OLIVIA CASPER
Antelope Staff
I am a person who loves crime documentaries and has watched most of Netflix’s murder mystery shows. I was super excited when I heard about the release of the new Jeffery Dahmer documentary in September.
Before watching, I knew who Dahmer was because I enjoyed learning about crime all the way through high school and because of the psychological topic of trauma.
The controversy around the show started almost immediately after it launched. One of the first topics I came across was on TikTok. It talked about how people had no idea who Dahmer was until this documentary came out, even though there have been several popular songs that referenced him. This includes “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry and “Cannibal” by Kesha.
One of the other controversies surrounding this new documentary is how society is making Dahmer popular again after all of these years and giving him the attention he craved once again.
One of the victim’s family members came out on social media saying how traumatizing it is to have to relive this horrible event.
The post read, “I’m not telling anyone what to watch, I know true crime media is huge right now, but if you’re actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbell’s) are upset about this show. It’s retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?”
Many people replied to the tweet, agreeing with Eric Perry (@ericthulhu), but there are some people who do not agree.
I decided I would attempt to watch this documentary, and I was soon disgusted with what I watched. I only made it through the first two episodes before I completely lost my appetite for any type of food.
In episode one, it right away starts off by uncomfortably explaining the way his apartment smelled and showing him using bloody tools.
It is truly insane how real the show reenacts these horrible events that took place in Dahmer’s apartment from the 1970s to the 1990s. Dahmer killed 17 people, and I can’t even imagine what these families are going through by these events being brought to life once again.
