The Jeffrey Dahmer Files | |
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Directed by | Chris James Thompson |
Written by | Chris James Thompson Andrew Swant Joe Riepenhoff |
Produced by | Chris Smith Barry Poltermann Jack Turner Chris James Thompson |
Starring | Andrew Swant Jeffrey Jentzen Pat Kennedy Pamela Bass |
Cinematography | Michael T. Vollmann |
Edited by | Michael T. Vollmann, Chris James Thompson |
Music by | Robert Mulrennan The Knife The Books |
Distributed by | IFC Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 80 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (aka Jeff) is an independent documentary film about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer during the summer of his arrest. The film was directed by Chris James Thompson and stars Andrew Swant as Dahmer in fictionalized re-enactment segments which are interwoven with interviews of the medical examiner assigned to the case (Jeffrey Jentzen), the lead detective (Pat Kennedy), and Dahmer's next door neighbor (Pamela Bass).
The film premiered at the 2012 SXSW film festival under the title Jeff, where it received positive reviews and obtained sales representation from Josh Braun at Submarine Entertainment. The film also played at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto, the Independent Film Festival of Boston, and the BFI London Film Festival.
The documentary was picked up by IFC Films who re-titled it The Jeffrey Dahmer Files. Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “Chris James Thompson has made one of the creepiest documentaries of the year that lingers in the mind long after the film has ended. He’s approached the well-known subject of Jeffrey Dahmer in a new and inventive way that managed to completely unnerve us." The film was released theatrically and on Video On Demand through IFC on February 15, 2013, followed by a DVD release. The film was later released on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, AMC+, and Google Play. [1]
The film was shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Super 16 mm film over the course of three years. It was executive produced by Chris Smith (director of American Movie ), Barry Poltermann, and Jack Turner.
In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and sentenced to 957 years in prison for murdering 17 men and boys and dismembering their bodies. Jeff explores the city of Milwaukee by meeting those surrounding Dahmer during and after his hidden spree. Recollections from Milwaukee Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen, Police Detective Patrick Kennedy, and neighbor Pamela Bass are interwoven with archival footage and everyday scenes from Dahmer's life, working collectively to disassemble the facade of an ordinary man leading an ordinary existence.
The film received generally positive reviews, many of them praising the director's restraint. Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called the film "a meditation on perversion as hypnotic as it is repulsive" and labeled it a "Critics' Pick". [2] Mark Olson of the Los Angeles Times called the film "quietly unnerving." [3]
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter said that “Jeff stands apart from the true-crime pack" and called Swant's portrayal of Dahmer "eerily convincing.” [4] John Gholson of Movies.com said “I’d go so far as to say that Jeff is one of the greatest serial killer movies ever made.” [5]
Owen Gleiberman, writing for Entertainment Weekly , said the film was "for hardcore Dahmer obsessives only. Through a mix of documentary footage and staged scenes, director Chris James Thompson explores the days during which Dahmer’s crimes were first discovered. Interviews with the medical examiner on the scene and the officer who first interrogated Dahmer bring us into a newly queasy communion with the horror of his crimes." [6]
The film won the Milwaukee Film Festival's Cream City Cinema Grand Jury Award for 2012. [7]
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial killer and sex offender who killed and dismembered seventeen males between 1978 and 1991. Many of his later murders involved necrophilia, cannibalism, and the permanent preservation of body parts—typically all or part of the skeleton.
John Backderf, also known as Derf or Derf Backderf, is an American cartoonist. He is most famous for his graphic novels, especially My Friend Dahmer, the international bestseller which won an Angoulême Prize, and earlier for his comic strip The City, which appeared in a number of alternative newspapers from 1990 to 2014. In 2006 Derf won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for cartooning. Backderf has been based in Cleveland, Ohio, for much of his career.
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Dahmer is a 2002 American horror drama film written and directed by David Jacobson, and co-written by David Birke. A limited theatrical release, it is based on the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer, who killed seventeen young men and boys in Bath, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin between 1978 and 1991. It stars Jeremy Renner as Dahmer, and co-stars Artel Great, Matt Newton, Dion Basco and Bruce Davison.
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Cropsey is a 2009 American documentary film written and directed by Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio. The film initially begins as an examination of "Cropsey", a boogeyman-like figure from New York City urban legend, before segueing into the story of Andre Rand, a convicted child kidnapper from Staten Island whose known or suspected crimes in the 1970s and '80s may have inspired or been blamed on Cropsey.
Kill List is a 2011 British psychological horror crime film directed by Ben Wheatley, co-written and co-edited with Amy Jump, and starring Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring and Michael Smiley. In the film, a British soldier joins an old friend in working as contract killers. His disturbed past surfaces as he spins out of control during jobs and ominous employers raise the stakes.
Beneath the Dark is a 2010 American mystery-thriller film directed by Chad Feehan, and starring Josh Stewart, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Chris Browning.
Silver Bullets is a 2011 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Joe Swanberg. The film stars Kate Lyn Sheil, Ti West, Swanberg and Amy Seimetz. It is one of six films released by Swanberg in 2011. The film had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on February 12, 2011, and was then released in a limited release on October 28, 2011, by Factory25.
Hart D. Fisher is an American horror crime author, comic book writer and publisher best known for creating a comic book about Jeffrey Dahmer and for founding Boneyard Press.
The Damned, also known as Gallows Hill, is a 2013 American horror film directed by Víctor Garcia. The film stars Peter Facinelli, Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Carolina Guerra. It shows a family and group of friends stranded in a storm and looking to seek refuge in a house inhabited by an ancient evil presence. The film was produced by Peter Block, Andrea Chung, and David Higgins, and is a joint Colombian-American production. The film had its world premiere at the Sitges Film Festival on October 17, 2014. and was released on video on demand on July 25, 2014, before a limited release by IFC Midnight on August 29, 2014. The film received generally negative reviews.
My Friend Dahmer is a 2017 American biographical psychological drama film written and directed by Marc Meyers about American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The film is based on the 2012 graphic novel of the same name by cartoonist John "Derf" Backderf, who had been friends with Dahmer in high school in the 1970s, until the time Dahmer began his killing spree in 1978. The film stars Ross Lynch as Dahmer, Alex Wolff as Derf, Dallas Roberts as Lionel, Jeffrey's father, and Anne Heche as Joyce, Jeffrey's mother.
The Clovehitch Killer is a 2018 American coming-of-age thriller film, directed by Duncan Skiles in his directorial debut and written by Christopher Ford. It stars Dylan McDermott, Charlie Plummer, Samantha Mathis, and Madisen Beaty. The film was mostly inspired by the story of real life serial killer Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK Killer.
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is the first season of the American biographical crime drama anthology television series Monster, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix, which was released on September 21, 2022. Murphy and Brennan both serve as showrunners. Dahmer is about the life of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Other main characters include Dahmer's father Lionel, his stepmother Shari, suspicious neighbor Glenda, and grandmother Catherine.