Before playing the superhero known to fans as Hawkeye in the Avengers movies, Jeremy Renner played the role of Jeffrey Dahmer, a real-life homosexual sex maniac serial killer in the 2002 thriller, entitled Dahmer.

Dahmer is a biographical film that explores the infamous Wisconsin sex offender Jeffrey Dahmer. We learn about his past in flashbacks and what lead to him being a perverted sex maniac and murderer. Dahmer had a lonely childhood; his parents were divorced and had a turbulent relationship with his father Lionel (Bruce Davison, Willard). He was also a homosexual who had bouts with alcoholism, and severe emotional problems, all of which lead him on his path to becoming a psychopath. He drugs, rapes and murders young attractive boys and stores their barely alive bodies in his room. They cannot escape because they are drugged and drunk out of their minds. This enables Dahmer to have his way with them as they are too out of it to reject him sexually, which was by design.

I enjoyed Dahmer, it did a masterful job covering events that happened in his life that lead to his madness. Jeremy Renner is phenomenal in his role as Jeffrey Dahmer despite a strange hairdo. It was a one of kind performance where just about every scene when Dahmer interacts with someone has a creepy awkward feeling about it. The first murder scene where he saws a young man that he was attracted to was unforgettable as was the bar sequence where time and time again he drugged and raped men who turned him on.  Director Davidson was able to establish a creepy, methodical atmosphere in the movie.  

Dahmer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual – part of the MVD Marquee Collection. The AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1 image is inconsistent at best. There are both high and low points to the video presentation. Some parts of the film, particularly the flashback scenes with a younger Jefferey Dahmer and his father looked particularly well, especially in broad daylight. The interiors also looked excellent here with extent details. Other areas of the film where Dahmer was young adult the video quality fell flat, with colors looking a bit faded, with a brownish tint. Flesh tones do appear accurate, even when the image itself was lacking in vibrancy. Black levels overall were fine and not dominating to the point where you could not see what was going on with the characters. Film grain is present, and no signs of any digital manipulation have been detected.

Dahmer’s DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track was decent, but nothing spectacular. The dialog is clear without any audio issues such as hissing or drop-offs, but it was so timid that I had to raise the volume up to hear it clearer.

Dahmer comes with some bonus features. There is a commentary track with director David Jacobsen, and stars Jeremy Renner and Artel Kayaru, where they discuss Dahmer and share a few stories.

Other extras include a making of featurette, basically a series of interviews and both a stills and storyboard gallery. I will note that while I was watching this both galleries kept moving rather quickly so if you want some extra time to look at the stills and storyboards, you will need to keep your remote handy so you can hit pause button. The remaining extras are trailers for Dahmer, and other MVD releases.

Dahmer is an excellent psychological thriller capturing the eeriness that enthralled Jeffrey Dahmer. This was a solid story about a real-life sicko. MVD Visual has provided a serviceable release with a satisfying amount of extras to make this a worthwhile pickup.

Dahmer

Director- David Jacobson

Cast- Jeremy Renner, Bruce Davison, Artel Kayaru

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – MVD Visual

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date- 10/12/20