Film

My Friend Dahmer

Name: My Friend Dahmer
Genre: History, Drama, Crime
Released: 2017
Cast: Ross Lynch, Alex Wolff, Anne Heche, Dallas Roberts, Liam Koeth

A portrait of Jeffrey Dahmer's adolescence told through the eyes of his only real friend. Rather than sensationalism, it's a quiet, uncomfortable study of how isolation, family dysfunction, and social rejection can calcify into something monstrous. It's for people interested in the psychology of evil rather than the spectacle of it.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to quiet, unshowy character studies that watch an adolescent's isolation from the inside, and you don't need the horror to be shown on screen.

Skip it if you want a gripping crime thriller with a clear arc; this is slow, observational and often bleak, with its tension held in silences rather than set pieces.

What it asks of you: Around 107 minutes of small, uncomfortable household moments with little relief and no interest in shock; let the mood settle rather than waiting for a payoff.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Zodiac2007

Fincher's methodical hunt for a serial killer prioritizes psychology and obsession over gore. It's fascinated by the mind of the criminal and the detective pursuing him—the same moral tension that drives My Friend Dahmer.

But Nearly three hours long, deliberately paced, and the investigation leads nowhere definitive. If you want closure or action, you'll be frustrated.

MINDHUNTER2017

A forensic study of how the FBI learned to profile serial killers by talking to them. It has the same intellectual approach to understanding monstrosity, and it premiered the same year with similar ambitions about getting inside broken minds.

But Slow, talky, and genuinely bleak. Season two especially dwells in moral grey areas without offering easy answers or catharsis.

Monster2003

Charlize Theron as a serial killer nobody wanted to know. Like My Friend Dahmer, it's invested in the humanity and damage that precedes the violence, not the violence itself.

But Difficult viewing: the abuse and degradation Theron's character suffers is relentless. It's a film about cruelty, not for casual evening viewing.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from My Friend Dahmer

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Killing2011

Both are intimate studies of crime and character that reject sensationalism for quiet, accumulated dread. They're interested in *why* people are damaged, and how that damage spreads to others.

Sarah Lund investigates a young girl's murder across an entire season. Unlike the mainstream recommendations, this is procedural—but it builds character and context the same way My Friend Dahmer does. You watch people meticulously, over time, understanding how they're shaped. The victim matters. The community matters. The investigation is glacial.

But Danish-language with subtitles, extremely bleak, and the pacing is antithetical to modern television. If you want momentum or a satisfying resolution, prepare to be frustrated.

The Act2019

Gypsy Rose Blanchard's mother kept her imprisoned and unnecessarily medicated for years. Like Dahmer, it's about a twisted family dynamic that nobody outside saw—co-dependence as a form of slow poison.

But The psychological manipulation is suffocating and sometimes feels exploitative of real trauma. Some viewers find it exhausting rather than enlightening.

In Cold Blood1967

Truman Capote's adaptation of his own book about two drifters who murdered a family. It's the original template: a murder story told with novelistic depth about the killers as people, not monsters.

But Black and white, 1967, and deliberately austere. It demands patience and won't reward you with excitement or resolution.

Nightcrawler2014

Jake Gyllenhaal as a sociopath piecing together an identity from TV and the internet. It captures the same hollow performance of normalcy, the persona stitched together from outside sources.

But Relentlessly cynical and bleak. If you're looking for a character to root for or any moral anchoring, there isn't one.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford2007

A meditation on obsession with a killer, told through the eyes of someone who knows him. Same structure—intimate, claustrophobic, more interested in emotional truth than narrative momentum.

But Deliberately slow, atmospheric rather than dramatic. Some find it pretentious; others find it hypnotic. There's no middle ground.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford poster

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011

A mother's attempt to understand how her son became a mass murderer. It's structured like My Friend Dahmer—backwards, fragments, trauma as explanation rather than excuse.

But Abstract, fragmented, and devastating. The film trusts you to piece together the story; some viewers find that maddening instead of artful.

The Childhood of a Leader2016

Both films argue that monsters aren't born; they're made by circumstance, family, and the world's indifference. Both watch carefully as a young person's capacity for empathy erodes.

A visually stunning, unconventional portrait of a spoiled boy growing up in post-war Europe. It's not about crime, but about how a psyche forms—family, privilege, rage, and the roots of tyranny. The filmmaking is formally ambitious and hypnotic.

But Slow, opaque, and resolutely unsentimental. If you expect conventional narrative or emotional release, you'll be lost. Some find it self-consciously artful rather than moving.

Let the Right One In2008

Like My Friend Dahmer, it's about outsider friendship as a form of survival. It asks: what happens when the only person who accepts you is broken too? Can love bloom in darkness, or does darkness consume the love?

A Swedish vampire film, but really a study of two isolated children—one of them a vampire—finding companionship in darkness. Achingly tender and genuinely eerie. It's a film about otherness and belonging.

But A vampire film might feel like genre fluff, but it's anything but. Some viewers want more plot and less mood; this refuses to oblige.