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The Cannibal Killer: The Real Story of Jeffrey Dahmer
USA 2020
produced by Pete Jacelone, Edward X. Young (associate) for THR Pro
directed by Pete Jacelone
starring Giancarlo Herrera, Randy Jones, Genoveva Rossi, Lisa Deane, Caleb Vasquez, Mason Taylor, Jay Martins, Crystal Williamson, Beth Dimino, Courtney Waul, Ryan Love, Anfernee Olivier, David DeRosa, Acheley Samira, Clarence Demesier, Bryndan Lewis, Alex Apgar, Jordan A. Magazine, Sophie Guss, Sam Kasmin, Edward X. Young
written by Pete Jacelone, music by Anthony Belluscio, guitar solo by Cory Pensa, special makeup effects by Jay Stoddart
Jeffrey Dahmer
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Jeffrey Dahmer (Giancarlo Herrera) sees himself as essentially a
regular guy - but ever since he has killed a playmate on the playground
when he was a kid and got away with it, something snapped. These days,
Jeffrey's a closet gay who's not only insecure regarding his sexuality, he
also has fears of being abandoned, so he tries to make his
"conquests" stay, the only way he knows how to. Jeffrey's
method is pretty much the same every time, he poses as a photographer and
goes to a bar to pick up a "model" or just puts an ad in the
paper to the same effect. Once the model's in his apartment, he provides
him with drugged drinks, and once the model's unconscious, he rapes and
kills him - or the other way round even. Then he cuts up the body, cooks
and eats at least some of the flesh, disposes of the rest in an acid
barrel conveniently placed in the kitchen, and keeps the skulls as
decoration. And according to his own account, he doesn't even enjoy the
killing part of this, so for a time he experimented with turning his
victims into zombies by giving them a crude lobotomy via power drill, but
this doesn't work out at all. What's amazing is that Jeffrey gets away
with this for years, and really the worst he has to fear is being
interrupted by his grandma (Beth Dimino) living upstairs or his nosey
neighbour (Crystal Williamson) who makes every effort to find a nice girl
for him to marry. Thing is, Jeffrey's not even a heartless beast, he can
love - but when the one man (David DeRosa) he has fallen in love with
backs away, he too readily falls back into his old pattern ... Fan
favourite scream queen Genoveva Rossi plays a nosey neighbour who manages
to almost capture Jeffrey, if it wasn't for the inefficient local police. The
Cannibal Killer claims to be "a fictitious, yet mostly
historically accurate account of Jeffrey Dahmer's life as a serial killer,
as narrated by Jeffrey Dahmer (Giancarlo Herrera) using many actual
quotes," and there's something very refreshing about this approach,
as the movie doesn't slavishly follow the story of Dahmer, which has been
told before, but uses his quotes as a basis for an analysis, an
interpretation of the man. As a result Dahmer isn't portrayed as a
monster, simply as a deeply disturbed and utterly flawed man who's somehow
relatable - up to the point where he starts raping, killing and eating
people of course. And this approach works rather beautifully even, thanks
to a level-headed script, and also to Giancarlo Herrera giving Dahmer some
depth he's rarely afforded in other movies. That all said, the movie's
approach might give you nightmares still, as it makes the shocking seem
mundane - and exactly for that it's very enjoyable indeed - provided
you're into twisted horror of course.
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