Netflix’s hottest show right now is “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” It stars Evan Peters as the infamous Jeffrey Dahmer, and honestly, I’m so tired of seeing shows like these about serial killers.
Dahmer was a serial killer who gruesomely murdered 17 young men, 11 of whom were Black, and notoriously picked up his victims in gay bars. The show was made to shed light on the true perspectives of the victims and their families.
While Peters does an excellent job at fulfilling the role of the unsympathetic Dahmer, and depicting this disturbing story by exposing the blatant racism and homophobia at the time, the show has gotten a lot of backlash — especially from the victims’ families.
Specifically, Rita Isbell, the sister of Errol Lindsey, one of Dahmer’s victims, was horrified to see this traumatic experience recreated on the big screen. Isbell said she felt like she was reliving it all over again, and it brought back all the emotions she felt back then. Netflix never even asked her or any of the other victims’ families if they were okay with the show being made. They found out when everyone else did, which mortified the families and forced them to relive this event.
In a viral Twitter thread by Eric Perry, Lindsey’s cousin, he explains the repercussions of making a show like this for the victims’ families. He said Netflix was able to make the show without their permission because the sentencing is public record.
The fact that Netflix made this show without even notifying the families is super unethical, especially because the producers said they created the show with “respect to the victims” and intended on “honoring the dignity of the families.”
Similar to “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” Netflix made a Ted Bundy movie starring Zac Efron in 2019 called “Extremely Wicked; Shockingly Evil and Vile.” This movie, compared to the Dahmer series, is less gory, but it still sends the same message of focusing on the serial killer played by an attractive movie star. Efron was cast for this role because, like Peters, he’s famous enough to catch people’s attention. Also, Bundy was known for being dreamy, and Efron is known for that same appeal.
However, getting attractive actors to play these killers is just super weird. It’s like directors are trying to make you gloss over the fact that these were real people who did horrible things. Bundy was known for having adoring fans during his trial, and even 30 years later, he still has that effect. Many Twitter users point out his attractiveness by saying even though he’s a serial killer, he’s hot. This type of behavior is super uncomfortable to read because it discredits the victims’ families and their trauma.
Casting these stars as serial killers to bring in views isn’t the way to shed light on these tragedies. It’s only glamorizing these disturbing murderers.
Not only that, but true crime fans on TikTok said the Dahmer show wasn’t graphic enough for them. In this TikTok, a woman said she’s bummed that the show “didn’t show any morbid parts.” She’s also seen in the video wearing Dahmer earrings. This is really off-putting and shows the kind of obscene attitudes true crime fans have regarding these shows. They want it to be as disturbing as possible which discredits the reality of how awful these events truly were.
Hollywood should instead stick to documentaries that objectively inform the public about what happened. A good example is “The Jeffrey Dahmer Files.” They take a super objective approach when talking about the Dahmer case and even bring in detectives who worked on it at the time. It explains the story without forcing the victims’ families to see themselves on the screen and unleash a great amount of stress onto them.
The victims’ families should be notified before shows are released. If the media is going to make another show or movie about their trauma, they deserve to be notified and given some of the profit to help with their grief.
Hollywood needs to stop making a profit off of these horrific tragedies, and not make shows like these if they continue casting good-looking stars to play these killers and not communicating with the victims’ families about the process.
The families of Dahmer’s victims have to experience this trauma as long as shows like “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” are being made, along with all the other victims of other notorious serial killers. Hollywood, please stop making these films.
