartment building with him.  They were almost entirely African-American and many of them wondered what a young Caucasian guy was doing living in their community.  Bass is clearly angry at Dahmer for making her life unbearable as she recounts how people blamed her and those who lived around her for not being aware of the atrocities being committed in their midst.  With apparent sadness, she talks about how quickly Milwaukee officials emptied the apartment building and razed it to the ground.  She also cried for him when he was killed in prison in 1994.

Jentzen provides some interesting behind-the-scenes stories of the forensics nightmare presented by Dahmer’s crimes.  With great seriousness, he details what was found in Dahmer’s apartment and gives the viewer a better understanding of just how much evidence there was in that tiny, one-bedroom space.  Jentzen straightforwardly explains the difficulty he and his staff had in cataloguing evidence and determining who the victims were.

Finally, Kennedy’s own segments are quite animated given Kennedy’s larger-than-life personality.  Kennedy offers yet another interesting insight into Dahmer and that long night after the arrest.  Kennedy befriended Dahmer, in his own way, in order to extract information from the killer.  Interestingly, Kennedy said he and Dahmer talked of many things including alcoholism and religion. Kennedy was unaware of just who he was talking to for the first several hours and would only realize the true extent of Dahmer’s depravity when he get updates as to what investigators were finding in the apartment.  Kennedy was considered a “hero” at the time, but he faded into a kind of obscurity after Dahmer was sentenced and then killed in prison just a few years later.

All of this sounds more interesting than the documentary actually is.  Yes, I find the presentation of the storytelling trio to be unique, but much of their time in front of the camera reveals more about them than it does about Jeffrey Dahmer.  The various vignettes with Swant as Dahmer are distracting, adding little or nothing to our understanding of the oddball killer.  I remember in 1991 how Dahmer’s character and existence seemed to be both strange and banal; I doubt Thompson needed to showcase those attributes via Swant’s scenes.  The 76-minute running time simply is not sufficient to really say much of substance about Dahmer or about the victims of his horrifying crimes; it is therefore ultimately unsatisfying.