My Friend Dahmer
Altitude Film Entertainment | Release Date: November 3, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenOct 31, 2017
In its fusion of craft and narrative, My Friend Dahmer is exquisite. In its portrayal of Jeff's agonies, it can be excruciating. Read full review
90
Village VoiceApril WolfeNov 1, 2017
My Friend Dahmer is both sensitive and fascinating, distinguished by a stellar, mouth-breathing performance of insecurity from Lynch. Read full review
90
VarietyOwen Gleiberman
As you watch the movie, its central idea — that Jeffrey Dahmer wasn’t just born, he was made; that he started off as an actual human being — has a shocking validity that never undercuts the extremity of his crimes. Read full review
88
IGNWilliam BibbianiNov 7, 2017
Unsettlingly intimate, and nearly bursting with dread, My Friend Dahmer is an intriguing biopic about the early life of one of America’s most notorious serial killers, with an extraordinary and breakout per-formance by Ross Lynch at its center. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 3, 2017
It’s anchored by a dangerously glum performance by 21-year-old Ross Lynch, who becomes more interesting the more you watch him. Read full review
80
Screen DailyDavid D'Arcy
Meyers’s drama depends mostly on what it doesn’t show you, and it works. Read full review
75
Vanity FairRichard LawsonDec 9, 2017
My Friend Dahmer doesn’t present some rueful wish that, oh, young Jeffrey might have made it if only someone had reached out to him. But it does extend him some human compassion, letting us see how the tragedy of his loneliness, spurred by the horror of his dark compulsions, made pre-murderous Dahmer something of a victim himself. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 11, 2017
My Friend Dahmer gives us one of the most fascinating portraits of a serial killer, ever. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comScout TafoyaNov 3, 2017
There is nothing in this expertly-drawn character study that attempts to solve the mystery of Jeffrey Dahmer, because life rarely hands us those answers. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 2, 2017
A warped wonder of a movie that takes twisted to areas few have investigated. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeNov 1, 2017
It’s another portrayal of mental illness that keeps My Friend Dahmer from fully immersing viewers in its reality. Read full review
75
The PlaylistKyle KohnerOct 31, 2017
Although the film depicts a fledgling psychopath salvaging roadkill with his bare hands, soaking them in acid in order to collect their bones and finding himself flirting with murderous intentions on several occasions, Meyers’ drama is paradoxically humane and affecting — a direction few thought was possible when deliberating the essence of a real-life monster. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghNov 9, 2017
Instead, the story is largely told from Dahmer’s perspective, and we know too much about where he ends up to feel anything like sympathy for him. It’s still a morbidly fascinating peek behind the blood-stained curtains. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 6, 2017
It would be misleading to call My Friend Dahmer “entertaining,” but I got off on its fuzzy sense of dread, its poker-faced ghoulishness. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleNov 2, 2017
The world may never tire of being fascinated with serial killers, but My Friend Dahmer avoids exploitation often enough to forge its own perceptive, tense, character-driven path. Read full review
70
The New York TimesGlenn KennyNov 2, 2017
This film is sensitively wrought. It’s credible in its evocation of mid-’70s suburbia. The acting is excellent throughout, and Ross Lynch in the role of Dahmer elicits genuine sympathy for an increasingly lost but not yet monstrous soul. But in abandoning the subjective perspective of the graphic novel, My Friend Dahmer feels a little lacking in purpose. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerNov 15, 2017
My Friend Dahmer becomes one of the year’s most chilling true-life dramas. Read full review
63
Washington PostPat PaduaNov 16, 2017
In some ways, My Friend Dahmer is a typical coming-of-age movie about an awkward teen. What distinguishes this particular case of adolescent angst is that it’s the true story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Gayle MacDonaldNov 9, 2017
Based on the true-life graphic novel by John Backderf (who went to high school with Dahmer), the film ponders whether Dahmer was born a sick puppy or if his environment made him that way. It's a conundrum. Read full review
60
EmpireAlex GodfreyJun 4, 2018
A small, slight window into a mixed-up soul, this is more intriguing than engaging. Its restraint, though, is admirable, resulting in a mood-piece with an ongoing sense of unease. Read full review
60
CineVueMatthew AndersonNov 3, 2017
The pacing of Meyers' film sometimes drags a little but like a slow-moving training heading for the end of the line we can see the danger ahead and are powerless to prevent it. This frustration, and a gripping central performance, make My Friend Dahmer a film you can't pull your eyes away from. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla MeyerNov 15, 2017
Here is more ambiguity, in a film that needs less of it. Read full review
45
The VergeKaitlyn TiffanyNov 11, 2017
At its best, My Friend Dahmer makes some weak attempts to reckon with virulent homophobia in an Ohio suburb in the late ‘70s. But for the most part, it’s just a movie about the sick thrill of watching someone become progressively stranger and then a murderer. Read full review
40
TheWrapInkoo KangOct 24, 2017
With its observational dispassion, My Friend Dahmer doesn’t quite help us understand why Jeff is so into killing, and it’s pretty much useless when it comes to clarifying how he justifies committing such atrocities to himself. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayOct 28, 2017
The film wants to treat Jeffrey Dahmer like a character, but it invariably frames him like a specimen. Read full review
33
The Film StageJared MobarakNov 2, 2017
If we’re not supposed to pity Dahmer while watching the unfortunate progression of his sad life, why are we watching? Is it to reinforce the notion that he was always a monster? Or is it to forgive Derf (Alex Wolff) and his buds for assisting in his descent? In the end it really doesn’t matter because we don’t buy any of it. Read full review
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