Netflix wants to get the most out of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Directly, with a good positioning of the series in terms of critics and viewers, and also in a different way, producing content that serves to keep this series alive. This explains his last bet: Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapesa three-episode miniseries in which one of them infiltrates the beast’s innards.
This premise, which is close to how a serial killer thinks while imitating the face of his lawyer and neighbor, runs throughout this documentary series. It’s easy to see that part of Netflix’s strategy is to ensure that people continue to talk about Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. After all, this may be one of his most recognizable productions this year. One proposal feeds another. But not everything stays there.
Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes tries to find out how the development of this serial killer gradually developed. It is based on various anecdotes, scattered memories that suggest part of his personality and ability to disguise himself. One of them? One day his neighbor asked him for money for a wedding present and he gave him $60. You never know who lives in the nearest apartment.
Bottom part Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes
Seventeen confessed to the murder. This is a number that hides numerous problems. In the figure, the trend: homosexuals and African Americans. So, everything reaches a different resonance, because we are talking about marginalized communities. The documentary is responsible for focusing on this factor while adding the various voices associated with the case.
This serves as an excuse to invite the viewer to reflect on the subject from any point of view. Why can they still be considered marginalized communities? How much of this, from a privileged place, happens in each person’s environment? What other forms of violence may occur and are not recognized? Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer TapesAlthough it is focused on a specific person, there is a point of universality in it.
These types of issues are reflected on Netflix while the voice of the beast is heard from time to time. These recordings, the product of the investigation and filming of the case, are accompanied by various interviews and archival photographs. This sets the tone for the narrative format of the events: a classic documentary, sometimes not very bright. Until it gets to the seriousness of what matters: investigating the story of one of the most notorious serial killers in modern history.
voice of horror
Considering the cases of some victims, Jeffrey Dahmer’s voice sometimes looms like a dark shadow.. When all the pieces of the puzzle are put together, this narrative detail adds something, a little bit of horror, to what is shown. While the faces of people who, perhaps, should still be alive, replace each other, dialogues are remembered, a historical moment is experienced, the words of the beast resonate with an absurd and terrible echo.
In this context, it is curious and paradoxical that one of the participants in the documentary asks that the world forget about Jeffrey Dahmer, while the series and the documentary continue to grow in viewership. This person may be mistaken in asking because it suggests forgetfulness and thus disrespect for these victims or any hate-motivated attack against LGBTIQ+ and the African American communityin the past, present or future.
These types of manifestations, these free beasts, usually serve to say more about the society in which they operate, about their time and their historical moment, than about the character itself. In case you go to Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes With the goal of discovering this serial killer from a different perspective, as well as understanding its context a bit better, the Netflix miniseries works in a classic and formal way.
