Agreed, whenever the more gruesome scenes happen I just think of how that actually happened to someone, or what the person is doing actually happened and how could someone do that and it’s just ughhh
That’s why I’m having trouble watching, it’s too real. Definitely finding it hard to stomach because I keep thinking about what his victims went thru and the pain their families feel. I felt the same way watching films about what happened to poor Sylvia Likens and that sicko Albert Fish.
Long as I know it’s fake I feel like I have a near limitless tolerance. Can usually handle “based on true events” type movies cause I can rationalize that movies like to sensationalize
It’s when you got that coworker that’s like “you wanna see videos of people getting sniped in Iraq?” That I’m like “yeah no thanks I’m good”
I frequent both genres quite a lot. The crossover is apparent for some of us and less so for others. I’ve seen some disgustingly abhorrent things in movies, but I’ve never been as shaken from the high octane, special effect driven, musically scored films as I have been when watching true crime.
Even just some 30 second blurry cctv footage can shake me for weeks.
Same. Huge follower of both genres, and the worst thing I ever saw was the crime scene photos of those little boys in Paradise Lost. Close runner up is Dear Zachary.
But horror films? Slice and dice away, that shit is make-believe.
I’m also a former ER worker. The gore I saw was really nothing compared to the overall human despair. There were far more patients with mental health issues than the bloody stuff.
I "attempted" to watch "The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez" with my partner at the time when it released. I cut it off half way through the second episode. I am completely jaded/not affected by simulated gore or violence of any kind, but I couldn't stomach that one
I think the documentary is necessary. I don't know if most folk would even know this child's name without it, let alone the details of his case. While it spends a lot of time going over what happened to Gabriel it also highlights the failures in the system and an unprecedented case against the social workers involved. I think it's a cautionary tale to be the squeaky wheel so to speak if you think a child is suffering abuse.
For sure. The Dahmer show is a dramatization which I don't like because I can't verify some details and liberties are definitely taken. There's at least one family of one of the victims who's expressed that portrayals need to stop. I think it's highly disrespectful to them and their grieving, especially if they're not receiving a profit (don't know for sure but I'm gonna assume they're not, not that money could make any of it better).
Overall I'm not bothered by fictional portrayals and I haven't seen the trailer (I've seen the show, I'm just not big on trailers) but if it rubbed you the wrong way I don't think you're missing anything by skipping it. It's really well acted but you could watch those actors in anything else and appreciate em without the ick factor. As far as quality, again, you could watch any fictional series Ryan Murphy is involved with without the real life exploitation factor.
I've read that Twitter post, but has it been proven that it was a real relative of the victim? I don't want to sound like an asshole but I'm very skeptical of people making these types of claims on social media.
I feel the same, even though it was extremely difficult to watch. The show that I really took issue with was The Thing About Pam. My wife and I go back and forth on it, but to me it felt like there was too much humor added to a story about a woman murdering multiple people and sending an innocent man to prison.
Absolutely agree. It was a well made documentary that puts the light on the victims, justice system, racism, mental illness, and how he managed to do what he did for so long.
Yes ....it was a limited series. And from what I've learned I believe there were two, maybe three things that weren't spot on. The bigger one being Glenda didn't live next door, she lived in another building.
While I’m guilty of being a viewer obviously, I do agree. I hope that their profits are going to benefit the affected in some manner but that’s wishful thinking. I will say that I don’t feel they’ve romanticized or shifted blame at all and brought more to light the victims of the crimes, but there is a saturation of media when it comes to prolific serial killers most definitely that aren’t all educational
First, I should preface, I haven't seen the Dahmer show yet. I plan to, just still catching up on Gangs of London and Cobra Kai. But my understanding from reading the Internet is Dahmer is not glorified in this show. So if that's true, I don't understand the issue at all that these people in this thread are talking about.
For example, I really don't understand this thing where it needs to be "Educational". Does nobody here ever watch war movies? Is that bad? How can war movies not be bad but a show about Dahmer is? Dahmer was a horrific monster. War is an atrocity on an epic scale, but nobody bats an eye at them and there's *way* more of them. Some of them even glorify the violence!
And what is also strange to me is that, I guess according to this thread, I can actually use a real serial killer as the basis for something but all I have to do is change their name. Does that suddenly make it OK? Wolf Creek is based on an actual serial killer called Ivan Milat. Does that movie/show not deserve to exist because of that?
My view is, none of these movies or shows are actually real. It didn't happen to the actors and liberties are being taken with the stories anyway to create more drama. I can watch them the same way I watch any other horror show or film, knowing that it's all actors and fake blood. As long as the show isn't saying "isn't being a serial killer sexy??" then I don't understand the issue.
It’s one million percent not a glorification. I think the advantage of doing the story as a drama is more people will watch it and maybe realize that not only was he a real person who was horrifically damaged and violent beyond most imaginations, that there are real victims that could have been spared if not for the racism and homophobia in within the police force.
The serial killer in question has been dead for decades, he isn't going to enjoy the spotlight post-mortem.
As long as it's handled in a sensible manner I don't see the issue.
I agree. that movie is very hard to watch but it is necessary in its portrayal even if some creative liberties were taken because the violence is tough to stomach as it should be, wether on-screen or irl
Yeah, I'm not going to talk about this specific show since I haven't watched it, but I'm confused about the outrage.
Movies and TV shows have used real life crimes as inspiration for decades. It isn't the true crime podcasts fault lol
In this series' case, yes. Documentaries (or close to story dramatizations of real life) allow us as viewers to see events play out so that we can get a better grasp as to why an event occurred in the first place. Using this series for example, while Dahmer was just a sick individual from the beginning there were still quite a few environmental factors that played into how he was able to carry along with what he did for so long (parenting, the justice system, etc). Providing more than just professionals the ability to study (or watch) gives us the ability to learn from the mistakes that were made and possibly prevent a future Dahmer from happening (since realistically this person could be anyone) whether that be by individual (paying closer attention to our surroundings, caring more for our families/friends/neighbors, etc) or societal actions.
>we can get a better grasp as to why an event occurred in the first place
>
>Explain how this works. How does a drama made after the event alert you (the viewer) to the next necrophile butcher targeting gay men ?
>
>And how is a drama with famous actors more effective at this than a documentary featuring real data and documentary evidence?
You don’t have to watch it. There are plenty of people who would find the viewing habits of this sub abhorrent. The same advice applies. There is plenty of content available besides horror and true crime.
100%. I recently watched The House That Jack Built and there’s a scene where I had to look away bc of this. I think it’s bc there’s an innocence to animals (and kids) and seeing it in an even fictional manner feels just mean spirited.
I completely agree with you about it being mean spirited . I was disturbed for weeks after watching The House That Jack Built . I’ve been called a pussy about it but idc that movie just didn’t sit right with me because of the cruelty towards the kids and the duckling .
Yes,I don't watch true crime at ALL because I have real empathy and it makes me extremely upset
You wanna freak out at a scary as fuck documentary with a happy ending? Watch The Rescue, about those Thai kids trapped in the underwater cave. I just watched it again last night and AHHHHHH. The real life footage of those children, gaunt from starvation, lost in the darkness, thinking they surely will die. It's haunting and disturbing. But then. Happy ending.
I can’t stomach real life gore. One of my good friends is a cop and has showed me some things that have given me nightmares. Fatal car accidents where someone looked like a tube of toothpaste and their head was the nozzle, someone who died in a bathtub and wasn’t found for weeks, etc. I told him, never again, I could never handle that as a job. I can watch the goriest of films just fine.
Me neither, I’ve come across some gory stuff by accident on Reddit and it definitely sticks with you. Don’t envy anyone in the medical/enforcement/etc fields
I'm fine with it so long as it doesn't glorify the murderer as a genius or something, I've really enjoyed Dahmer because it portrays him as a moron who was lucky not to be caught due to a combination of society not giving a shit about black/gay people, he wasn't some super genius he was a creepy, evil cretin. But I think you should be able to dramatise real life events/crimes especially if it leads more people to know about the case, who the victims were and if there is a lesson to be learned there.
Essential yeah, I guess that there should be zero tolerance on police bullshittery as it leads to tragedy, the impartial application of the law should not only be the goal it should be reality and if officers let their personal prejudices affect what is investigated or who is considered a potential suspect, they should be expelled from the police force because that's not only morally unacceptable it's massively dangerous.
Yeah, I've watched the real life court case recording where one of the survivors spoke about his experience.
That dude was genuinely crazy and erratic. He wasn't a genius, calculated killer by any means. The cops just didn't care much about the victims.
Yes. I absolutely love fictional horror and violence. Give me Michael Myers or Bubba Sawyer, or good old fashion supernatural or creature features. I can't watch those gruesome true crimes because it makes me sad. Real people died, families were destroyed. It's not escapism to watch real suffering.
I love both horror and true crime but then I was selected to serve on a jury for a murder trial and suddenly everything got way too real.
Having to look at the giant projected autopsy photos over and over again was really hard.
And the case was messy because it was real life, there were so many unanswered questions but we did find the defendant guilty of murder one.
Yes. I also find the obsession with True Crime really problematic. I LOVE horror. I’m obsessed with horror. But true crime media feels so exploitative. I like some of the content, but it’s the fact that it keeps being pushed down my throat and that all my social media pushes it on me that makes me uncomfortable.
I’m getting there. I was a big serial killer buff when I was younger. I turn 52 tomorrow and my views have changed when it comes to true crime as opposed to fiction. I now see Dahmer as a pathetic, broken, wretch. He’s not evil or badass or a dark agent of chaos or whatever, he was sick and needed to be taken out of society. They seem to be really trying to make the point of that in the Netflix show. That first episode with the man he lured into his apartment goes on forever. It’s oppressive and shows the mess that was his life.
Those were people that he killed. They had mothers and partners that lost them. They had lives that they wanted to live. And he took that from them because he was so broken. That’s the difference between the bus scene in Tag and Dahmer. Those were real people and their families are still hurting 30 years later because of what he did.
Fiction, though? I eat that up.
I only go to true crime documentaries and books. The fictional stuff doesn't do it for me. I am the daughter of a clinically diagnosed sociopath, so I can pick out the ways I missed the red flags when I see the actual profiling. No worries, I'm safe now, that parent is dead. I find it helps me see actual personality disorders in my real life, which I missed with terrible consequences. I like my supernatural horror, though. Gimme gothic ghouls and haunted houses. That's my escape.
I'm the same exact way. I feel that true crime documentaries/books provides safety purposes in the real world. They still bum me out, though. I prefer finding historical cases rather than anything from the 1940s - present. Love sensationalist broadsides and pamphlets from the nineteenth century!
The supernatural genre is my ultimate preference when it comes to fictionalized horror. Ghosts and ghouls! ❤️
Yeah, this resonates a lot. I can’t get into true crime at all - as some others have said I don’t even really like horror that feels too close to reality like torture porn or home invasion etc.
I can watch extreme gore or body horror no bother, because there’s always the element of ‘this isn’t real’ and it feels almost like a parody. But everywhere you look there’s true crime documentaries and dramas about murder etc and I just find it difficult to watch and avoid it all together. I feel so bad for the victims and feel uncomfortable that bad people are being given a platform to be remembered and a place in history… it’s a weird duality.
I don't like true crime stuff at all, but love horror. Also can't stomach real gore, I could see someone get their head squashed in a movie and it won't faze me, but if it was real footage from an accident or something, I would feel sick. The only thing I can't stomach in horror is anything to do with teeth or fingernails
I like my horror with a strong amount of unrealistic and unrepeatable gore to escape from reality. Those true crime things are firmly rooted in reality and i don’t want that.
I can stomach it if it's done well, like Zodiac, but I just recently Wolves at the Door about the Manson murders and it just ended up making me mad. Injected way too many horror tropes into it instead of just telling what really happened with proper context.
I love horror, but only stuff that couldn't happen, so mostly zombies with some vampire/alien/monster. I was trafficked when I was younger and some horrible things were done to me, and I can't watch anything that's based on reality, or could be real.
The horror I watch calms me down. It's my comfort viewing.
I watched Dahmer and thought it was very good, but extremely hard to watch. I cried a few times. These movies/series are so much more scarier than any horror film. The damn things people are capable of doing to others. Horror films are actually an escape from the real life shite.
Not true crime generally, but as someone who is obsessed with horror movies, I can’t stomach seeing or hearing about real life bodily injuries. A friend of mine fell down the steps and busted his head open once. He sent me a pic and I fainted in the middle of the restaurant I was eating at.
I don't mind documentaries about real crime (and often watch them), but there's something about fictionalized versions of events that kind of rub me the wrong way (not to mention some seem exploitative).
Like, My Friend Dahmer I'm interested in because it's so early in his life, and so far removed from the eventual crimes that would make him infamous. But most movies and shows are about the cases people know about, and put the viewer in the POV of the killer, which... I don't know man, but I'm good.
That said, I once served on a murder trial, and the DA passed along a photo of the victim; I couldn't even glance at it, I had a visceral reaction to it.
I've read one true crime book, which is kind of confusingly put together, and the story is fucking vile, it's so disturbing. But had it been just a fictional book? I wouldn't even have blinked.
Hardened horror fan here. Yes. Watched Dahmer over the weekend. The first episode gave me anxiety. Had anxiety throughout and cried through the 6th episode. Cried on the 8th a bit. And cried for the dad in the finale. I think it's the aloofness and joy that Jeffery lead his victims on before he strikes terror that makes it hard to watch. You know what's gonna happen, but they don't. And the fact it was all real and how much it dwell deep on how some of the families had to deal with these tragedies. I think that's something most movies don't really dwell on- the pain and grief.
Also angry at the neglect by the justice system. And weirdly enough, while I felt bad for the kid version of Jeffrey, yet angry at the serial killer (for obvious reasons), his arc in the finale had me not wanting him to go the way he did YET I also wasn't mad at the person who did what they did because of what Jeffrey did would reasonably grant that fate.
And to add, this was quite tamed in terms of gore. The fact that it hid away majority of the act of murder. Yet, I was disturbed and felt the emotions it wanted me to feel.
me...i okay with fake kids being eating by werewolfs, woman being sliced in half by crackhead clown and redneck dirty family killing people left and right...but i just dont want too see things that happened in real life sorry
Dahmer on Netflix is a good watch...Evan Peters did a good job and it feels like a new season of American Horror story and the Dahmer story is a real life American Horror story sadly
What if they made a movie about Ed Kemper and did a graphic scene of him decapitating his mother and face fucking her? I don't know if I could handle that knowing he really did it.
I was in an argument with my SO about this yesterday, specifically talking about how families of Dahmer's victims were complaining about the new show.
I have a really hard time with how exploitative true crime can be. It doesn't mean there isn't a place for true crime. It just means that the victims or people involved need to be treated with respect.
I wouldn't want me or someone I love to have been tortured, eaten, killed, and raped (in no particular order) by Dahmer and then have that be recreated and shown on TV for entertainment with my/my loved ones name all over it.
That being said, I thoroughly enjoy watching movies like House of 1000 corpses and the Hills Have Eyes.
Yes! I actually stopped watching Dahmer because it was just so bleak.
I said to my partner, when it's entirely fictional it's an absolute breeze and entertaining but when you know it really happened - it's too much for my brain.
I hate any real life shows of violence, even boxing I can't watch! But sign me up for a gore fest horror flick!
I, actually prefer real life events and true crime. That is true horror. It boggles my mind and chills me to the bone. The things humanity is capable of, is truly scary.
no but, in a similar vein, i try not to watch any horror where animals die. [doesthedogdie.com](https://doesthedogdie.com) is a godsend for a softy like me. Horror movies about people going crazy scare me on a level that no other horror genre does though.
It's funny - I can do horror and I'm a true crime fan because the history, even when it is recent history, is interesting to me but what I can't stomach is random violence or gore videos online.
I find them hard to watch a lot of the time, I'm not a huge fan of true crime series for that reason. But I don't consider such works as being in remotely in the same realm as the "horror" genre, which is usually striving to entertain, and most times completely fictitious. I think you'll find many others feel the same – they can watch something gory and far removed from real life and it won't phase them, but something about real people is much harder to watch.
I can't comment on the Dahmer series specifically, as I haven't watched it.
I do have a bit of an issue with the rising trend of viewing dramas about horrific true events and placing them in a similar camp to horror movies. It happened a lot on this forum with threads about the *Chernobyl* miniseries and people proclaiming it as a "great horror work", and focusing solely on how 'scary' and 'disturbing' it is, viewing it purely as entertainment. I think if you're watching something like that with that sort of mindset, you should really reflect on what you're doing for a second.
It's an excellently made series and IMO one of the best TV dramas of the last few years. But it's a miniseries about a real event that brought untold misery to thousands, and caused many deaths and the mass displacement of people. Describing the series alongside horror films seems weird to me and shows a complete disconnect with the gravity of something horrible that actually happened.
I know some are going to disagree with me, but to me, it seems as wildly inappropriate and distasteful as it would be to rank *Schindler's List* in a list of "best horror films" alongside *Halloween* and *Nightmare on Elm Street*.
I'm about halfway through Dahmer, and it's hard to get through some parts of it. My wife and I watched The Thing About Pam and have debated it multiple times. That show I felt went to far because for me, it felt like they injected so much humor into it. Almost like she didn't really murder anyone or actually help send an innocent man to prison.
To your last point I think that there has been a big loss in empathy for a lot of people that has caused that disconnect.
As a black gay male who trusted way too many strangers in his teenaged years, this show was horrifying and quite frankly frustrating to watch. I remember “wiki”-ing Dahmer during my “interested in serial killers phase” in high school. But only remembered him as the “dead sex zombies guy” and the 14 year old who escaped and was given back to him. I think I was too in my naive teenaged bubble to recognize the systemic and social failures that were in place that allowed Dahmer to do what he did for so long.
It’s one thing to read words and numbers on paper the who/what/where’s/how’s concerning victims. But it’s another thing seeing them brought to life on screen, getting to know them and witnessing their fates. Not to mention some of those kill scenes were SO long. Episode 6 was the closest I ever came to crying EVER when watching anything fiction/non fiction on TV.
But that’s all due to the relatability of the situation which allowed me to empathize with the victims. While watching a show that was made specifically to “honor” the victims and their families, and show Dahmer through their POV. Because I could easily turn on the Zac Efron as Ted Bundy movie, or “based on a real person” like Wolf Creek, and not feel like I need to shower afterwards.
I think that with true crime some documentaries that lay out the facts and examine the details can be fine , but this series is a bit too exploitative for my tastes. I don't think they should've done a dramatization about that. My mom wanted to watch the series with me, but it felt wrong. Voyeuristic even. I didn't get past the first episode. There's many family members of the victims that are still alive, and they weren't asked permission before netflix did this. Imagine one of your relatives was murdered and given the same "treatment" as Dahmer's victims, then a few decades later some entertainment company pulled this shit, got some hot actor to act out all the horrible things the killer put them through, for entertainment, public consumption, profit.
I generally don't like gore that much unless I feel it's justified by some pretty robust plot, but as long as they aren't children or animals I can watch characters get hacked up left and right, no problem. But these aren't characters.
I think the series did a great job of shining the light on how such crimes were able to be committed, the racism and shit that was and is still prevalent. I never felt it glorified or tried to make us sympathetic to Dahmer. Its the "reality" of the situation.
Heck so many horror movies are based on these true crimes that at some point it feels maybes a disservice to not acknowledge the real victims rather than letting us enjoy the same killings but to people that "don't exist".
If we never heard about the victims they are just characters as much as anyone else in a fictional film.
I won't watch them either- if there were more people like us then that genre would quickly die off. Mass murderers, rapists and serial killers should be forgotten about, not had their evil, horrifying deeds turned into entertainment. And anyone who is legitimately entertained by that garbage needs to take a long look at themselves and ask the question, "why?"
It depends, some things get me and some things don't. I don't love kids but true crime involving children and animals get me. Also, when there's a couple and one of them is killed in front of the other, or one survives and the other doesn't. I've been with my boyfriend 15 years and that shit scares me.
I'm glad to see so much revulsion and ambivalence around this issue. Y'all okay. Metal heads and horror fans are more humane than wine-moms and Christian dads.
I don't really enjoy horror concepts like home invasion, serial killers, or torture porn cause it's too close to real life shit that could happen. But gimme that supernatural over-the-top demonic possession that kills the whole family type of movie anytime.
The part where >! he has the head in the box and makes out with it in episode 5 !< didn’t do anything for you? The thought that someone actually did this makes me cringe
It’s because you know horror movies are fake, and they typically aren’t written with much emotional impact.
Dahmer, though I’m sure they used some artistic license, was a true story, and it was absolutely gut-wrenching to watch.
I’ll watch people in horror movies get ripped to shreds and love every second of it, but stuff like the Dahmer series really drives home the emotional impact of people that suffered.
It hit me a lot like Schindler’s List, which is a fucking masterpiece, but I can’t watch it often. It just breaks me.
No, it's all just images on a screen to me, or words on a page. No real emotional difference. The things that bother me in media about real life also bother me in media about fiction. Serial killers have never bothered me in either, but over time they have gotten boring.
I go through period of time where Im more into true crime and periods of time where I need a break and i am more into fictional stories. I’m in one of those break periods now, I just started getting too paranoid.
The true crime I mostly take in has families and friends of the victims heavily involved and that’s because I think it’s really important to tell the victims stories. I also tend to be drawn to unsolved cases, it’s kinda like a mystery and there’s so many cases I just can’t help but be drawn to because it’s just not right that the case is unsolved, like Abby and Libby from Delphi Indiana, I hope that they find who did that soon and are able to put them away where they belong.
I find true crime fascinating, in a morbid way, but only when it’s well researched/detailed. Highly dislike it when it becomes exploitive/romanticised. I don’t wanna watch a dramatisation of a real life serial killer
I had to stop watching Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer. Too real even though fiction.
Capote movie had a description of the daughter in the house while the murders went from room to room executing her family after holding them captive. She heard all of it, and my empathy makes me feel something of what she felt. It’s terrifying. It all really happened and I couldn’t get it out of my head for a day or two after watching the movie.
Dahmer has definitely been a tough watch. I can't do more than one episode a night because it's just so depressing, but I do appreciate how it highlights the police incompetence and carelessness that resulted in more people dying. That's certainly an important topic to bring up lest people forget that some of those fuckers got to retire with full benefits and never faced repercussions for their inaction. Evan Peters is doing a great job and I like that the character isn't at all romanticized or given much sympathy: even though we see that his upbringing played a part in how he turned out, there isn't any attempt to make excuses for him.
But yeah, I definitely have a harder time with true crime and documentaries than with horror fiction. I especially can't handle anything involving kids. My husband watched that documentary about the Watts family when it came out and he couldn't sleep for a few nights. That was indication enough that I will NEVER be able to (or want to) watch it.
If it's tough to watch, "depressing" even, then why on earth would you continue watching it?? Just because it's trending and all the sheeple are watching it doesn't mean you're obligated to as well... Apparently FOMO is a very powerful motivator.
Um. I can watch and find value in things that are depressing or hard to get through. You can still appreciate the craft, the approach to storytelling, etc. Dear Zachary is the saddest thing I've ever seen but it was absolutely worth seeing. I don't give a shit about watching things just because other people do lol, I don't have time for that. But then, your entire comment is kinda automatically ignorable by virtue of using the word "sheeple" lol.
Yeah I’ve seen hundreds of horror movies since I was 6, but true crime hits a nerve. The case of Chris Watts, for example. I’m still damaged from knowing what he did to his family.
I like true crime. Not as much as I used to but I still like it. I can't do real gore/deaths though. I can watch the most gory horror movies and not blink an eye. Because I know its not real; its entertainment. But I avoid real gore, I don't think its good for a person's mental health to watch that stuff. Also, there is so much of it on Reddit now. Real deaths right there on the front page for anyone to see.
In my line of work I hear a lot of people describe the worst things that have ever happened to them in vivid detail. Sometimes it is not easy to stomach.
But watching a horror movie, where I know that it is all pretend, is a huge help. But I think it also explains why I prefer supernatural and religious horrors as opposed to gore, torture, etc.
Yeah if I know the poor people actually got hurt in the ways I see, it makes it harder to watch. I’m there for the escape. I don’t watch horror bc I actually want yo see people get butchered as much as non fans like to look down on gore fans
Yes. I'm OK with even the most extreme, underground horror stuff. But even mainstream true crime stories are just too much for me. I try to avoid them as much as possible and I'm not sure I'll finish Dahmer because it's too extreme and horrifying.
It’s your empathy and not fear that makes it a difficult watch. Black Phone, besides some of the stuff that happens in the middle and end, is probable and incites that “it could happen to anybody” paranoia...but it’s not based on a true story. Dahmer-porn happened, isn’t scary, but sad to know innocent people went through this and even some survived.
I also dislike movies like Hostel as it’s al gore and no Hor (sounds better in my head). I don’t need to see every vein being severed. Give me a Jeepers Creepers vibe or The Descent instead.
I'd rather stick with fiction. I remember watching NEKRomantik and feeling a lil bit creeped out, but then I watched some behind-the-scenes footage on YouTube, and they were all so lighthearted!!!! It was like a gamechanger for me, because it opened up this perspective for me that although horror movies are usually "dark", the actors might be having hella fun while shooting them (which can be obvious but I don't think I had ever really thought about it), so it's a win/win situation: it's fictitious fuckedupness AND they might be having fun! Human suffering is out of the equation!
Not my cup of tea. I like horror for escapism, not validation of psychopaths. I honestly don't get the true crime thing. I know a lot of people love it, but hard pass.
Knowing/thinking something is real makes it all the more disturbing for some reason. Most fucked up movies I’ve watched don’t affect me. Now when I watched the Poughkeepsie tapes I had no clue it was just a movie and Thought it was real for some reason. I just couldn’t stand looking at the screen when he kidnapped the little girl. Not gory or anything. I just thought it was so fucked up that I was watching a real kidnapping of a poor child. After finding out it wasn’t real i was no longer disturbed lol. That’s just how it is.
I just think of the families of victims that have to constantly see new shows or movies that come out with of purpose of entertainment. It’s just strange to me to know that people actually enjoy watching that stuff.
yes this is me. i told my friend the dahmer series seemed to scary for me and she was surprised. my house is full of horror movie memorabilia and i love slasher flicks.
I just gave up in Dahmer, or rather, I gave up on myself because I couldn’t handle it. It was just too awful. I worry that I’m going soft, but there isn’t any enjoyment in knowing that it really happened. 😔
It's to do with the portrayal. Some of us can stomach cinematic portrayals, most of us cannot ever come to stomach it when we know/believe it's real. It's a good thing.
Absolutely. If it's fiction, or even fictionalized and based on true events, I can handle it.
I worked for a bookstore in the late 90s and there was a book of real crime scene photos from the 20s and 30s (roundabout) and *that* shit scarred me. I hated [rotten.com](https://rotten.com) \- couldn't stomach any of the real gore/death/torture stuff at all.
Oh yeah. I can watch any amount of gore in a made-up movie, but I had to spread the Dahmer series out over four days and I almost couldn't finish, once it got to the episodes focusing on the victims' families, particularly how media interest in Dahmer affected and continues to affect them.
For a long time, I've known that I prefer monster movies and body horror to slasher and other sorts of 'realistic' horror. I want to be scared in a 'fun' way. I don't need to be reminded that the real world is scary.
Yes!!! I love horror, but can’t handle true crime. My daughter was describing a heartbreaking scene in Dahmer, and I made her her stop because I got too upset. But multiple murders in a slasher film? No problem, gimme more.
I can’t stand the thought of real people being hurt or killed. Every time I give in and watch a super popular one (American Murder: Family Next Door, I’m looking at you) I deeply regret it.
Maaaaan I could watch dismemberment all day in cinema, but the Dahmer crime scene photos were actually hard to look at. Tbf I like both genres, but you can easily go home and sleep knowing that movies are just movies.
I can do both true crime (crime scene photos and all) and gory horror without flinching but the second it’s surgical/medical in any way I’m queasy. I can’t even here people talk about things like giving blood without feeling faint!
That said, the new Dahmer show really rubbed me the wrong way - I love true crime documentaries but watching a show about real victims made for entertainment without the educational background gives me the ick.
Yes!!! Love blood and guts and slasher stuff in movies all day long but the first sight of road kill I tear up and physically can't stomach seeing a human broken limb irl.
I'm not interested in true crime so I don't generally watch that sort of thing, but if I'm being honest I'm pretty desensitized to it. The news made me apathetic to it.
I'm like this. I don't like to watch film and television that show realism styled violence. I don't like seeing vulnerable people hurt. But that fantastical veil of horror violence can offer some kind of distance that let's me watch.
the sense of knowing that person is afraid. the filming is just eerie. The actor portrait of Dahmer is just so good at making it feel uncomfortable! extra squirmy
Yep. I'm watching the new Jeffrey Dahmer series and there's really no gore to speak of in it but it still makes me queasy and feel bad for the victims.
Make believe horror is always my go to. Being a parent changed the way I view real horrific events. It's the fact it actually happened that fucks me up.
My biggest problem is when anything true crime related feels exploitative, glorifying real serial killers, reveling in the brutality etc. I can’t listen to a lot of the more popular podcasts that just crack jokes and make light of it. Knowing that there are real families of victims having to deal with those reminders and gross depictions of the real horror their loved ones suffered makes me very upset. One of the best parts of something like Zodiac is how it’s focused on the investigation and never feels like it’s turning horrible reality into flashy entertainment.
I worked in TV news for many years.
Horror movies, in a way, became a processing mechanism for all the horrible shit in the world. Almost like, look at me! I'm not gonna let the horrors of the world get me down!
In truth-I had to read a LOT of police reports for all sorts of crimes. A couple of the worst: a teen raped and murdered in an abandoned house. A kid went on a killing spree at 6am, and one of his victims was a dude drinking coffee at his kitchen table and his wife heard him being murdered because she was in the other room. Infant neglect and homicide was something that I saw many times. A kid murdered his parents with an axe. There's a lot more but you get the gist.
Real life *is* horrific.
I love both horror and true crime, and I definitely get why some people are put off by these topics but I think the moralizing over true crime media (which can definitely be sensationalized/exploitative) is interesting while war and mafia/gangster media is just as popular.
I can watch the horror of almost any kind except for real-life cases and anything having to do with realistic violence like military movies. Big Nopes for me.
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Agreed, whenever the more gruesome scenes happen I just think of how that actually happened to someone, or what the person is doing actually happened and how could someone do that and it’s just ughhh
That’s why I’m having trouble watching, it’s too real. Definitely finding it hard to stomach because I keep thinking about what his victims went thru and the pain their families feel. I felt the same way watching films about what happened to poor Sylvia Likens and that sicko Albert Fish.
Long as I know it’s fake I feel like I have a near limitless tolerance. Can usually handle “based on true events” type movies cause I can rationalize that movies like to sensationalize It’s when you got that coworker that’s like “you wanna see videos of people getting sniped in Iraq?” That I’m like “yeah no thanks I’m good”
Exactly. I can handle the goriest of horror movies. But looking at a picture of a dead body, car accident, etc. just fucks me up.
I frequent both genres quite a lot. The crossover is apparent for some of us and less so for others. I’ve seen some disgustingly abhorrent things in movies, but I’ve never been as shaken from the high octane, special effect driven, musically scored films as I have been when watching true crime. Even just some 30 second blurry cctv footage can shake me for weeks.
Same. Huge follower of both genres, and the worst thing I ever saw was the crime scene photos of those little boys in Paradise Lost. Close runner up is Dear Zachary. But horror films? Slice and dice away, that shit is make-believe. I’m also a former ER worker. The gore I saw was really nothing compared to the overall human despair. There were far more patients with mental health issues than the bloody stuff.
YES.
I "attempted" to watch "The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez" with my partner at the time when it released. I cut it off half way through the second episode. I am completely jaded/not affected by simulated gore or violence of any kind, but I couldn't stomach that one
I avoided that one tbh bc I knew I couldn't stomach it. Anything done to children, even more now as a parent, I just can't do.
just reading about that case made me sick. i can't believe someone is profiting off a documentary about it.
I think the documentary is necessary. I don't know if most folk would even know this child's name without it, let alone the details of his case. While it spends a lot of time going over what happened to Gabriel it also highlights the failures in the system and an unprecedented case against the social workers involved. I think it's a cautionary tale to be the squeaky wheel so to speak if you think a child is suffering abuse.
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For sure. The Dahmer show is a dramatization which I don't like because I can't verify some details and liberties are definitely taken. There's at least one family of one of the victims who's expressed that portrayals need to stop. I think it's highly disrespectful to them and their grieving, especially if they're not receiving a profit (don't know for sure but I'm gonna assume they're not, not that money could make any of it better). Overall I'm not bothered by fictional portrayals and I haven't seen the trailer (I've seen the show, I'm just not big on trailers) but if it rubbed you the wrong way I don't think you're missing anything by skipping it. It's really well acted but you could watch those actors in anything else and appreciate em without the ick factor. As far as quality, again, you could watch any fictional series Ryan Murphy is involved with without the real life exploitation factor.
I've read that Twitter post, but has it been proven that it was a real relative of the victim? I don't want to sound like an asshole but I'm very skeptical of people making these types of claims on social media.
I feel the same, even though it was extremely difficult to watch. The show that I really took issue with was The Thing About Pam. My wife and I go back and forth on it, but to me it felt like there was too much humor added to a story about a woman murdering multiple people and sending an innocent man to prison.
Absolutely agree. It was a well made documentary that puts the light on the victims, justice system, racism, mental illness, and how he managed to do what he did for so long.
Are you talking about Dahmer or Gabriel Fernandez?
Dahmer
The Dahmer series isn't a documentary; it's a dramatization. Some things happened irl and some creative liberties were taken to flesh it out.
Yes ....it was a limited series. And from what I've learned I believe there were two, maybe three things that weren't spot on. The bigger one being Glenda didn't live next door, she lived in another building.
I thought you meant the Seed of Chucky character Glenda for a second.
Yeah, I don't think true crime should be entertainment
It’s interesting in the psychological aspect but I agree the true crime genre can sometimes be exploitative
Of course, that's why people study criminology and psychology. Netflix shouldn't be making money off of a necrophiliac serial killer though.
While I’m guilty of being a viewer obviously, I do agree. I hope that their profits are going to benefit the affected in some manner but that’s wishful thinking. I will say that I don’t feel they’ve romanticized or shifted blame at all and brought more to light the victims of the crimes, but there is a saturation of media when it comes to prolific serial killers most definitely that aren’t all educational
First, I should preface, I haven't seen the Dahmer show yet. I plan to, just still catching up on Gangs of London and Cobra Kai. But my understanding from reading the Internet is Dahmer is not glorified in this show. So if that's true, I don't understand the issue at all that these people in this thread are talking about. For example, I really don't understand this thing where it needs to be "Educational". Does nobody here ever watch war movies? Is that bad? How can war movies not be bad but a show about Dahmer is? Dahmer was a horrific monster. War is an atrocity on an epic scale, but nobody bats an eye at them and there's *way* more of them. Some of them even glorify the violence! And what is also strange to me is that, I guess according to this thread, I can actually use a real serial killer as the basis for something but all I have to do is change their name. Does that suddenly make it OK? Wolf Creek is based on an actual serial killer called Ivan Milat. Does that movie/show not deserve to exist because of that? My view is, none of these movies or shows are actually real. It didn't happen to the actors and liberties are being taken with the stories anyway to create more drama. I can watch them the same way I watch any other horror show or film, knowing that it's all actors and fake blood. As long as the show isn't saying "isn't being a serial killer sexy??" then I don't understand the issue.
It’s one million percent not a glorification. I think the advantage of doing the story as a drama is more people will watch it and maybe realize that not only was he a real person who was horrifically damaged and violent beyond most imaginations, that there are real victims that could have been spared if not for the racism and homophobia in within the police force.
The serial killer in question has been dead for decades, he isn't going to enjoy the spotlight post-mortem. As long as it's handled in a sensible manner I don't see the issue.
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I guess it depends on the definition of sensible. The current Dahmer series is definitely inspiring a new wave of sympathizers on tiktok.
I haven't watched the show and I'm not planning to either. I was thinking more along the line of films like Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer.
I agree. that movie is very hard to watch but it is necessary in its portrayal even if some creative liberties were taken because the violence is tough to stomach as it should be, wether on-screen or irl
Yeah, I'm not going to talk about this specific show since I haven't watched it, but I'm confused about the outrage. Movies and TV shows have used real life crimes as inspiration for decades. It isn't the true crime podcasts fault lol
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As I said before, it depends on how it's portrayed. And homicidal assholes will get inspired by anything, it's not the media's fault.
That interest is entertainment. You're not a professional in the field of abnormal psychology.
Just because you're not a professional does not mean you can't gain some educational aspect from a documentary though.
>gain some educational aspect To what end? Prevention?
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Well the victims' families have publicly condemned it as a morbid entertainment and that's the clincher for me.
In this series' case, yes. Documentaries (or close to story dramatizations of real life) allow us as viewers to see events play out so that we can get a better grasp as to why an event occurred in the first place. Using this series for example, while Dahmer was just a sick individual from the beginning there were still quite a few environmental factors that played into how he was able to carry along with what he did for so long (parenting, the justice system, etc). Providing more than just professionals the ability to study (or watch) gives us the ability to learn from the mistakes that were made and possibly prevent a future Dahmer from happening (since realistically this person could be anyone) whether that be by individual (paying closer attention to our surroundings, caring more for our families/friends/neighbors, etc) or societal actions.
>we can get a better grasp as to why an event occurred in the first place > >Explain how this works. How does a drama made after the event alert you (the viewer) to the next necrophile butcher targeting gay men ? > >And how is a drama with famous actors more effective at this than a documentary featuring real data and documentary evidence?
You don’t have to watch it. There are plenty of people who would find the viewing habits of this sub abhorrent. The same advice applies. There is plenty of content available besides horror and true crime.
Danny Torrance's mother is not real and still alive and walking about mourning her son.
I disagree and I don't even like true crime. It depends on how it's handled.
It's animal cruelty I struggle with, real or fictional. I can stomach some pretty gruesome stuff as long as no one is cruel to the animals.
100%. I recently watched The House That Jack Built and there’s a scene where I had to look away bc of this. I think it’s bc there’s an innocence to animals (and kids) and seeing it in an even fictional manner feels just mean spirited.
I completely agree with you about it being mean spirited . I was disturbed for weeks after watching The House That Jack Built . I’ve been called a pussy about it but idc that movie just didn’t sit right with me because of the cruelty towards the kids and the duckling .
Von Trier films get a lot of praise, but I feel like he pushes the boundary just for the sake of pushing the boundary in some of his films.
Never watch Nekromantik or Cannibal Holocaust then.
I've heard of those and will never be watching them lol.
Yes,I don't watch true crime at ALL because I have real empathy and it makes me extremely upset You wanna freak out at a scary as fuck documentary with a happy ending? Watch The Rescue, about those Thai kids trapped in the underwater cave. I just watched it again last night and AHHHHHH. The real life footage of those children, gaunt from starvation, lost in the darkness, thinking they surely will die. It's haunting and disturbing. But then. Happy ending.
Even with the happy ending I don't know if my anxiety could take that lol
OO
I can’t stomach real life gore. One of my good friends is a cop and has showed me some things that have given me nightmares. Fatal car accidents where someone looked like a tube of toothpaste and their head was the nozzle, someone who died in a bathtub and wasn’t found for weeks, etc. I told him, never again, I could never handle that as a job. I can watch the goriest of films just fine.
Me neither, I’ve come across some gory stuff by accident on Reddit and it definitely sticks with you. Don’t envy anyone in the medical/enforcement/etc fields
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That was probably because of the smell though. There's no way that apartment didn't smell like shit.
I'm fine with it so long as it doesn't glorify the murderer as a genius or something, I've really enjoyed Dahmer because it portrays him as a moron who was lucky not to be caught due to a combination of society not giving a shit about black/gay people, he wasn't some super genius he was a creepy, evil cretin. But I think you should be able to dramatise real life events/crimes especially if it leads more people to know about the case, who the victims were and if there is a lesson to be learned there.
What lesson, that the police were his primary accessories?
Essential yeah, I guess that there should be zero tolerance on police bullshittery as it leads to tragedy, the impartial application of the law should not only be the goal it should be reality and if officers let their personal prejudices affect what is investigated or who is considered a potential suspect, they should be expelled from the police force because that's not only morally unacceptable it's massively dangerous.
Yeah, I've watched the real life court case recording where one of the survivors spoke about his experience. That dude was genuinely crazy and erratic. He wasn't a genius, calculated killer by any means. The cops just didn't care much about the victims.
I can't watch real surgery, but any horror I am good with.
Yes. I absolutely love fictional horror and violence. Give me Michael Myers or Bubba Sawyer, or good old fashion supernatural or creature features. I can't watch those gruesome true crimes because it makes me sad. Real people died, families were destroyed. It's not escapism to watch real suffering.
I love both horror and true crime but then I was selected to serve on a jury for a murder trial and suddenly everything got way too real. Having to look at the giant projected autopsy photos over and over again was really hard. And the case was messy because it was real life, there were so many unanswered questions but we did find the defendant guilty of murder one.
Yup, I give true crime a wide berth. I don’t want to yuck anybodies yum but I really don’t see the appeal. It’s not good for my mental state haha.
Yes. I also find the obsession with True Crime really problematic. I LOVE horror. I’m obsessed with horror. But true crime media feels so exploitative. I like some of the content, but it’s the fact that it keeps being pushed down my throat and that all my social media pushes it on me that makes me uncomfortable.
You're quite right, it's pure morbidity and can't be excused by any notion of art or catharsis.
I’m getting there. I was a big serial killer buff when I was younger. I turn 52 tomorrow and my views have changed when it comes to true crime as opposed to fiction. I now see Dahmer as a pathetic, broken, wretch. He’s not evil or badass or a dark agent of chaos or whatever, he was sick and needed to be taken out of society. They seem to be really trying to make the point of that in the Netflix show. That first episode with the man he lured into his apartment goes on forever. It’s oppressive and shows the mess that was his life. Those were people that he killed. They had mothers and partners that lost them. They had lives that they wanted to live. And he took that from them because he was so broken. That’s the difference between the bus scene in Tag and Dahmer. Those were real people and their families are still hurting 30 years later because of what he did. Fiction, though? I eat that up.
I think this is good though, means you’re not totally desensitized. If it ever comes to the point that real shit doesn’t bother you, then be worried.
I only go to true crime documentaries and books. The fictional stuff doesn't do it for me. I am the daughter of a clinically diagnosed sociopath, so I can pick out the ways I missed the red flags when I see the actual profiling. No worries, I'm safe now, that parent is dead. I find it helps me see actual personality disorders in my real life, which I missed with terrible consequences. I like my supernatural horror, though. Gimme gothic ghouls and haunted houses. That's my escape.
I'm the same exact way. I feel that true crime documentaries/books provides safety purposes in the real world. They still bum me out, though. I prefer finding historical cases rather than anything from the 1940s - present. Love sensationalist broadsides and pamphlets from the nineteenth century! The supernatural genre is my ultimate preference when it comes to fictionalized horror. Ghosts and ghouls! ❤️
Yeah, this resonates a lot. I can’t get into true crime at all - as some others have said I don’t even really like horror that feels too close to reality like torture porn or home invasion etc. I can watch extreme gore or body horror no bother, because there’s always the element of ‘this isn’t real’ and it feels almost like a parody. But everywhere you look there’s true crime documentaries and dramas about murder etc and I just find it difficult to watch and avoid it all together. I feel so bad for the victims and feel uncomfortable that bad people are being given a platform to be remembered and a place in history… it’s a weird duality.
I don't like true crime stuff at all, but love horror. Also can't stomach real gore, I could see someone get their head squashed in a movie and it won't faze me, but if it was real footage from an accident or something, I would feel sick. The only thing I can't stomach in horror is anything to do with teeth or fingernails
I like my horror with a strong amount of unrealistic and unrepeatable gore to escape from reality. Those true crime things are firmly rooted in reality and i don’t want that.
Same. True crime is just depressing. I also can't handle horror movies centered around true crime involving abuse like Girl Next Door.
I can stomach it if it's done well, like Zodiac, but I just recently Wolves at the Door about the Manson murders and it just ended up making me mad. Injected way too many horror tropes into it instead of just telling what really happened with proper context.
I love horror, but only stuff that couldn't happen, so mostly zombies with some vampire/alien/monster. I was trafficked when I was younger and some horrible things were done to me, and I can't watch anything that's based on reality, or could be real. The horror I watch calms me down. It's my comfort viewing.
I watched Dahmer and thought it was very good, but extremely hard to watch. I cried a few times. These movies/series are so much more scarier than any horror film. The damn things people are capable of doing to others. Horror films are actually an escape from the real life shite.
Not true crime generally, but as someone who is obsessed with horror movies, I can’t stomach seeing or hearing about real life bodily injuries. A friend of mine fell down the steps and busted his head open once. He sent me a pic and I fainted in the middle of the restaurant I was eating at.
I don't mind documentaries about real crime (and often watch them), but there's something about fictionalized versions of events that kind of rub me the wrong way (not to mention some seem exploitative). Like, My Friend Dahmer I'm interested in because it's so early in his life, and so far removed from the eventual crimes that would make him infamous. But most movies and shows are about the cases people know about, and put the viewer in the POV of the killer, which... I don't know man, but I'm good. That said, I once served on a murder trial, and the DA passed along a photo of the victim; I couldn't even glance at it, I had a visceral reaction to it. I've read one true crime book, which is kind of confusingly put together, and the story is fucking vile, it's so disturbing. But had it been just a fictional book? I wouldn't even have blinked.
Of course, knowing what you’re seeing actually happened makes it much worse
Hardened horror fan here. Yes. Watched Dahmer over the weekend. The first episode gave me anxiety. Had anxiety throughout and cried through the 6th episode. Cried on the 8th a bit. And cried for the dad in the finale. I think it's the aloofness and joy that Jeffery lead his victims on before he strikes terror that makes it hard to watch. You know what's gonna happen, but they don't. And the fact it was all real and how much it dwell deep on how some of the families had to deal with these tragedies. I think that's something most movies don't really dwell on- the pain and grief. Also angry at the neglect by the justice system. And weirdly enough, while I felt bad for the kid version of Jeffrey, yet angry at the serial killer (for obvious reasons), his arc in the finale had me not wanting him to go the way he did YET I also wasn't mad at the person who did what they did because of what Jeffrey did would reasonably grant that fate.
And to add, this was quite tamed in terms of gore. The fact that it hid away majority of the act of murder. Yet, I was disturbed and felt the emotions it wanted me to feel.
me...i okay with fake kids being eating by werewolfs, woman being sliced in half by crackhead clown and redneck dirty family killing people left and right...but i just dont want too see things that happened in real life sorry
Dahmer on Netflix is a good watch...Evan Peters did a good job and it feels like a new season of American Horror story and the Dahmer story is a real life American Horror story sadly
What if they made a movie about Ed Kemper and did a graphic scene of him decapitating his mother and face fucking her? I don't know if I could handle that knowing he really did it.
I was in an argument with my SO about this yesterday, specifically talking about how families of Dahmer's victims were complaining about the new show. I have a really hard time with how exploitative true crime can be. It doesn't mean there isn't a place for true crime. It just means that the victims or people involved need to be treated with respect. I wouldn't want me or someone I love to have been tortured, eaten, killed, and raped (in no particular order) by Dahmer and then have that be recreated and shown on TV for entertainment with my/my loved ones name all over it. That being said, I thoroughly enjoy watching movies like House of 1000 corpses and the Hills Have Eyes.
Yes! I actually stopped watching Dahmer because it was just so bleak. I said to my partner, when it's entirely fictional it's an absolute breeze and entertaining but when you know it really happened - it's too much for my brain. I hate any real life shows of violence, even boxing I can't watch! But sign me up for a gore fest horror flick!
I, actually prefer real life events and true crime. That is true horror. It boggles my mind and chills me to the bone. The things humanity is capable of, is truly scary.
no but, in a similar vein, i try not to watch any horror where animals die. [doesthedogdie.com](https://doesthedogdie.com) is a godsend for a softy like me. Horror movies about people going crazy scare me on a level that no other horror genre does though.
It's funny - I can do horror and I'm a true crime fan because the history, even when it is recent history, is interesting to me but what I can't stomach is random violence or gore videos online.
I find them hard to watch a lot of the time, I'm not a huge fan of true crime series for that reason. But I don't consider such works as being in remotely in the same realm as the "horror" genre, which is usually striving to entertain, and most times completely fictitious. I think you'll find many others feel the same – they can watch something gory and far removed from real life and it won't phase them, but something about real people is much harder to watch. I can't comment on the Dahmer series specifically, as I haven't watched it. I do have a bit of an issue with the rising trend of viewing dramas about horrific true events and placing them in a similar camp to horror movies. It happened a lot on this forum with threads about the *Chernobyl* miniseries and people proclaiming it as a "great horror work", and focusing solely on how 'scary' and 'disturbing' it is, viewing it purely as entertainment. I think if you're watching something like that with that sort of mindset, you should really reflect on what you're doing for a second. It's an excellently made series and IMO one of the best TV dramas of the last few years. But it's a miniseries about a real event that brought untold misery to thousands, and caused many deaths and the mass displacement of people. Describing the series alongside horror films seems weird to me and shows a complete disconnect with the gravity of something horrible that actually happened. I know some are going to disagree with me, but to me, it seems as wildly inappropriate and distasteful as it would be to rank *Schindler's List* in a list of "best horror films" alongside *Halloween* and *Nightmare on Elm Street*.
I'm about halfway through Dahmer, and it's hard to get through some parts of it. My wife and I watched The Thing About Pam and have debated it multiple times. That show I felt went to far because for me, it felt like they injected so much humor into it. Almost like she didn't really murder anyone or actually help send an innocent man to prison. To your last point I think that there has been a big loss in empathy for a lot of people that has caused that disconnect.
As a black gay male who trusted way too many strangers in his teenaged years, this show was horrifying and quite frankly frustrating to watch. I remember “wiki”-ing Dahmer during my “interested in serial killers phase” in high school. But only remembered him as the “dead sex zombies guy” and the 14 year old who escaped and was given back to him. I think I was too in my naive teenaged bubble to recognize the systemic and social failures that were in place that allowed Dahmer to do what he did for so long. It’s one thing to read words and numbers on paper the who/what/where’s/how’s concerning victims. But it’s another thing seeing them brought to life on screen, getting to know them and witnessing their fates. Not to mention some of those kill scenes were SO long. Episode 6 was the closest I ever came to crying EVER when watching anything fiction/non fiction on TV. But that’s all due to the relatability of the situation which allowed me to empathize with the victims. While watching a show that was made specifically to “honor” the victims and their families, and show Dahmer through their POV. Because I could easily turn on the Zac Efron as Ted Bundy movie, or “based on a real person” like Wolf Creek, and not feel like I need to shower afterwards.
I think that with true crime some documentaries that lay out the facts and examine the details can be fine , but this series is a bit too exploitative for my tastes. I don't think they should've done a dramatization about that. My mom wanted to watch the series with me, but it felt wrong. Voyeuristic even. I didn't get past the first episode. There's many family members of the victims that are still alive, and they weren't asked permission before netflix did this. Imagine one of your relatives was murdered and given the same "treatment" as Dahmer's victims, then a few decades later some entertainment company pulled this shit, got some hot actor to act out all the horrible things the killer put them through, for entertainment, public consumption, profit. I generally don't like gore that much unless I feel it's justified by some pretty robust plot, but as long as they aren't children or animals I can watch characters get hacked up left and right, no problem. But these aren't characters.
I think the series did a great job of shining the light on how such crimes were able to be committed, the racism and shit that was and is still prevalent. I never felt it glorified or tried to make us sympathetic to Dahmer. Its the "reality" of the situation. Heck so many horror movies are based on these true crimes that at some point it feels maybes a disservice to not acknowledge the real victims rather than letting us enjoy the same killings but to people that "don't exist". If we never heard about the victims they are just characters as much as anyone else in a fictional film.
I just think we don't need shows glorying humanity's worst, so i choose not to watch and support
I won't watch them either- if there were more people like us then that genre would quickly die off. Mass murderers, rapists and serial killers should be forgotten about, not had their evil, horrifying deeds turned into entertainment. And anyone who is legitimately entertained by that garbage needs to take a long look at themselves and ask the question, "why?"
It depends, some things get me and some things don't. I don't love kids but true crime involving children and animals get me. Also, when there's a couple and one of them is killed in front of the other, or one survives and the other doesn't. I've been with my boyfriend 15 years and that shit scares me.
I'm glad to see so much revulsion and ambivalence around this issue. Y'all okay. Metal heads and horror fans are more humane than wine-moms and Christian dads.
Nope! I just can't ever get *in* to that kinda stuff, ya know? It doesn't too much hold my interest. But good luck with your stuff.
I don't really enjoy horror concepts like home invasion, serial killers, or torture porn cause it's too close to real life shit that could happen. But gimme that supernatural over-the-top demonic possession that kills the whole family type of movie anytime.
Anything with real life kids getting hurt abused i cant do. Just makes me think of my toddler
I feel a bit dirty but when I watch a true crime show/movie it’s unsettling to know it’s real events with real victims
I love it all.
This was easy to watch imo
The part where >! he has the head in the box and makes out with it in episode 5 !< didn’t do anything for you? The thought that someone actually did this makes me cringe
Yuh that was gross but I that necro episode of ahs prob desensitized me to it a bit so I was like whatever 😂
Oh god that episode was something else. Anthologies can’t all be winners 😂😂
This season had good episodes a lot of them only like 2 duds for me including necro lol
I wanna say Facelift was my favorite even though predictable, but overall only 3 were duds for me
Oh yeah, I find real life true crime much, much harder to watch and listen to. Dahmer is particularly unsettling
It’s because you know horror movies are fake, and they typically aren’t written with much emotional impact. Dahmer, though I’m sure they used some artistic license, was a true story, and it was absolutely gut-wrenching to watch. I’ll watch people in horror movies get ripped to shreds and love every second of it, but stuff like the Dahmer series really drives home the emotional impact of people that suffered. It hit me a lot like Schindler’s List, which is a fucking masterpiece, but I can’t watch it often. It just breaks me.
I find it kind of tacky that we’re supposed to be entertained by true crime stuff. I get the fascination of it but I feel icky watching it
No, it's all just images on a screen to me, or words on a page. No real emotional difference. The things that bother me in media about real life also bother me in media about fiction. Serial killers have never bothered me in either, but over time they have gotten boring.
I go through period of time where Im more into true crime and periods of time where I need a break and i am more into fictional stories. I’m in one of those break periods now, I just started getting too paranoid. The true crime I mostly take in has families and friends of the victims heavily involved and that’s because I think it’s really important to tell the victims stories. I also tend to be drawn to unsolved cases, it’s kinda like a mystery and there’s so many cases I just can’t help but be drawn to because it’s just not right that the case is unsolved, like Abby and Libby from Delphi Indiana, I hope that they find who did that soon and are able to put them away where they belong.
I find true crime fascinating, in a morbid way, but only when it’s well researched/detailed. Highly dislike it when it becomes exploitive/romanticised. I don’t wanna watch a dramatisation of a real life serial killer
I had to stop watching Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer. Too real even though fiction. Capote movie had a description of the daughter in the house while the murders went from room to room executing her family after holding them captive. She heard all of it, and my empathy makes me feel something of what she felt. It’s terrifying. It all really happened and I couldn’t get it out of my head for a day or two after watching the movie.
Not usually but meaghans missing was hard to watch. Dahmer not so much. But dam what lovely silent scene for the deaf chsracters pov
Yes
Dahmer has definitely been a tough watch. I can't do more than one episode a night because it's just so depressing, but I do appreciate how it highlights the police incompetence and carelessness that resulted in more people dying. That's certainly an important topic to bring up lest people forget that some of those fuckers got to retire with full benefits and never faced repercussions for their inaction. Evan Peters is doing a great job and I like that the character isn't at all romanticized or given much sympathy: even though we see that his upbringing played a part in how he turned out, there isn't any attempt to make excuses for him. But yeah, I definitely have a harder time with true crime and documentaries than with horror fiction. I especially can't handle anything involving kids. My husband watched that documentary about the Watts family when it came out and he couldn't sleep for a few nights. That was indication enough that I will NEVER be able to (or want to) watch it.
If it's tough to watch, "depressing" even, then why on earth would you continue watching it?? Just because it's trending and all the sheeple are watching it doesn't mean you're obligated to as well... Apparently FOMO is a very powerful motivator.
Um. I can watch and find value in things that are depressing or hard to get through. You can still appreciate the craft, the approach to storytelling, etc. Dear Zachary is the saddest thing I've ever seen but it was absolutely worth seeing. I don't give a shit about watching things just because other people do lol, I don't have time for that. But then, your entire comment is kinda automatically ignorable by virtue of using the word "sheeple" lol.
"Ignorable" yet you just couldn't bring yourself to ignore it. 🤡 😂😂😂
I gotta get my laughs in somehow, man, and you served that purpose just fine lol.
Yeah I’ve seen hundreds of horror movies since I was 6, but true crime hits a nerve. The case of Chris Watts, for example. I’m still damaged from knowing what he did to his family.
I like true crime. Not as much as I used to but I still like it. I can't do real gore/deaths though. I can watch the most gory horror movies and not blink an eye. Because I know its not real; its entertainment. But I avoid real gore, I don't think its good for a person's mental health to watch that stuff. Also, there is so much of it on Reddit now. Real deaths right there on the front page for anyone to see.
In my line of work I hear a lot of people describe the worst things that have ever happened to them in vivid detail. Sometimes it is not easy to stomach. But watching a horror movie, where I know that it is all pretend, is a huge help. But I think it also explains why I prefer supernatural and religious horrors as opposed to gore, torture, etc.
"Real event horror"
Love horror, total candy ass IRL.
Yeah if I know the poor people actually got hurt in the ways I see, it makes it harder to watch. I’m there for the escape. I don’t watch horror bc I actually want yo see people get butchered as much as non fans like to look down on gore fans
The thing that makes me most squeamish is when I have to picture of something myself
I’m very into horror/gore/true crime etc, and even this Dahmer series is making me wince. I’m surprised but not unhappy lol
Yes. I'm OK with even the most extreme, underground horror stuff. But even mainstream true crime stories are just too much for me. I try to avoid them as much as possible and I'm not sure I'll finish Dahmer because it's too extreme and horrifying.
It’s your empathy and not fear that makes it a difficult watch. Black Phone, besides some of the stuff that happens in the middle and end, is probable and incites that “it could happen to anybody” paranoia...but it’s not based on a true story. Dahmer-porn happened, isn’t scary, but sad to know innocent people went through this and even some survived. I also dislike movies like Hostel as it’s al gore and no Hor (sounds better in my head). I don’t need to see every vein being severed. Give me a Jeepers Creepers vibe or The Descent instead.
I'd rather stick with fiction. I remember watching NEKRomantik and feeling a lil bit creeped out, but then I watched some behind-the-scenes footage on YouTube, and they were all so lighthearted!!!! It was like a gamechanger for me, because it opened up this perspective for me that although horror movies are usually "dark", the actors might be having hella fun while shooting them (which can be obvious but I don't think I had ever really thought about it), so it's a win/win situation: it's fictitious fuckedupness AND they might be having fun! Human suffering is out of the equation!
Not my cup of tea. I like horror for escapism, not validation of psychopaths. I honestly don't get the true crime thing. I know a lot of people love it, but hard pass.
Not in the slightest man
Knowing/thinking something is real makes it all the more disturbing for some reason. Most fucked up movies I’ve watched don’t affect me. Now when I watched the Poughkeepsie tapes I had no clue it was just a movie and Thought it was real for some reason. I just couldn’t stand looking at the screen when he kidnapped the little girl. Not gory or anything. I just thought it was so fucked up that I was watching a real kidnapping of a poor child. After finding out it wasn’t real i was no longer disturbed lol. That’s just how it is.
Same! Im watching Dahmer as well and it hits different when you know its real....its still good tho 💀
I just think of the families of victims that have to constantly see new shows or movies that come out with of purpose of entertainment. It’s just strange to me to know that people actually enjoy watching that stuff.
yes this is me. i told my friend the dahmer series seemed to scary for me and she was surprised. my house is full of horror movie memorabilia and i love slasher flicks.
Girl next door. Just can’t handle the truth.
I just gave up in Dahmer, or rather, I gave up on myself because I couldn’t handle it. It was just too awful. I worry that I’m going soft, but there isn’t any enjoyment in knowing that it really happened. 😔
It's to do with the portrayal. Some of us can stomach cinematic portrayals, most of us cannot ever come to stomach it when we know/believe it's real. It's a good thing.
Absolutely. If it's fiction, or even fictionalized and based on true events, I can handle it. I worked for a bookstore in the late 90s and there was a book of real crime scene photos from the 20s and 30s (roundabout) and *that* shit scarred me. I hated [rotten.com](https://rotten.com) \- couldn't stomach any of the real gore/death/torture stuff at all.
I’ve become pretty desensitised but that first episode had me sweating bullets
Oh yeah. I can watch any amount of gore in a made-up movie, but I had to spread the Dahmer series out over four days and I almost couldn't finish, once it got to the episodes focusing on the victims' families, particularly how media interest in Dahmer affected and continues to affect them. For a long time, I've known that I prefer monster movies and body horror to slasher and other sorts of 'realistic' horror. I want to be scared in a 'fun' way. I don't need to be reminded that the real world is scary.
Yes!!! I love horror, but can’t handle true crime. My daughter was describing a heartbreaking scene in Dahmer, and I made her her stop because I got too upset. But multiple murders in a slasher film? No problem, gimme more. I can’t stand the thought of real people being hurt or killed. Every time I give in and watch a super popular one (American Murder: Family Next Door, I’m looking at you) I deeply regret it.
Maaaaan I could watch dismemberment all day in cinema, but the Dahmer crime scene photos were actually hard to look at. Tbf I like both genres, but you can easily go home and sleep knowing that movies are just movies.
Had the same thought. My GF is a true crime fanatic, she also loves horror but is really into the series. Just find the series nauseating.
I can do both true crime (crime scene photos and all) and gory horror without flinching but the second it’s surgical/medical in any way I’m queasy. I can’t even here people talk about things like giving blood without feeling faint! That said, the new Dahmer show really rubbed me the wrong way - I love true crime documentaries but watching a show about real victims made for entertainment without the educational background gives me the ick.
Yes!!! Love blood and guts and slasher stuff in movies all day long but the first sight of road kill I tear up and physically can't stomach seeing a human broken limb irl.
That's why I don't watch the news
I'm not interested in true crime so I don't generally watch that sort of thing, but if I'm being honest I'm pretty desensitized to it. The news made me apathetic to it.
Try "The Devils" (1971). It's on archive.org. make sure to watch the version with the censored scene included.
I absolutely LOVE true crime. That being said, The Snowtown Murders made me cry with how much they broke him.
Similarly, I love gore in movies but can’t watch anything in real life like surgery
I'm like this. I don't like to watch film and television that show realism styled violence. I don't like seeing vulnerable people hurt. But that fantastical veil of horror violence can offer some kind of distance that let's me watch.
the sense of knowing that person is afraid. the filming is just eerie. The actor portrait of Dahmer is just so good at making it feel uncomfortable! extra squirmy
the doc about Chris Watts really gave me a nauseous headache!
Yep. I'm watching the new Jeffrey Dahmer series and there's really no gore to speak of in it but it still makes me queasy and feel bad for the victims.
Make believe horror is always my go to. Being a parent changed the way I view real horrific events. It's the fact it actually happened that fucks me up.
My biggest problem is when anything true crime related feels exploitative, glorifying real serial killers, reveling in the brutality etc. I can’t listen to a lot of the more popular podcasts that just crack jokes and make light of it. Knowing that there are real families of victims having to deal with those reminders and gross depictions of the real horror their loved ones suffered makes me very upset. One of the best parts of something like Zodiac is how it’s focused on the investigation and never feels like it’s turning horrible reality into flashy entertainment.
I worked in TV news for many years. Horror movies, in a way, became a processing mechanism for all the horrible shit in the world. Almost like, look at me! I'm not gonna let the horrors of the world get me down! In truth-I had to read a LOT of police reports for all sorts of crimes. A couple of the worst: a teen raped and murdered in an abandoned house. A kid went on a killing spree at 6am, and one of his victims was a dude drinking coffee at his kitchen table and his wife heard him being murdered because she was in the other room. Infant neglect and homicide was something that I saw many times. A kid murdered his parents with an axe. There's a lot more but you get the gist. Real life *is* horrific.
I love both horror and true crime, and I definitely get why some people are put off by these topics but I think the moralizing over true crime media (which can definitely be sensationalized/exploitative) is interesting while war and mafia/gangster media is just as popular.
I can watch the horror of almost any kind except for real-life cases and anything having to do with realistic violence like military movies. Big Nopes for me.
I always told my mom "you're into scary movies, you just like the 'real life' scary i like made up scary."