My Friend Dahmer (dir. Marc Meyers)

There’s a tragic sense of loneliness at the heart of Marc Meyer’s superb biopic about infamous American serial killer Jeffery Dahmer; a deceptive and cruel style of solitude that only exists in the mind of the tormented. So becomes the thesis of “My Friend Dahmer” ,which charts a year in the life of the 17-year high school student and future rapist/killer/necrophelliac - played here with astonishing reality by "Disney Channel" star Ross Lynch - and his bewildering and bizarre behavior that became the catalyst for his murderous killing spree.

Filmed on location in Dammer’s hometown of Akron, Ohio, the late 1970’s vibe of counter-culture and radicalism are as prevalent as ever; yet, a mysterious and awkward pre-teen boy in the name of Jefferey Dahmer (Ross Lynch) attempts to deal with the vicissitudes of high-school life by repressing his darkest demons. He appears to live in his own world, spending his days collecting roadkill and dissolving them in acid. When he attempts to socialize with school kids who question him about his fascination with animal cruelty, he simply responds with “I like bones”; these chilling moments - deft in detail and portent - speak loudly about the mans character.

At first he is picked on by other classmates and referred to as a “homo”, but things appear to change for our young monster however when he is indoctrinated into a group of fellow scholars Alex Wolff’s John ‘Derf’ Backderf (with whose graphic novel memoir this film is based on), Neil (Tommy Nelson), Mike (Harrison Holzer) and Moose (Cameron McKendery). The birth of a “Dahmer fan club” is born, with Jeff as the perennial class clown, he becomes their source of entertainment, regularly disturbing the peace in school and in public with his eccentric “spaz” episodes - which are the scariest moments of the film - we know that they are using him for their own personal entertainment; they’re not laughing with him but laughing at him, yet he misconstrues this as an act of friendship.

Life isn’t much better at home either, Anne Heche chews the scenery for all it’s worth, and gives a conceiving portrayal of Jeff's numerously institutionalized mother Joyce Dahmer. As does Dallas Roberts as his father Lionel Dammer, clearly disappointed with his middle-aged life; he fails to understand his son’s fascination with seclusion and supplies his son with dumbbells in an vain attempt to get him to fit in, though ironically ends up supplying him with a future murder weapon.

But Meyer’s never shy's away from studying the confusion and agony with which our character lives with; his fascination with a local jogger, later revealed to be the local Dr. Matthews (Vincent Kartheiser), details his difficulty in understanding his sexual urges and becomes the main thesis of the film and suggests the genesis of something much more monstrous. Though he has so much to try and process at such a young age, it appears that the real Dahmer is slowly building up to the infamous man we know now - and that’s the credit to Meyer’s direction, he holds back from anything other than showing the genesis of the monster, instead of creating empathic reasons for his madness.

“My Friend Dammer” is exquisitely disturbing, moving, enthralling. So many questions still rack my brain about the mans upbringing yet i feel little empathy for his actions. Dammer was a product of his own compulsions, in a time period of counter-culture, though you didn’t need to conform to social norms, yet Dahmer appears to take it the next level, eschewing basic radicalism for something much more maligned with mental illness. The cinematography by Daniel Katz is chilling also, and adds to the bleak and atmospheric mis-en-scene. As is Andrew Hollander’s equally mysterious score, which sets the backdrop for the awkward and eery drama playing out on screen.

There’s an undercurrent of sadness and pity to the film’s ending which leaves with you a hollow feeling in your gut - you wonder who to blame for the mans burgeoning psychosis. Could he have been stopped if were able to accept his sexuality and channel these urges into something more in line with social norms, or was he doomed from the start? Loneliness is the answer - idle hands are a devils play thing, and 17 young boys would learn that the hard way.

Rating 4/5