Raising Jeffrey Dahmer

2006
R
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Based on the true story of the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, the events within the family behind, and leading up to his capture.Based on the true story of the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, the events within the family behind, and leading up to his capture.Based on the true story of the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, the events within the family behind, and leading up to his capture.

Director
- Rich Ambler
Writers
- Wood Dickinson
- Christopher Ryan
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.0/10

469

YOUR RATING

Director
- Rich Ambler
Writers
- Wood Dickinson
- Christopher Ryan
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
The film takes place in 1960, 1969, 1973, 1978, 1988 and 1991.

Goofs
When Lionel returns to his mother's house, he turns on the television to see his son, Jeffrey Dahmer's mugshot on the news. In the mugshot, he has a handlebar mustache without glasses. This is a mugshot from his 1986 arrest (another mugshot from 1982 has him with the handlebar mustache with glasses, both arrests for indecent exposure). When Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested for murder in 1991, he did not have a mustache in his mugshot, and wore a windbreaker jacket.

Connections
Referenced in Only Murders in the Building: Two for the Road (2024)

User reviews16

Review

Featured review

1/10

Not very good. Or any good, really

Who'd have thought a movie about a serial killer would be boring? But this movie is. It's disjointed and dull, and less about raising Jeffrey Dahmer than his family coming to grips with his arrest. That would be OK, but even that emotional time isn't portrayed very well.

The acting isn't very good, but the script is even worse. It's difficult to sympathize with any of the characters, who are all pretty much one-dimensional: the self-questioning father, the steely stepmother and the distraught grandma. It seems impossible that any of them can feel those qualities simultaneously. There are tons of flashbacks, but they seem to come in no particular order, interspersed with comments such as, "That's it! That's when we knew!" I'm not sure if there are better movies about Jeffrey Dahmer out there, but I hope so.