Friday, August 22, 2008

Raising Jeffrey Dahmer (2005) R - 2½ Stars

Fascination into the mind of a serial killer, got me to rent this one. However, it's not what I expected. My vision was more of actual footage of his childhood and his real parents, not actors. But it says the movie was made based on his parents acknowledgement. Not sure how many liberties the movie takes with the truth, but I really didn't find it real informative. If you believe, as the movie tells it, there were many signs the father saw in Jeffrey way before he actually murdered anyone. It doesn't appear he was abused as a boy, though they don't really spotlight on the mother much. More just the father and his new wife, (Jeffrey's stepmother).

As a boy, Jeffrey used to collect road kill of the street and was fascinated by some old smelly bones of a skunk that he and his father dug up from the side of their house. "Fiddle sticks", as he called them. His father was a scientist and Jeffrey's first experiment was pouring chemicals onto some of the road kill, to see how they would react. Now I don't know about you, but hello, that sounds like a major warning sign to me? Poured oil on goldfish and rumors think he also beheaded his dog. Okay so I guess I did learn a few things. But basically on the slow side and just not enough insight into what may have pushed him in that direction besides his alcoholism.

Renegade Pictures
Director: Rich Ambler
Writers: Christopher Ryan, Wood Dickinson
Producer: Wood Dickinson
I viewed 8/08

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I saw a cable special, not sure of the channel, that had his real parents in a interview. The part with the father was actually filmed before his death. It was pretty interesting. His father did say there were signs but he chose to ingnore them.