6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.6 |
One of America's most notorious serial killers was Jeffrey Dahmer, a Wisconsin sex offender whose exploits included murdering and dismembering 15 boys and storing their body parts in his freezer. Dahmer, in turn, was later murdered by an inmate during his incarceration. Jeremy Renner stars in this biographical drama that humanizes the killer to a surprising degree and explores the mental state that caused him to commit such horrific acts.
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Bruce Davison, Dion Basco, Lily Knight (I), Artel GreatHorror | 100% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Biography | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
When Dahmer showed up in my review queue a couple of days ago, I had a passing thought that I had reviewed it before since I immediately associated the name in the title with an MVD Blu-ray release for some reason. I then remembered the film I had reviewed was actually My Friend Dahmer, which was released by MVD in collaboration with FilmRise back in 2018. While they sport slightly different titles, in at least some ways the films might be deemed to be somewhat interchangeable, not due just to their shared subject matter, but also due in some measure to their vaguely similar attempts to humanize one of the most horrifying serial murderers in the annals of American history. That said, the two films offer manifestly different stories in their own way, with My Friend Dahmer concentrating mostly on a high school aged kid about to become a serial murderer, while Dahmer ping pongs between a "present" featuring Dahmer (Jeremy Renner) nearing the end of his killing, and flashbacks that deal with him "getting there", some which offer at least some of the same general time frame as My Friend Dahmer, but which can also include periods both before and after the events depicted in that particular film.
Dahmer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the MVD Marquee Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a rather widely variable looking presentation that is further hobbled by some pretty recurrent damage (for what looks like a particularly badly placed blemish on a frame, see screenshot 13), aspects which, along with things like prevalent wobble in the opening and closing credits, suggest to me this could be an older master or at least one that hasn't been culled from any major effort at restoration. The palette in its best moments is decently suffused and warm (see screenshot 5), but a lot of the color here can look faded and kind of brown or even yellow (there's a surplus of yellow lighting in the film which may add to this perception). There are also some curiously noisy, ragged looking moments that just kind of spring up on occasion, even when other shots in the same sequence can look relatively unscathed. Contrast, for example, screenshot 6, which is part of the coverage of what I presume to be a master shot shown in screenshot 19, and you can see some of the very large variations in quality on display here. The roughness does not necessarily seem to be tied solely to lighting issues, as there are some relatively bright scenes that can look blotchy and pixellated, as well as some dark scenes that feature a much more finely resolved grain field and better detail levels.
Dahmer's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track gets a sporadic workout in scenes like a thumpingly loud gay bar that Dahmer visits, and some of the source cues used more as underscore also open up the soundstage. That said, a lot of the surround activity here tends to be minimal, and relegated to things like occasional ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout, and there are optional English and Spanish subtitles for those who need or want them.
According to this NPR article, Kathryn Bigelow cast Renner in The Hurt Locker after having seen his performance in Dahmer, and there's probably little question that it's Renner's star turn here that gives the film a lot of its edginess. There are some probably unavoidably creepy scenes in this film, but I found the attempts at offering psychological "reasons" for things not very convincing. Interestingly, this film begins with a text card which could almost be substituted with a text card from the end of My Friend Dahmer, which may suggest for some intrepid true crime aficionados, the two films might make for an interesting double feature. Video is problematic at times, but audio is fine, and there are a couple of appealing supplements, for those who are considering a purchase.
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1981
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2015
Standard Edition
1983
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1941
Director's Cut
2018
2023
2018