Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer whose modus operandi included rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism, was indicted for murder on Jan. 30, 1992. In 1993, one of the first retellings of his story was released. “The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer” rehashed the events of his life, a life he was still living out behind bars. Dahmer’s victims’ families would have seen this movie then, and they are still seeing it now.
Since then there have been many more dramatic retellings of Dahmer’s life as a serial killer. He has been played by a plethora of famous men, including Hawkeye from the "Avengers" and Austin from "Austin & Ally," and now, in Netflix’s latest project, Evan Peters joins the party.
Today superheroes or children's pop stars can play a serial killer. That's movie magic for you.
In September, Netflix released “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” a 10-episode series that claims to highlight how systemic racism and homophobia contributed to Dahmer’s evasion of the police for over a decade.
“Everybody gets their side of the story told,” Peters, who plays Dahmer in the series, said in an interview with Netflix Queau.This is somewhat true. Somewhere beneath the large “Dahmer” text with Peters’ face on it; beneath Peters winning Best Actor at The Golden Globe Awards, with no mention of the victims in his acceptance speech; beneath the viral tweet comparing scenes from the series to real footage, there is probably some sort of call for change. Viewers just have to wade through the noise of Dahmer to get there.
Meanwhile, the victims’ families get to turn on the television and see the man who ruined their lives brought back to life once more.
“That famous courtroom scene of the woman screaming at Dahmer, that is my cousin Rita. All of these movies, tv shows are triggering for the families of his victims still to this day,” tweeted Eric Perry, a relative of one of Dahmer’s victims, Errol Lindsey.
A clip of the real courtroom went viral, with 10.9 million views and 135.6 thousand likes as of March 1, after being compared to the scene featured in the limited series.
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