Discover The Best Movies and TV Shows Like My Friend Dahmer Right Now

Set in 1970s suburban Ohio, the film follows Jeffrey Dahmer during his final, turbulent years at Revere High School before he becomes one of America’s most notorious serial killers. The story focuses closely on Jeffrey’s intense isolation, his dysfunctional home life, and the strange psychological unraveling that led him toward darkness.At home, Jeffrey endures a deeply unstable environment. His mother, Joyce, suffers from severe mental illness and debilitating paranoia, while his father, Lionel, a chemist, is largely emotionally absent and preoccupied with his own career. Their household is defined by explosive arguments, culminating in Joyce eventually packing up and leaving with Jeffrey’s younger brother, abandoning Jeffrey to live entirely alone in the house during his senior year.At school, Jeffrey is a complete outcast, invisible to most students except as an easy target for mockery. Driven by a desperate need to fit in and crave attention, he adopts a bizarre persona. He begins faking epileptic seizures, making grotesque animal noises, and contorting his body in the hallways. This erratic behavior instead of alienating everyone unexpectedly charms a trio of bored, artsy high schoolers led by John “Derf” Backderf. Amused and intrigued by Jeffrey’s bizarre antics, Derf and his friends form the “Dahmer Fan Club,” adopting Jeffrey as their unofficial mascot and bringing him into their social circle.Despite this newfound inclusion, Jeffrey remains profoundly detached, hiding a much darker, macabre obsession. He has already developed a compulsive fascination with taxidermy and human anatomy. Driven by a morbid curiosity, he begins dissolving roadkill animals in acid in his backyard shed, secretly collecting and bleaching their bones. Concurrently, he harbors a growing, repressed homosexual attraction toward a local jogger whom he frequently watches from afar, creating a suffocating inner conflict that he cannot share with anyone.As graduation approaches, the cracks in Jeffrey’s fragile social life widen. Derf and the other boys begin to drift away as they plan for college and their futures, realizing Jeffrey’s behavior is becoming increasingly disturbing rather than merely eccentric. Left entirely alone once more, Jeffrey’s dark impulses escalate unchecked. The film culminates on the eve of his high school graduation, capturing an eerie, suspenseful car ride where Jeffrey picks up his first hitchhiker—foreshadowing the horrific path of violence that awaits him and bringing his chilling origin story to a terrifying close.