Why Am I Sympathising With Serial Killers?
DahmEr: Monster The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (SPOILERS AHEAD)
The flagrant menagerie of serial killers being placed on pedestals for the modern streaming era creates an oddly cruel equilibrium of human understanding, despite the horrors they admitted too. The realistic portrayal feeds furthermore into the disturbed mindset of these individuals whilst committing these heinous acts on their victims. But even knowing these things and seeing them play out on screen, and screaming at my TV “DON’T GO BACK IN FOR YOUR KEYS TONY” - I still cried when Jeffrey was killed. I sympathised with him. Does that make me a bad person?
Or is it the actualisation of displacing them from their labelled serial killer mentality and recognising them as a human being. Now I’m not stating that he deserves sympathy or to be viewed by anything other than what he did. But in a way, for me at least, it’s created a level of humanity for somebody I would’ve never before believed to have contained an inch of it prior to watching the show; that’s what’s incredibly messed up, it’s a show, to be viewed, consumed and talked about amongst peers about the disturbing nature of someone as sick and cruel as Jeffrey Dahmer. This is peoples actual lives being used as an entertainment platform for the public, like myself, to create an opinion, and furthermore a production to gain recognition amongst the industry’s accolades. One of the most fucked up parts of this series besides Jeffrey’s 17 killings was the disturbing reality of the police and their incompetence. They ignored ‘Gloria Cleveland’ a black woman who practically laid out evidence that Jeffrey was hurting people, ignoring vital signs of his behaviour due to their obvious racism and indiscretion towards a vulnerable community. A judge dismissing Jeffrey of severe charges of child sexual assault, favouring him because he was a white male ‘who had his life ahead of him’ and ignoring a grieving family who were immigrants, later to find out that Jeffrey murdered their other 14 year old son and performed a lobotomy on him whilst he was drugged. It’s truly unbelievable how Jeffrey somehow became invincible through a party who should’ve been protecting the public from him, inevitably betraying them in every way. It’s as if he knew what he was doing was wrong, but continued because no one ‘tried’ to stop him.
Now I have to tread lightly here because my opinion isn’t exactly valid and I’m hardly bearing a right to speak on this subject other than a speculation of personal intrigue. But are people really running out of original ideas? Are these production companies and writers coming to the realisation that real life happenings are ten times more intriguing to viewers than that of fictionalised bias’? And don’t get me wrong I know this isn’t unusual; ‘Hollywood’ has been retelling stories for years, but what is the intrigue with serial killers and mass murderers? Are we as humans rationalising evil through tv and films because we consume so much ‘bad news’ it somehow stabilises our reality? As if that’s something we can control; what we consume within a contained environment. From corrupt political leaders to terrorism attacks and school shooters, why do we want to sit down at night and watch the retelling of a disturbed individual cut up and eat his victims?
I guess my fascination with the story was purely that, fascination.
And I guess when we can’t rationalise doing something so disturbing we try to understand why someone would, looking towards true crime retellings and interviews with psychologists assessments of their psyche.
I also think for me I link my intrigue to Evan Peters, the phenomenon playing the monster himself. I have had a ‘slight’ teenage crush on him since I first saw him in ‘American Horror Story: Murder House’. He’s intriguingly charismatic, boyishly handsome and so freakin talented. He shines in his portrayals of psychopathic killers, ruthless cult leaders and maniacs. But contrary to that statement he perfectly revels as the comic relief. I’m in awe of him to be honest. And maybe that’s half of my reasoning behind my confused state, I feel for him as Jeffrey, but not Jeffrey himself? His vacantly cruel performance was truly believable and maybe somewhere deep down that is my messed up pursuance of rationalising Jeffrey’s humanity, not for the man himself. Does that make sense? Adding furthermore to this weirdly cruel, intentional ‘in two minds’ perception for audiences to grasp.
This series will continue to make headlines through award seasons and I’m sure it will be nominated for Emmy’s and SAG’s and MTV awards. And it frankly deserves all the awards for the fact that it was an incredible production with a phenomenal lead and supporting cast, but I hope the true take aways aren’t facading the portrayal of the actual victims here. I hope the families find solace in this story being told from a different perspective. Although in saying that I couldn’t imagine reliving these emotions and having their stories be perceived as entertainment. It’s exacerbated by the unfortunate fact that they can’t even profit off of their own reality that they’re living, and continue to live with everyday.
Written by Isabella Richardson
