Since Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story premiered on Sept. 21, it has become one of the platform’s most popular shows and its first week was bigger than that of Squid Game, reportedly racking up more than 196 million hours viewed. It’s unavoidable on TikTok too. With the #Dahmer hashtag raking in more than 1 billion views, the real Jeffrey Dahmer’s life, and the actors’ portrayals have gone massively viral.
The Dahmer Netflix show, produced by horror and true crime aficionado Ryan Murphy, has been praised for shedding light on how police failed the 17 victims, who were predominantly Black, for so long. But any positive takeaway from the show is difficult to parse through its many criticisms, including a depiction of the real-life Dahmer that has endeared the serial killer to some people.
Despite its popularity, true crime as a genre is fundamentally fraught. As Stephanie McNeal wrote for BuzzFeed News in May, the “true crime industrial complex” has increased demand for juicier and more shocking cases for public consumption, regardless of what the families of the victims want. It also happens in spite of the inevitably reductive discourse on social media that romanticizes and capitalizes on murder.
Here’s a look at the controversies Dahmer has created and the people it has affected:
Relatives of the victims say the show is making them relive their trauma.
The show has been commended for the time it dedicates to humanizing the people Dahmer killed. Actor Evan Peters, who stars as Dahmer, said in a promotional interview that Murphy’s “one rule” for the show was that it should “never be told from Dahmer’s point of view.” But those affected by the serial killer’s horrific crimes don’t feel particularly represented, either.
A scene re-creating Rita Isbell’s confrontation of Dahmer in court after he killed her brother Erroll Lindsey has been lauded on TikTok and Twitter for its accuracy. DaShawn Barnes, the actor who plays Isbell, tweeted she is “grateful the victims weren’t an afterthought but their humanity and perspectives were reflected in this series.”
I feel really honored to be trusted with telling this part of this horrific story. I’m grateful the victims weren’t an afterthought but their humanity and perspectives were reflected in this series. https://t.co/cVr3tmByzV
But Isbell herself told Insider that she was never part of the production or contacted by the creators of the show, and that the family hasn’t made any money from it either. Isbell added that watching the exactness of the series’s re-creation has “felt like reliving it all over again.”
“If the show benefited them in some way, it wouldn’t feel so harsh and careless,” she told Insider, referring to the victims’ families. “It’s sad that they’re just making money off of this tragedy. That’s just greed.”
Eric Perry, Lindsey’s cousin, tweeted that the show is “retraumatizing [the family] over and over again.”
TikTokers are capitalizing on Dahmer content.
In every corner of the internet, content creators are sharing videos analyzing of Dahmer’s life, crimes, and legacy through childhood videos, interviews, and personal anecdotes. In the comments of those posts on TikTok, users discuss what elements of his life they find interesting.
“One thing I found intriguing about him was that he was completely honest and didn’t deny anything,” one user said.
Some creators have made fan edits using popular songs and footage from the show that inspire comments about how hot Peters is in his portrayal and even romanticize the onscreen relationships between Dahmer and the people he kills.
Some people have joked about how hard the show is to watch, to which others have reacted saying that it could have been more gruesome.
there is a whole trend of white women on tiktok flexing how they were so “unbothered” and “unfazed” by the dahmer series on netflix. if you find the depiction heinous targeted murders of LGBT and black/brown people “not disturbing enough” then something is wrong with you
“When everyone is freaking out about how ‘morbid’ the new Dahmer show is… And you’re just bummed they didn’t show the actual ‘morbid’ parts…,” one TikToker wrote in a post.
Even if Netflix’s adaptation of the Dahmer story had been ethically airtight and approved by the families of his victims, nothing would have stopped online posters from finding new ways to use the story to draw attention to their own content.
Good acting is making people empathize with Dahmer.
Awards buzz is already circulating for Peters, both from critics and viewers.
In the comments of a post from Netflix’s official TikTok account, fans praised everything from his accent to his demeanor to the precision of his movements throughout the series. Peters frequently portrays evil men — in other series produced by Murphy, he has played a school shooter, a cult leader, and a fictional serial killer — but embodying Dahmer, he said, was one of the “hardest” things he has ever had to do.
The Netflix series follows Dahmer being raised by neglectful parents and tormented by bullies. As Julie Fenwick wrote for Vice, the serial killer appears lonely and misunderstood, as if he murders people so they can’t leave him.
When a gifted actor believably inhabits this role and performs social awkwardness well, the audience starts to develop empathy.
“Serious question: Is there something wrong with me because I high-key felt bad for Jeffrey Dahmer?” a TikToker said in a post that has been dueted several times. “When they killed Jeffrey, I was literally teary-eyed.”
People are thirst-posting about a serial killer (again).
Tweets with screenshots of TikTok comments thirsting after Dahmer have been going viral for weeks, but the people who romanticize him aren’t just drawn to Peters. Even before Zac Efron played Ted Bundy in a 2019 Netflix film, people have been attracted to serial killers. It doesn’t stop at parasocial thirst.
Sheila Isenberg, author of Women Who Love Men Who Kill, told CNN in 2015 that some women fall in love with murderers because they claim to see their “true” good side. Charles Manson, both Menendez brothers, and the Hillside Strangler duo are all convicted murderers who found love while imprisoned for their crimes.
It doesn’t hurt that the actor now portraying Dahmer is talented and objectively handsome. TikTokers have shared scenes from the show in which Peters dances and shows off his muscles.
“Was Dahmer actually snatched or was this something Ryan Murphy made up?” one TikToker asked. “I know Dahmer is about [a] serial killer… but the clutch Evan [Peters] had me in with this scene,” another wrote.
Tweets about how the real-life Dahmer was “kinda hot” and “could have lured” them into his apartment have gone viral, both on Twitter and when they’re shared on other platforms.
Regardless of what Netflix set out to do with the series, the show’s legacy will be its rejection by the relatives of Dahmer’s victims and the disturbing way it’s been received on social media.