The first trailer for the upcoming Jeffrey Dahmer movie is here, and it's every bit as deeply unsettling as you expect. Adapted from the graphic novel of the same name, My Friend Dahmer looks to be more of an origin story than a straight true crime drama, following Dahmer (played by Disney Channel alum Ross Lynch) as a shy, alcoholic teenage misfit in the years before he became one of America's most notorious serial killers.
The trailer shows a teenage Dahmer as both an object of ridicule and low-key fear at his high school. "Jeff's a little off, y'know?" a fellow student hilariously understates, amidst flashes of Dahmer stalking a neighborhood jogger, embracing his burgeoning fascination with bones, and letting slip to a doctor that he has some mental health concerns.
"You seem healthy to me," the doc (played by Mad Men's Vincent Kartheiser) reassures him. "What about what's on a patient's mind?" Dahmer responds, and he has good reason to ask. Dahmer would go on to commit 17 murders between the years 1978 and 1991, many of them involving sexual assault, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism.
As the title suggests, My Friend Dahmer was written by a teenage acquaintance of Dahmer's, John 'Derf' Backderf, who's played by Alex Wolff. The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, and is due in theaters later this year.
If you're yet to read up on the beyond-horrifying details of Dahmer's crimes, this is one of the darkest and most compelling Wikipedia rabbit holes you can go down. Proceed at your own peril.
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