My friend Pete Jacelone has made what I consider to be his best movie yet, one which premiered last night at the Anthology Film Archive in New York City. It is his second of three planned serial killer outings; the first was last year’s The Killer Clown Meets the Candy Man (Gacy vs. Corll). This time Pete’s subject is Jeffrey Dahmer and his film is a whole lot grimmer, which is as it should be.

Pete Jacelone’s film is a very realistic depiction of Dahmer’s depravities, which evidently began as a child. The adult Dahmer (Giancarlo Herrera) talks directly to the camera, trying to explain himself — and using his own words. That’s one of the neat devices employed by writer-director Jacelone, because the exact quotes from the mass murderer are creepier and more insightful than anything that a screenwriter could imagine.

As with Pete’s earlier serial killer film, the fact that we know what will happen to Dahmer’s unfortunate victims alleviates some of the suspense about their deaths. Yet where The Killer Clown and the Candy Man was satirical, employing very dark humor, that isn’t the case here. Ominous music (from the talented Anthony Belluscio), creative editing and, at times, fountains of blood emphasize Dahmer’s dark desires, even as he himself casually considers the morality of his very bad habits. Most of the movie is played perfectly straight, which is appropriate and effective.

The movie is most effective when it recounts Dahmer’s encounters with well-meaning neighbors, people who have no idea that a human monster lives so close by. The famous episode where a victim gets away and almost gets help, only to have stupid policemen chastise two women for interfering and allowing Dahmer to lead the victim away to certain death, is one of the film’s best sequences. Or when Dahmer’s grandmother (Beth Dimino) smells something rotten and worries about the boy.

To be sure, the film has it’s share of grotesqueries. Dahmer’s interest in the dead was not just cannibalistic but sexual, and there are a few scenes pretty much guaranteed to gross out everybody who sees them. Yet everything that is seen — or implied — is faithful to the hideous reality. Pete’s film isn’t an exploitation sleaze fest; he is honestly trying to depict how Jeffrey Dahmer felt when he was strangling and butchering people. He succeeds pretty well, especially in the movie’s later sequences.

Is this entertainment? Well, great movies have been made about serial killers (The Silence of the Lambs, Manhunter, Monster, etc.), and yes, they are entertaining. The Cannibal Killer is a surprisingly strong glimpse into the troubled mind of a notorious murderer, made on a tiny budget locally here in northern New Jersey. ☆ ☆ ☆. 16 January 2020.