Separating the attractive actor from his repulsive subject.
Equal parts controversial and captivating, Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story mixes nostalgia with nauseating depictions of the serial killer's reality as it details his tumultuous home life, troubled teen years, and eventual murderous escapades. The series, co-created by American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy and Scream Queens writer Ian Brennan, has audiences stirring uncomfortably, unable to look away from a repulsive piece of true crime history that has been brought back to life in a visceral way that is both stomach-turning and emotionally gripping. While true crime has been growing in popularity for years, and society's fascination with killers has been heightened with dramatized biopics in the past, the Monster's enormous popularity has left us wondering why we are so captivated by this telling of the repulsive killer's crimes in particular. Aside from the series' striking mixture of sunbathed '70s scenery and filthy domiciles that you can practically smell through the screen, the curious casting of Evan Peters seems to have been creepily calculated to keep us tuned in.
Since guest starring as Michael Scott's inept nephew in The Office, and goofily dancing his heart out as the best part of cheesy teen flick Sleepover, Peters has become a horror legend and fan favorite of Murphy’s works. Appearing in 9 of the 10 seasons of American Horror Story, Peters has taken on the roles of a misunderstood and murderous teenage ghost, a resilient yet heartbroken inmate framed for his wife’s murder, a charming killer throwing a Halloween party, a charismatic cult leader and so on. In American Horror Story, Peters embodies his characters’ distress, chivalry, mischievousness, and pain, and manages to make his bad guy characters likable, sometimes even lovable. It's an interesting and dangerous reputation to take with him into his most recent role.
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Peters’ distinctive wide smile, intense, searching gaze and magnetic personality are very opposite from Dahmer, who Peters noted in a Netflix interview does not have a charismatic smile, and seems aloof and dissociated from what’s going on around him. In order to create an authentic portrayal of the withdrawn serial killer, Peters had to dive deep into the darker places of his psyche, a feat that the actor stated was one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do.
Given the differences between Dahmer and the exuberant, intense characters Peters normally portrays, his casting as the killer seems an odd choice on the surface. Dahmer is stony-faced, anti-social, and uncomfortable as he attempts to keep his normal-seeming mask in place, behind which lives his own personal world of dark and cruel fantasies. But when Dahmer is portrayed as alone and uninhibited, having heavily intoxicated imaginary conversations, drunkenly dancing at his kitchen table, and flirting with empty chairs, he is perceived as the charismatic, social person that he wanted to be, and closer to a character we would expect to see Peters play the part of. While this portrayal of secret emotions and longing for normalcy is masterful of Peters, the downside is that he makes this repulsive person feel momentarily magnetic, keeping audiences drawn in and feeding into the world's ongoing hybristophilia.
Hybristophilia is the fascination with, romanticization of, and attraction to those who commit crimes, and is often associated with the strange slew of sexually charged “groupies” of serial killers. From Ted Bundy to Charles Manson and beyond, killers and criminals can become strangely idolized figures in an odd twist of human psychology that is still not fully understood. Some psychologists theorize that hybristophilia may have to do with an attraction to power or the role of being an enabler, while others relate it to the paraphilic desire for danger in sensual settings. In any case, it's important for viewers of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story to separate the actor and his strikingly attractive physical attributes from the killer that he is portraying. If not, then some may find themselves dangerously drawn to Dahmer as a figurehead, with Peters' portrayal of a lonely outsider with shy curiosity and sexual naivety in mind.
The point of portraying Dahmer in the way that Peters does is not to bring the killer any form of fanfare or sympathy, but to give the audience what they want: a look into how Jeffrey Dahmer came to be who he was, and the early signs that something was deeply wrong with the murderer from a young age. The series has faced some backlash due to a number of viewers perceiving these depictions as a way to humanize Dahmer by showing his troubled family life, his confused guilt, and his attempts to seek help. However, by showing that the killer recognized that there was something wrong with him, along with his attempt to ask for help from his father in a tense diner scene, audiences see how he was able to get away with his heinous acts due to a lack of accountability from his family, as well as blatant racism and homophobia on part of the police. Peters said in the aforementioned interview that Murphy wanted to tell a story that was bigger than Dahmer himself, the story of his victims and how the system failed those 17 men and boys. In portraying the murderer as close to reality as possible, Peters pays respect to the victims' story in that way.
Throughout the gut-wrenching series, Peters does a chillingly excellent job of embodying a range of often hidden emotions, as well as the killer's constant struggle to keep those emotions under control, not to mention hiding his characteristic dimpled grin behind an awkward tight-lipped smile and creepily overgrown blonde mustache. His charismatic, flirtatious magnetism slips out just momentarily from between the cracks of a mask worn by a truly sick-minded, obsessive, evil individual. When talking about his roles in American Horror Story, Peters said that he stepped out of himself to see how he had become desensitized to the horrifying acts that he has portrayed on screen. The same cannot be said for his role as Jeffrey Dahmer, which Peters needed the assistance of the crew to keep him “on the guard rails” to achieve. To a subject with which he has nothing in common, Evan Peters has been able to apply raw and charged emotion making his portrayal seem that much more authentic, and making us as viewers feel drawn in despite the repulsive subject matter. As we grapple with our own psychology as an audience, there is no denying that Peters’ interpretation of and dedication to his role is unmatched in true crime cinema.
Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is now available to stream on Netflix.
Bry is a film fanatic who deeply cherishes the fantasy worlds that movies and shows allow us to escape into.
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