Review | Talking to a Serial Killer: The Milwaukee Cannibal: Joe Berlinger Revisits Jeffrey Dahmer Case in Netflix Documentary

Through the creative lens of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer has taken on previously unattainable proportions, as the Netflix subscriber generation has the opportunity to experience more intimately the haunting extent of his crimes. . And under this same surge of popularity, Joe Berlinger returns with his documentary franchise Talking to a Serial Killer, this time revisiting the case of this handsome young man, clear eyes and blond locks, who went unnoticed in the eyes of a lax and partisan. police.

Talking to a Serial Killer: The Milwaukee Cannibal tries to fill in the gaps that the Dahmer: An American Cannibal series understandably couldn’t fill. Featuring key figures who participated throughout Jeffrey’s post-arrest process, Berlinger rescues over 30 hours of footage detailing the psychopath’s 17 horrific deaths. Also bringing in other personalities who have some kind of connection with some of the victims, the documentary filmmaker and filmmaker makes a historical and journalistic compilation that analyzes the socio-cultural context of the time of his crimes, while briefly trying to understand the spirit of this man who oscillated between madness and reason, only to be condemned as a sane man who had mastered his mental faculties while committing his crimes.

And regardless of public opinion on Dahmer’s sanity (or lack thereof), Berlinger’s miniseries serves as a case study, bringing us closer to Murphy and Brennan’s biographical work – but without the natural glamour. productions of the prolific creator. And as it takes up the countless hours of testimonies recorded by the young lawyer assigned to accompany the killer, Conversation with a serial killer brings more visceral and graphic details than one would really want from witnesses and repeats the same feelings as Dahmer: An American Cannibal brought us , elevating its intensity to even greater powers.

And while the Netflix original miniseries is enough to satisfy the appetite of true crime buffs, don’t expect Talking to a Serial Killer: The Milwaukee Cannibal to deliver in-depth insight into the killer’s motivations and the… impact of the decor. . Although it tries to raise an important debate on the racial issues that have inevitably impacted the social context in which Jeffrey Dahmer committed his crimes, the series fails to go so far on this aspect and to leave aside questions related to the neglect of the gay community. , something that Ryan Murphy’s own series tackles.

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Leaving the debate more between the lines, Joe Berlinger’s mini-series strives to tell only the facts, to review the story from a point of view still… too understanding with the demonic impulses of the criminal. But with good direction and excellent editing and editing, which reinforces the technical quality of the documentarist’s work, Talking to a Serial Killer: The Milwaukee Cannibal may not be everything we expected, but it is a complement fundamental to this series which became the most watched on Netflix at the end of September.

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