CHEAPyan Murphy and Joe Berlinger are two sides of the same Netflix coin, creating (respectively) micro-fiction and non-fiction industries out of notorious true-crime stories. Therefore, it is fitting that the two simultaneously turn their attention to the most notorious serial killer of the late ’80s and early ’90s, Jeffrey Dahmer — Murphy with Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Berlinger with A Conversation with a Murderer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tape. The third part in Conversation documentary series (continued 2019 Ted Bundy and in 2022 John Wayne Gacy effort), boasting audio interviews with the madmen themselves, Berlinger’s latest (October 7th), like its predecessors, offers headline-worthy revelations. However, thankfully, it also cut on Murphy’s scripted versionInvestigate the demon’s reign of terror comprehensively and clearly.
What sets Dahmer apart from so many other serial killers, quite simply, is the depth of his depravity. When defense attorney Wendy Patrickus said that, meeting her new client for the first time, she felt like Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs, the reference is appropriate, since Dahmer is the type of monster usually found only in multiplexers. He is Leatherface, Hannibal Lecter and Henry (from Henry: Portrait of a serial killer) curled up as a person, except in a peaceful people guise that allows him to go undetected when he commits his crimes. The fact that a neighbor recalls once seeing a film-like fog escape from Dahmer’s door, as well as Dahmer’s fondness for The Exorcist III and Return of the Jedi– to the point where he even bought and wore yellow contact lenses to look more like the Emperor – further reinforcing the impression that Dahmer was a gentle predator fit for a horror movie.
The Jeffrey Dahmer tape is not, alas, fictional, and despite a host of the usual superfluous dramatic entertainment, it handles its material with necessary sanity. By its title, Berlinger’s three-part series is most notable for a collection of previously unreleased recorded conversations with the killer conducted by Patrickus between July and October 1991 following upon his arrest and before his trial in 1992, where he was found guilty and pleaded guilty. fifteen life sentences. The material is fascinating not only because there is so much, but because Dahmer is so forthright, discussing the details of his childhood, the gradual progression of his deviant impulses, the practice of his murders, and necrosis, decay, macabre experiments, and cannibalism ensue. Dahmer’s first-person perspective is central throughout and conveys his cold, calculating madness.
“It has to be faced… It’s weird, isn’t it?” Dahmer commented at the beginning The Jeffrey Dahmer tape. “It’s not easy talking about it. It’s something I’ve been burying in me for years, and yes, it’s like trying to pull a two-ton rock out of a well.” Despite such difficulty, however, Dahmer proves a surprisingly introspective and forthcoming storyteller, demonstrating a consistent interest in analyzing thoughts, impulses, and behaviors. his actions in an attempt to better understand why he “doesn’t seem to have a normal sense of empathy” and ends up resorting to unimaginable atrocities. “What triggered it all? I wish I could give you a straight and good answer on that,” he mused at one point. He later admitted that “talking about it and analyzing it showed me how wrong my thinking was.” However, full self-awareness remains elusive, as is any obvious compassion or remorse (despite a throwaway statement) for the life he’s been cruel to, and the family and community he left in ruins.
If the underlying “reason” regarding Dahmer’s objection is unknown – to him, and to us –The Jeffrey Dahmer tape nonetheless thoroughly examine the killer’s famous motives. A by-product of a ruined home, Dahmer enjoyed dying as a child, and became a heavy drinker in his youth, burning out in college and in the military. An antisocial and lonely gay man, Dahmer fantasized about being with helpless men he could control (physically and sexually), and He first made those twisted dreams come true in Ohio in 1978, when he used a barbell to kill his daughter. The victim was 18-year-old hitchhiker Steven Hicks. Nine years passed before Dahmer was killed again, at that time he was living in West Allis, Wisconsin, with his grandmother, a devout and caring woman who never doubted that his grandson was I’m picking up strangers at gay bars and baths, drugging and killing them. stay at her house at night, and then come down to breakfast with her in the morning.
“The bloodshed he caused was unimaginable, including drilling holes in the heads of several men, and pouring acid into their brains, in an attempt to turn them into compliant zombies; cannibalism as a way to keep them with you forever; having sex with a corpse; use acid to treat bones; and keep the skull as a memento.“
Dahmer eventually moves into Milwaukee’s Oxford Apartments, where – driven by a range of triggers – he loses any part of the control he had over his murderous compulsion. The bloodshed he caused was unimaginable, including drilling holes in the heads of several men, and pouring acid into their brains, in an attempt to turn them into compliant zombies; cannibalism as a way to keep them with you forever; having sex with a corpse; use acid to process bones; and keep the skull as a memento. Fear of abandonment and desire to be prevented are at the core of his cruel behavior, and Berlinger scrutinizes those biases through interviews with lawyers and psychologists. forensic scientists, police and journalists involved in the case. Also made up of home movies, family and crime scene photos and archival TV news reports, The Jeffrey Dahmer tape as close to its subject matter as possible, while also tapping into the socioeconomic and racial dynamics inherent in the story of a sick white man hunting down poor gay people of color, and associated stay in contact with — and then avoid arrest by — local police officers.
Dahmer was certainly a beneficiary of stereotypes and cultural circumstances (such as the then-widespread AIDS epidemic, which was relatively common for gay men to disappear). However, the question of what had arisen in Dahmer’s heart and mind was the desire for carnage (“Killing someone and dealing with them immediately does not bring lasting pleasure or satisfaction.” . And I still feel compelled to do it all these days ”) unanswered in The Jeffrey Dahmer tape. For all the insight into the various factors and sensations that led him to do what he did, Berlinger’s archives give the most chills as it stares into the abyss and see only unfathomable darkness.
