Based on the life of serial killer
Jeffrey Dahmer, this biopic strangely ignores most of his more infamous exploits and instead focuses on the human
aspects of the man behind the monster.
The film starts off with the unfortunate incident of victim Konerak Sinthasomphone who, having escaped Dahmer's apartment and obviously being under the influence of some sort of drug, was actually escorted back there by the police, after believing Dahmer's story that Konerak was his male lover.
But following this, the story seems to lose its way, skipping over many aspects of his life and crimes, instead focusing on an apparently fictional relationship that Dahmer (a pre-"Avenger's" Jeremy Renner, in an early role) develops with a character named Rodney (Artel Kayàru), who seems to be loosely based on Dahmer's last victim Tracey Edwards.
Whilst the director more or less achieves his aim in showing that Dahmer was, at the end of the day, just a human being. The film is extremely disjointed and it's not at all clear upon initial viewing that portions of the film where actually meant to be flashbacks to his younger years. Something I only discovered through the DVD commentary track, which makes for a very confusing mess of a film.
In addition, despite the film being called "Dahmer the Cannibal" (for the UK release anyway), the cannibalistic aspects of his murders were totally omitted, the film is virtually blood free, and it doesn't even show you how he was eventually caught.
The film is worth a watch though, even if only for seeing a then unknown Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker" and Hawkeye from "Avengers") in an early role. But this is not what I would call a faithful biopic by any means.
