Ryan Murphy and Evan Peters are no strangers to the vile and disturbing in their work together on American Horror Story, but with their latest project Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story — a ten-episode limited series that just hit Netflix — the duo dove into the sadistic world of one of the most notorious serial killers, examining more gruesome horrors than ever before. Ever since production on the series was first announced, viewers shared their concern for how the twisted series would play out – especially since this isn’t the first dramatization of Dahmer’s horrific crimes that had caused so much pain and sorrow in so many lives. The Pose actor shared the one rule Murphy emphasized during production in order to ensure the series put an emphasis on the victims rather than the grisly way they died.
Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer is known to have murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys, most of whom were Black. Unlike previous movies and TV shows about Dahmer, the Netflix series from Murphy and Ian Brennan intends to project the voices of his victims and highlight the injustices that allowed him to continue killing for so long. From the 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone (Kieran Tamondong, The Paper Tigers) who was escorted back into Dahmer’s apartment by police to his former neighbor Glenda Cleveland (Niecy Nash, Never Have I Ever), who reported on his suspicious behavior multiple times only to be ignored, the series examines how racism and a mismanaged police force played into the terrifying story. In an interview shared by Ryan Murphy Productions, Peters explained why it was so important to the cast and crew that they were respectful to victims and the victims’ families.
"We had one rule going into this from Ryan that it would never be told from Dahmer's point of view. As an audience, you're not really sympathizing with him. You're not really getting into his plight. You're more sort of watching it, you know, from the outside. It's called The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, but it's not just him and his backstory. It's the repercussions,” Peters said. "It felt important to be respectful to the victims, to the victims' families; to try to tell the story as authentically as we could," the actor added.
The Emmy-Award winner and Mare of Easttown actor further elaborated on the perspective taken in Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story during another interview with Netflix Queue. He said the series is about “how society and our system failed to stop him” time after time due to racism and homophobia.
Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change, who worked as a consultant on the project explained how Murphy’s number one rule was incorporated into the entirety of the project from the writing to the production. In another interview shared by Ryan Murphy Productions, the nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization president said that even though it’s a story about Dahmer and his victims, it’s also about the “chilling impact” on the community as a whole and “all the ways in which the police, the larger leadership in Milwaukee, the media and so many others in society were complicit.”
“I wanted to enforce the humanity of these victims and their families,” Robinson said. “I wanted to make sure that we, as viewers, got to truly sort of, understand how a situation like this takes place, not just through [Dahmer’s] eyes, but through the eyes of people who had their own hopes and aspirations and dreams.”
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is now streaming on Netflix. Check out the trailer down below.