David Hunt
The good in this documentary is really good. The interviews are compelling and interesting, and tell the story of Dahmer from perspectives not only not shown before, but not often shown at all.
The bad is almost just as bad. Why do I need some unmemorable actor playing Dahmer in an over-the-top "Look how weird I am" performance? It adds nothing and comes off as pretentious hipster rebranding of a "character" that anyone should know isn't accurate.
michael_mambrino
A riveting and quietly unsettling blend of interviews and fictionalized re- enactments of his daily life (not the murders), The Jeffrey Dahmer Files take a look at the quiet neighbor whose apartment became an abattoir of horrors.Therefore, Overall it's an incredibly well-made documentary about one of America's most infamous serial killers. Not only do the three interviewees have extremely interesting stories to tell, the narrative is filmed in such a chilling way that it is the most disturbing form of simple film-making I have ever seen. This documentary makes the story of Dahmer feel even more gruesome by leaving many things up to the viewer's imagination, even though the story is well known.
ShadowsBeneathTheLight
This starts off very slow to the point that I almost turned it off after a few minutes. However, when I saw that one of the speakers was the lead investigator on the Dahmer case, I continued to watch for a little while longer. And it was then that the documentary got interesting. This short movie follows the story of the lead investigator who interrogated Dahmer during his confession and how he corroborated with forensic investigators to determine just how many people Dahmer had killed. The deceive's and forensic's stories are good. The other chunk of the documentary interviews Dahmer's neighbor and a few others who knew him and their experience during his arrest. Although it offers another story/point of view to the case, it ultimately was not needed and made the picture feel slow and lackluster. The final chunk follows an actor playing the role of Dahmer just shopping and walking around so just reenacting his everyday life. This was absolutely a waste of footage and time. More footage of the Dahmer case would have been better to show in it's place.
valis1949
THE JEFFERY DAHMER FILES (dir. Chris James Thompson) A startlingly original dramatization and documentary about infamous Milwaukee serial killer, Jeffery Dahmer. The film features conversations with three interviewees; the detective who had first contact with Dahmer, the middle- aged, Afro American woman who was Dahmer's neighbor in the apartment building where his crimes were committed, and the medical examiner on the case. The fictionalized sections of the film augment and enhance the interrogative segments, and make this an authentic dramatic production and not just a series of interviews with 'talking heads'. The film is not even eighty minutes, but it is superbly edited and a brilliant example of documentary film-making. Well Worth a Look.
AD
