Dahmer
Peninsula Films | Release Date: June 21, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's a triumph of the film that it manages to make Jeffrey Dahmer a human being -- at least a member of the species -- without ever bending toward empathy with or excuses for him. Read full review
90
VarietyRobert Koehler
Jacobson produces a remarkably creepy piece of cinema that disturbs by suggestion, nuance and ambiguity. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
To explain a serial killer is to diminish his madness, but Dahmer does something quietly riveting. It lets you brush up against the humanity of a psycho, without making him any less psycho. Read full review
80
Village VoiceEd Halter
Jacobson has achieved the unthinkable: He humanizes a notoriously brutal psychopath and, in the process, leaves the audience with an unwelcome sense of complicity. Read full review
80
Film ThreatTim Merrill
Aided enormously by Jeremy Renner, his astonishing lead actor, Jacobson has created something we haven’t seen since “The Silence of the Lambs”: a sensitive, non-exploitative serial killer movie. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Uses the serial killer's life as the starting point for a hypnotic examination of the farthest reaches of loneliness and alienation. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The performances are excellent and the filmmaking is remarkably restrained, although moments of perverse violence are necessary to the real-life story being told. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
The purest of horror films. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderBill Stamets
A low-key but hypnotic portrait of the infamous sex murderer. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
The whole of it plays like a dark and dreary tone poem, only marginally interested in explaining the ticking, bloody clockwork of the inner beast and only occasionally touching on his fractured humanity. Read full review
60
New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein
Star Jeremy Renner seems shorter than Dahmer, but is otherwise a look-alike and gives a convincingly intense and weird performance. Bruce Davison (as Papa Dahmer) and the rest of the cast also do nice work. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen Holden
As gamely as the movie tries to make sense of its title character, there remains a huge gap between the film's creepy, clean-cut Dahmer (Jeremy Renner) and fiendish acts that no amount of earnest textbook psychologizing can bridge. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Dahmer moves with a slowness that's meant to be compelling but is largely merely glum. This becomes a hindrance to building suspense in telling a true story whose outcome is already well known. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A tasteful, intelligent, well-acted film about one of the most ghoulish serial killers in American crime history - and I'm afraid that's a good part of what's wrong with it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
It succeeds, occasionally. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Renner's performance as Dahmer is unimpeachable, fascinating without being charismatic, and Kayaru's Rodney is a marvel of complicated characterization under difficult circumstances. Read full review
50
New York PostMegan Lehmann
The film - dimly lit and with an ominous soundtrack that verges on overkill - is largely a showcase for the heavy-lidded Renner. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
So lacking in insight and gravity that it makes Dahmer seem like a pesky, pasty-faced loser who just wasn't popular enough.
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