My Friend Dahmer
Ever wondered what it would be like to meet a serial killer in the making?
Credits
Dir-Scr Marc Meyers
Prod Jody Girgenti, Marc Meyers, Adam Goldworm, Michael Merlob, Milan Chakraborty
With Ross Lynch, Anne Heche, Dallas Roberts
USA
2017
107min
UK Distribution Altitude Film Distribution
It’s Jeffrey Dahmer: The High School Years, in this unnerving portrait of the serial killer as a young man. Long before gaining notoriety as one of America’s most prolific murderers, Jeffrey Dahmer seems to be just another adolescent outcast, awkwardly navigating his way through the everyday horrors of high school. But when his erratic behaviour attracts his schoolmates’ attention, he is goaded into performing increasingly outrageous acts. As his sexual desires develop, so too do his sociopathic tendencies, and slowly the teenager’s dark obsessions rise to the surface. With its sly black humour and bold production design (the film was partly shot in Dahmer’s own childhood home), Marc Meyers’ adaptation of John Backderf’s revered graphic novel might initially recall outsider teen movies like Ghost World or Napoleon Dynamite. But beneath the surface sheen beats a very dark heart and as Jeffrey’s psychoses begin to envelop him, there is a palpable sense of a monster emerging before our very eyes.
Michael Blyth
Festival guests
These members of the filmmaking team are expected to attend the festival:
- Marc Meyers, Director
See the full list of visiting festival guests. Please note that we can't guarantee guest attendance at any particular screening.

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