Raising Jeffrey Dahmer

Who'd have thought a movie about a serial killer would be boring? But this movie is. It's disjointed and dull, and less about raising Jeffrey Dahmer than his family coming to grips with his arrest. That would be OK, but even that emotional time isn't portrayed very well.

The acting isn't very good, but the script is even worse. It's difficult to sympathize with any of the characters, who are all pretty much one-dimensional: the self-questioning father, the steely stepmother and the distraught grandma. It seems impossible that any of them can feel those qualities simultaneously. There are tons of flashbacks, but they seem to come in no particular order, interspersed with comments such as, "That's it! That's when we knew!" I'm not sure if there are better movies about Jeffrey Dahmer out there, but I hope so.

I rented this movie with my girlfriend as a late night movie. We haven't seen a scary movie in a while, and I've always been fascinated with serial killers overall.

This movie was laughable.. The acting was a joke. The father made me laugh at him at parts I should have been feeling the shock and fear he was feeling. It did keep me interested with the flashbacks, but the movie would have been so much better if it actually showed what it was titled, Jeffrey Dahmer being raised. It showed it through a series of flashbacks, which were the only interesting parts in the movie.

I knew it was going to be a disappointment, but I saw it in the advertisement the guy at the movie store gave to me. Next time I go with my gut, which this movie should have showed more of.

This film was very impressive in my opinion, I'm a big horror and indi film fan and I look at every aspect of the film when it comes to entertainment value, directors use of lighting and camera work. Givin that this film was directed by and unknown director and featured as a festival straight to DVD limited run, this is a decent docudrama movie IF you realize the amateur and factual value....but be your own judge of it, rent it and give it a watch, I've read a lot of factual films and documentories. I've seen films from a series based on John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein, and Ted Bundy. As far as facts go this movie is a must see. If your looking for entertainment then this may not meet your standards

One would assume that a movie named "Raising Jeffrey Dahmer" would deal largely with his childhood. Instead, the movie begins with his arrest and deals largely with the stress of his parents face trying to deal with the media. There are flashbacks to childhood events, but they are short, stylized, and presented out of chronological order. They are more distracting and confusing than they are enlightening. The step-mother is played in a very distant, emotionless manner that makes it impossible to determine what she is going through and difficult to sympathize with her. The father spends most of the film being shown reacting to discoveries and incidents so we do not have an opportunity to get close to him either. His emotional range was too one-dimensional to get a clear picture of who he really is as a person. The movie is somewhat interesting, but it didn't live up to it's potential. I expected to see Jeffrey raised through childhood complete with all the clues and hints about how he might turn out. I expected to see a film that puts us in the place of the parents and allows us to feel the struggle between a parents unconditional love for a child and reconciling the horrible crimes committed by the child. I would have enjoyed this as a straight documentary or as a revealing, emotional docudrama. Instead, the director chose to focus on being artsy. I didn't hate this film, but I was left very disappointed.

Raising Jeffrey Dahmer is another bad seed movie. There are some out there that are just plain no good. We recently lost one with the death of Charles Manson. Dahmer who murdered and dismembered several young men during the 80s.

In trying to make Dahmer seem ordinary unfortunately they made him seem dull as well. Ditto for his family which was father, stepmother, and grandmother. When Dahmer played by Rusty Sneary is arrested the parents who are Scott Cordes and Kathy Barnett agonize over what should have they seen and what could have they done.

It's a cheapo production with a lot of dull patches. The story has been better told.