Customer Reviews

Raising Jeffrey Dahmer

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is the biggest load of rubbish. It is misleading in that it appears to be a documentary. This is NOT a documentary. In fact, it is a poorly acted, useless waste of your time and money. You would be better off buying a jar full of air.

This is a very amateurish production that tells us almost nothing about how Jeffrey Dahmer might have come by the fetishes that made him one of the most bizarre serial killers of the century.

Dahmer is an anomaly in the pantheon of serial killers in that he does not seem to have himself been the victim of real verbal or physical abuse as he was growing up. His biological parents were divorced and Jeffrey was largely raised by his father and stepmother. But his stepmother was no Grimm's fairytale figure. All the adults in his life appear to have been relatively intelligent and supportive. So the mystery of his pathology remains. And that's all this movie shows - his father being mystified.

This movie does show Jeffrey's father speculating that the boy might have gotten twisted by the prescription drugs his mother grew dependent on during her pregnancy. Other than that one little piece of biographical information though, there's nothing substantive here. And the production values of this indie film are so poor, the film is almost unwatchable sometimes.

Whenever the narrative is told in flashback, which it frequently is, the Director decided to use a bleached out, somewhat smudged effect on the film. This makes the actors look as if they were performing in an early 1950's TV episode shown in its fragile kinescope original.

The actors also perform as if they were in an early 1950's soap opera. They sit in suspended animation, in slow, eternally unresolved anguish. When we skip ten years and tune in again, we find we haven't missed a thing. Husband and wife are seated on the same worn couch - against the same dingy, minimalist background. They are still there in long-drawn surmise. "How did all those animals die? But surely, Jeff was just collecting road-kill."

No, there's nothing new to be learned here. The Director's Commentary on this DVD is a little livelier than the movie itself. However anyone interested in the psyche of this serial killer would do better to check out "Dahmer" starring Jeremy Renner or one of the other indie films that focus on Jeffrey himself. These other films, while not explaining Dahmer's obsessions, do give the viewer a better feel for Dahmer's need to totally possess and become one with his victims.

I love it when I learn that books I enjoyed had film adaptations completed. It was four years after I read Gore Vidal's book that I learned that "Myra Breckenridge" (sp?) was made into a film. I loved Abraham Verghese's first book and was pleased that Marisa Tomei performed in its film adaptation. I read Lionel Dahmer's book and just knew I had to see how it was going to be visualized.

It must be stressed that this film focuses on Jeffrey Dahmer's father and stepmother, rather than the murderer himself. In the same way that Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" said close to nothing of the horrific class inequality of late 18th-century France, this doesn't look at the world from Jeffrey Dahmer's eyes, or with a bird's eye view of him. This is also a bit like how "Cry Freedom" did not focus on Steven Biko, but on a white supporter of his.

Maybe a ton of people read that book and I didn't know about it. Since the Dahmer controversy happened a little under 20 years ago, I am not sure how many film viewers remember it or would want to meditate on it now. 9/11 and other matters from this decade may have brushed Dahmer off the table. The Columbine murders may also have had that same influence. The actors here don't have bad timing like in many low-budget flicks, but some may be aggravated by how slowly the film moves. Further, the work is filmed in drab and sun-erased colors that may annoy many. Still, if you are horrified by the facts behind Dahmer's murders, they barely come up here at all. Perhaps, they feel the first two (or more?) films on Dahmer have already portrayed that effectively. This movie doesn't portray Lionel's response to Jeffrey's murder and I wish it had. To me, the transition from killer's father to victim's father would probably have been profound.

It doesn't take energy for me to absolve Lionel Dahmer. There is no proof whatsoever that he abused, raped, or neglected his son. Yes, in this film, Lionel comes off as very passive and naive. I do wonder if he was more concerned with life in his lab than that at home. Still, I am sure many a father don't want to be held accountable for what their crazy-butt adult sons do! When you read Lionel's book, his meditations on "Was I the cause of this!?" are acceptable. However, this meditating may have not translated well to film. This film may seem "plotless" to many viewers. It held my interest because I was watching the book being made visual, but those who haven't read the book might not sit through this.

Sometimes in film, sons have chin dimples and fathers don't, or vice versa, but this work hired two actors with very pronounced chin dimples. It could not have been coincidence! If the real Jeffrey Dahmer had a chin dimple, it was a slight one.

I have studied Jeffrey Dahmer since I was fifteen years old, I am now almost 30. I remember getting ready for school one morning and seeing the developing story on the news. I was instantly fascinated, to say the least. I would consider myself an expert on Jeffrey Dahmer's crimes and his life, so I had to give this film a chance, out of curiosity's sake.

I can't tell you how the movie is, because I didn't make it through the first two minutes. The opening sequence of the movie is so horrible that I just knew it would be a complete waste of my time if I continued to watch such garbage. The hokey music that plays over his trial is corny and makes it almost comical, then they show the scene where he kills his first victim, which is also corny and phony.

From what I saw, this movie is a joke.

this movie seriously doesn't even deserve ONE star, but i don't think i could have written the review had i not marked it. i can't even believe i'm sitting here after wasting, what... an hour and a half, two hours of my time??? i guess i'm just running off of pure adrenaline... i am BEYOND irritated with myself that i didn't turn the movie off within the first five minutes like i thought to do. curiosity just got the best of me i suppose... i kept thinking that something of informative value was going to come up at some point, but no... NOTHING.

every single thing about this movie was just AWFUL. i could go on and on, but honestly, i've already wasted enough of my time.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME. seriously... go watch paint dry... i assure you you'll have more fun.

This movie is based upon the true story of Jeffrey Dahmer, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was arrested July 22, 1991. He had a curiousness about dead animals and became an alcoholic, serial killer and a habitual sex offender. He had murdered 16 men and boys between 1978-1991. His murders involved rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism.
His court trial began in 1992 and was very well publicized by the media.
The movie is dramatized from the Dahmer's family point of view as Jeff was imprisoned.
In 1991, Lionel Dahmer (Scott Cordes) receives a call at work from the police about his son Jeff (Rusty Sneary) being under arrest for a homicide. He contacts the grandmother and she says the police have a warrant to search inside her house, where Jeff used to live. He notifies his wife, Sherri (Cathy Barnett), who runs off a verbal list of what could have Jeff done now. However, she disregards everything Jeff has done as a child.
Lionel talks with his disturbed son at the police station. Then we see how Lionel deals with the crowd of reporters at home.
Flashbacks explore Jeffrey's childhood and adult life-style.

Please remember every one in this film is an actor.

This is an independent film, so do not expect this movie to be of the same calibur as a motion picture from a major studio.

You will not see any implied or explicit scenes or violence with minors in this film.

Also in the cast: Frankie Krainz, Erin McGrane, Kip Niven, Ric Huerill.

Co-producer Bo Svenson played "Detective John Amos".

Secret Life Of Jeffrey Dahmer (The) (2002).
Dahmer (2005).
The Trial of Jeffrey Dahmer: Serial Killer (2009).

The concept is great. "Raising Jeffrey Dahmer" sets out to be a dramatization of what the family members went through when the horrid crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer came out of hiding. Now, seriously, for a film that is supposed to be highly performance based you'd think they would have good actors. Nope. Not here. Every scene drags on endlessly and the actors obviously have no idea who it is that they are portraying. I would expect Lionel Dahmer to be represented as more than just a fat putz that goes "What? Oh no. Oh no I can't believe it. Oh man this is bad."

In the end, this is just a great idea gone horribly wrong.

I think Dahmer and Manson were brilliant people, and thats the only reason it got 3 stars. The movie was extremely boring and was uninformative. I half wish I could have rented this movie before I bought it. The acting was poor, and poorly casted. None the less I am glad I have the movie now because it is about Dahmer...

Do not waste your time. This was very VERY lame. I do not believe that is how Lionel and Shari were...at all. They made him seem so naive to what his son was doing. If he really was that naive, he should be classified as mildly retarded.

First, this is a movie that shows that Lionel Dahmer is not all there in the head. This movies shows that he knew what Jeffery was up too. The movie didn't really explain much. Too much flash backs. I think that lionel just showed how stupid he was. This movie made me angry. I am was anting to see what was going through the mind of the family at the time frame. This movie should be tossed in the trash because that is all it is. what i saw int his movie..Lionel should be arrested also. he was a lousy father and he knew what Jeffery was doing. The acting is terrible in the movie. Very low budget looking. Another thing I didn't like they actind like Jefferys mom was dead. They really didn't explain much about her. The people that made this movie should hide out of embrassment. because this was on of the worst movies in history.