Ryan Murphy talked about Dahmer: Monster, his series that focuses on the story of the terrible murders committed by Jeffrey Dahmer between 1978 and 1991, which claimed the lives of 17 men. At the time of the premiere of the episodes, they received numerous negative reviews. They highlighted the fact that the production focused more on portraying the brutality of the murderer and not so much on giving a voice to the victims of these heinous crimes.
The controversy was greater when the wave of criticism was joined by the voices of the relatives of the murdered people, who at the time claimed not to have been contacted so that, at the time of developing the project, they would be consulted regarding their opinion and their experiences. Even Dahmer’s father spoke out against the series.
Now, Murphy is responding to criticism. He firmly assures that, being in the pre-production stage, he did try to contact approximately 20 relatives. However, there was no response and his efforts were unsuccessful. This was revealed during a special feature of the series held last Thursday, October 27, 2022. These were his words (via The Hollywood Reporter):
“It’s something we’ve been researching for a long time. And over the three or three and a half years that we were actually writing and working on this, we reached out to 20, about 20 family members and friends of the victims to get their input, to talk to them. And not a single person responded to us in that process. So we lean a lot on our amazing group of researchers who… I don’t even know how they found a lot of this stuff. But it was like a night and day effort for us, trying to find out the truth of these people.
One of the most condemned aspects of the production was that it focused too much on pain. Especially that of the men who died at the hands of the so-called “Milwaukee Cannibal.” But all without offering much background. Simply to shock.
For example, Rita Isbell, the sister of Errol Lindsey, a young man who was a victim of Dahmer at the age of 19, said that Netflix profited from the tragedy. However, the creator maintains that this was not the point.
“One thing we talked about a lot on set is that we weren’t so interested in Jeffrey Dahmer, the person, but what made him the monster that he became. We talk about it a lot…and we talk about it all the time. Actually, the series is about white privilege. It’s about systemic racism. It’s about homophobia.”
For her part, the director Paris Baclay, who took charge of two chapters, mentioned the following:
“We want it to be about celebrating the victims. […] It is about making sure that these people are not erased by history and that they have a place and are recognized and that they were important and that they lived full lives. And they came from all kinds of places, but they were real people.”
Dahmercreated by Ryan Murphy and starring Evan Peters, is now on Netflix.
Jose Roberto Landaverde Film buff and music lover. I am fascinated by writing, listening, reading and commenting on everything related to the seventh art. I am a fan of Rocky and Back to the Future and of course one day I will climb the “Philly Steps” and drive a DeLorean. Faithful believer that the cinema is the best teleportation machine, and also that we can all see ourselves represented on the big screen. Constantly, like Scott Pilgrim, I ask myself: “Does bread make you fat?”