From what I've heard her and there, "The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer" got a little bit of flack following it's release, probably due to the short buffer-zone given between the actual events and the film representation. This movie came out a year after Dahmer's trial, which I'm surprised it wasn't released sooner since I looks like it was shot rather hastily...
Of course, Jeffrey Dahmer confessed to raping, killing, and cannibalizing around 17 men from the late 70s throughout the 80s until his arrest in '91.
The film doesn't approach Dahmer's crimes with much grace, as the 2002 film "Dahmer" did, which I appreciated, despite most people's adament dislike toward that flick's humanizing and sympathetic portrayal of the serial killer. Whereas that take on the subject was geared more toward the sexual aspects of his crimes and Dahmer's interaction with his family without showing any real on-screen violence, "The Secret Life" brought what fascinated spectators of the infamous media coverage were indeed curious about at the time: the fucking murders!
Pretty much compiled of intermittent rundowns of each victim's beguilement, demise and the disposal methods that Jeffrey employed; such as dismemberment, boiling, acid sumbmersion, and, of course, cannibalism. The film also attempts to show Dahmer's interaction with his unknowing prey leading up to their drugging, which is fairly interesting, though many of these actors are so cringeworthy in their wooden performances that it's hard to buy into any kind of legit feeling of "dread" for what you KNOW is going to happen. However, some are decent. The guy who plays Dahmer is pretty adequate in the role, which I was sure was going to suck when the film first started, but as it went on he began fitting into the part very well, I thought.
The gore factor isn't anything too off-the-chain. Enough to keep you interested, though a fair amount of stuff is implied. Probably the best scene, to me, was Jeffrey cramming a screaming man's entire body into a canister of acid.
Overall, "The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer" is worth checking out if you wish for a Dahmer biopic detailing the murders, themselves. I can't call it a better film than the 2002 flick, but it's definately a SHIT ton better than that "Raising Jeffrey Dahmer" travesty. Still, the accuracy of this flick wavers (such as Dahmer shown cutting off a deaf man's head with an electric turkey cutter while he's still alive and prank phoning the mother's of his victims) as well as the timeline of events (for example - Dahmer did not live with his grandmother when he killed the hitch-hiker - his first victim). Give it a look (new DVD release is out) if you want a decent horror-movie take on Dahmer's antics...
From what I've heard her and there, "The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer" got a little bit of flack following it's release, probably due to the short buffer-zone given between the actual events and the film representation. This movie came out a year after Dahmer's trial, which I'm surprised it wasn't released sooner since I looks like it was shot rather hastily...
