In “American Horror Story” Ryan Murphy primarily brought up fictional monstrous people and figures. But his interest in real serial killers is already evident there. In the ninth season “American Horror Story: 1984”, designed as a tribute to cult slashers, the very real serial killer Richard Ramirez plays an important role. It was featured in a previous season of the anthology series. In the fifth season entitled “American Horror Story: Hotel” he was part of a whole series of ghosts of serial killers who met to play cards. Also there was Jeffrey Dahmer, whom Murphy is now putting at the center of his new Netflix series.
In Dahmer: Monsters: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer, Murphy plays American Horror Story co-star Evan Peters, aka Quicksviler from the X-Men franchise, one of the most famous serial killers of all time. The murders of young men, some of whom were minors, committed by Dahmer between 1978 and 1991 are considered particularly cruel – also because he not only sexually abused his victims before the murder, but also necrophilically assaulted them while their corpses were being dismembered. He also ate parts of his victims. The fact that he also tried to feed her to his neighbors, as the trailer suggests, could be more Hollywood fiction.
The failure of the investigative authorities should also play a major role in the series, as the trailer already suggests. What is special about the Dahmer case is that it was only after his arrest that it became known that a serial killer was up to mischief here. Police had failed to link the various missing persons cases, leading to accusations of indifference. Because the victims were mainly homosexuals, blacks and immigrants, the police did not take the cases seriously enough and did not investigate them properly, so they could not draw any parallels.
Later it was even revealed that the police brought an Asian youth back to Dahmer’s apartment, where he was then murdered. The previous escape attempt by the teenager, who had already been drugged and raped at the time, was ridiculed by the police as a “love quarrel among gays”, and the condition of the boy, who could no longer articulate himself, was dismissed as the result of too much alcohol.
Overall, the activities of the “monster” Jeffrey Dahmer will be shown on Netflix in ten episodes. Also joining the cast are Richard Jenkins and Penelope Ann Miller as his parents Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. This suggests that Murphy is also dedicating himself to the character’s youth.
By the way, you don’t have to wait long for the series. “Dahmer – Monsters: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer“ will be available on Netflix from September 21, 2022.
