Dahmer (2002)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

David Jacobson

Writer:

David Jacobson (written by)
(more)

Release Date:

13 March 2003 (Sweden)

Genre:

Biography | Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

The mind is a place of its own.

Plot:

Based on the true crime story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, this movie tells the emotionally riveting story of a man who turned his darkest fantasies into a horrifying reality. |

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer | Baseball Bat | Photograph | Drill In The Head | Boyfriend Boyfriend Relationship

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Jeremy Renner	...	Jeffrey Dahmer
Bruce Davison	...	Lionel Dahmer
Artel Great	...	Rodney (as Artel Kayàru)
Matt Newton	...	Lance Bell
Dion Basco	...	Khamtay
Kate Williamson	...	Grandma
Christina Payano	...	Letitia
Tom'ya Bowden	...	Shawna
Sean Blakemore	...	Corliss
Mickey Swenson	...	Officer Phillips
Julius Branca	...	Officer Powell
Pierson Blaetz	...	Officer Martin
Vincent Zangari	...	Ohio Officer
Xavier Lawrence	...	Young Man in Bar
David Manis	...	Shop Steward
Lily Knight	...	Mother
Steve Keyes	...	New Guy
Daniel McInerney	...	Bartender
Archie Howard	...	Bouncer No. 1 (as Archie J. Howard II)
Damian Forester	...	Bouncer No. 2
Christopher Louis	...	Corpse
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Beau Clark	...	Party Kid (uncredited)

Directed by
David Jacobson

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
David Birke		uncredited
David Jacobson		written by

Produced by
Matt R. Brady	....	line producer
Larry Rattner	....	producer
Susan R. Rodgers	....	co-producer
Leonard Shapiro	....	executive producer
Tim Swain	....	executive producer (as Timothy Swain)

Original Music by
Christina Agamanolis
Mariana Bernoski
Willow Williamson

Cinematography by
Chris Manley		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Bipasha Shom

Casting by
Ricki Maslar

Production Design by
Eric Larson

Art Direction by
Kelley Wright

Costume Design by
Dana Kay Hart		(as Dana Hart)
Katie Moore

Makeup Department
Elizabeth Hoel	....	assistant makeup artist
Michele Tyminski	....	makeup department head

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Anthony J. Nahar	....	first assistant director
T.K. Shom	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Abby Cobelli	....	property master
Mark McQuown	....	carpenter

Sound Department
Lori Dovi	....	sound mixer-Northern California location
Gary S. Gelfand	....	sound designer (as Gary Gelfand)
Mark Linden	....	sound designer
Phillip W. Palmer	....	sound mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Tim Arasheben	....	camera loader
Scott Dropkin	....	additional camera loader
Erik Gonzales	....	electrician
Gayle Hilary	....	second assistant camera
John Hoffma	....	key grip
Gaylan Andrew Hussain	....	key grip
Tassaduq Hussain	....	best boy grip
Eric McCandless	....	still photographer
Joe Pacella	....	second assistant camera
Joseph Pacella	....	second assistant camera
Don Presley	....	first assistant camera
Andrew D. Stadler	....	assistant camera: San Francisco
Wayne Swab	....	grip
Danielle Tsuboi	....	second assistant camera: San Francisco
Dave Wightman	....	first assistant camera
Sue Young	....	camera loader: San Francisco

Casting Department
Tim Marshall	....	casting assistant

Music Department
Renee Travis	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Blake Busby	....	graphic artist: titles
James E. Fitzgerald	....	location manager (as Jim Fitzgerald)
Sherry Gunderman	....	script supervisor
Jasper Jan	....	production assistant
Johnathan Leonard Mills	....	researcher
Cale Mitchell	....	set production assistant
Dave O'Brien	....	production coordinator
Bob Reif	....	key set production assistant

Thanks
Lisa Bacchus	....	special thanks
Ehud Bleiberg	....	special thanks
Kathy Chaudhry	....	special thanks
Val DeKeyser	....	special thanks
Mary Fry	....	special thanks
Yitzhak Ginsberg	....	special thanks
Karl T. Hirsch	....	special thanks
Jennifer Kuwabara	....	special thanks
Josh Schiowitz	....	special thanks
Shoshannah Day Strauss	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Blockbuster Films
• DEJ Productions
• Peninsula Films Inc.
• Península Films
• Two Left Shoes Films

Distributors

• Península Films (2002) (USA) (theatrical)
• Dream Entertainment (2002-????) (non-USA)
• Manga Films (2004) (Spain) (DVD)
• Peninsula Films Inc.
• Transformer (2004) (Japan) (DVD)
• e-m-s the DVD-Company

Special Effects

• Tinsley Transfers (prosthetics)
• Tinsley Transfers (special makeup effects)

Other Companies

• Alexander, Nau, Lawrence & Frumes  production legal services
• Animal Actors of Hollywood  animal provided by
• City National Bank  banking services
• Digital Hammer  editing facilities
• Hollywood Rental Company  grip & electrical equipment
• Kino Flo  lighting
• Leffler, Miller, Ward & Company  financial services
• MG Digital  editing facility
• Magic Film and Video Works  Lokbox electronic negative conforming
• Magic Film and Video Works  telecine services
• Media Distributors Film Source  Fuji film provided by
• Newzone Studio  music recording facility
• On Location Studio Rental  honeywagon
• Protocol  walkie talkies
• Shotmaker Co., The  camera dollies
• Siren Music Production  music mixing
• Sound Two Audio  post-production audio facility
• Supreme Caterers  catering
• Title House Digital  titles and opticals
• USI Entertainment Insurance Services  insurance
• United Rentals  truck rentals
• Universal Costume Department  costumes
• Walt Disney Studios Costume Department, The  costumes

Also Known As:

The Mind Is a Place of Its Own (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for aberrant violence, sexuality, language and some drug use.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:R | Canada:18A | Germany:18 | Norway:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #38948)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Blockbuster Films

Goofs:

Factual errors: The uniforms for the Milwaukee Police officers are incorrect. The badges and cap shields are L.A. style and the officers are wearing shoulder patches on both shoulders. Milwaukee officers wear a patch only on the left shoulder.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Title Card: On February 15, 1992 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was convicted of 15 counts of murder and sentenced to 937 years of federal prison. The following story was inspired by events from his life. Certain characters and events are fictional.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 2003 IFP Independent Spirit Awards (2003) (TV)

Soundtrack:

More More More

A good, compelling, underrated piece of cinema

People seem really disgusted by the film, but the only thing that disgusts me are the negative reviews. This is a very well-made film that was put together on a very low budget. Films like this always have the immediate handicap of focusing not only on an evil, psychotic main character, but focusing on an evil, psychotic main character who we all know. There weren't too many complaints about "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (a great film) focusing on a psychopath, but that's because Tom Ripley is a fictional character. Like everybody, I believe that what Jeffrey Dahmer did was wrong, and I feel sorry for all the families who lost sons and other relatives due to him. But this movie was not made to portray him as a hero, nor a villain. It's meant to portray him as a person. We all know about the crimes that Dahmer committed. But we don't know about Dahmer himself. We don't what drove Dahmer to madness, and what led up to the subsequent rapes, murders and eventual cannibalism. And the movie doesn't try to shock us with gory details of these grisly occurrences, because that's not its intention. There's no use showing us what we already know.

I found this biopic deeply fascinating. I learned a lot about Dahmer that I never knew previously. I can't say I relate to him that much, other than being lonely and an only child, but that didn't stop me from seeing how he was as a human being. While watching the film, I said to myself, "How come we don't learn much about his family life?" Maybe his family life had nothing to do with choosing to be that way. Not every serial killer commits murder because he was abused as a child. From the looks of things, he had a pretty well-to-do upbringing.

What I did get a sense of was his alienation and shyness. He felt his homosexuality served as a handicap in his society. And he wasn't brilliantly sociable, so he didn't have an easy time making friends or getting guys to go out with him, or have sex with him for that matter. But his perversions took him so far that he'd walk into a gay bar and slip roofies into guys' drinks (which is shown in an extended montage), take them to the back and have sex with them as they're helpless and passed out. It's interesting to find out this can happen among homosexuals as well. There's a long history of guys slipping roofies into women's drinks to get them in the sack, so Dahmer was no different from any horny heterosexual guy, only he took it many steps further.

One thing I must criticize is the use of flashbacks. When I first watched the film, I had the impression that the whole movie was about young Jeffrey Dahmer and the story was told in a linear fashion. But after watching the featurette and watching it a second time with the commentary, I realized that the movie was bouncing back and forth from Jeffrey in his later years to Jeffrey in his earlier years. I personally didn't think slapping facial hair on him made him look much older. He still looked like he was in his twenties, so I had no hint of his aging. Once I watched it a second time, the story became much more clear to me, but others watching it for the first time might get confused as well.

I liked the use of lighting. Jeffrey's room is lit completely red, giving it almost a hell-ish appearance. And towards the end, the lighting becomes much darker, as Dahmer becomes more evil.

The performances are good all-around. Jeremy Renner does an incredible job at playing Dahmer, expressing a laundry list of emotions with his face and body language alone. I kept trying to recall where I saw him before, since his face looked very familiar, and then I checked his filmography and found out he was in "National Lampoon's Senior Trip." Of course, this movie gave him a much better opportunity at showing off his acting abilities. Talented, underrated actor Bruce Davison makes a few appearances as Dahmer's father, also doing an incredible job the 10 minutes-or-so he's on screen.

Though I found the film fascinating and thought-provoking, I still wish I could've learned a little more about what drove Dahmer to madness. The director mentioned it wasn't his intention to give backstory on Dahmer's life, and instead make it an emotional drama, but it would've made the film more interesting. But one scene that caught me completely by surprise was when young Jeffrey cringing when cutting up one of his victim's bodies and eventually bursting into tears. I'm sure his remorse decreased over the years, but I don't ever visualize a serial killer feeling shame about his victims. I saw John Liszt (sp) in an interview once and he described his methods of mutilating his victims without batting an eye. So this is not exactly the movie's cue to have the audience feel sorry for Dahmer and cry along with him, but it's enlightening to find out that had emotions as well. He was just so driven by his psychological sicknesses that his emotions couldn't hinder him.

My score: 8 (out of 10)