You’d have to pay me an awful lot more than I get for this column to review Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. As I write, it’s the number one trending show on Netflix, but the most I’m prepared to stomach is that snatch of footage you get forced to watch (because of Netflix’s impertinent and intrusive automatic play function) if you linger over the title image for too long. It shows two cops at an interview desk gradually revealing to Dahmer’s increasingly aghast dad (Richard Jenkins) that his son Jeffrey might not be quite the straight upstanding citizen he imagined.
Dahmer murdered – and often dismembered and sometimes ate – at least 17 people on his killing spree between the 1970s and the 1990s. How much more do we really need to know about him than that? How can this sick freak possibly be worth ten episodes of anyone’s time? It would be excruciating enough as a feature-length movie, watching that agonisingly protracted period between the various young men being lured to their deaths and the eventual capture of the killer.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in