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Evan Peters Becomes Jeffrey Dahmer In Netflix Show First Look Image
In the first look image for Netflix's Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story Evan Peters transforms into the infamous serial killer. The limited series was created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, who also created The Politician and Hollywood together. Murphy has dipped into the true crime well several other times with his American Crime Story series that has covered the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, the assassination of Gianni Versace, and the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, although Monster will stand independent of that series. Peters has collaborated with Murphy many times before, appearing in nine seasons of American Horror Story, as well as Pose.
Across ten episodes, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story will tell the disturbing tale of the serial killer from the perspective of his victims. The show will explore his childhood in the 1960s to his incarceration in the early '90s. Dahmer killed and dismembered 17 boys and men from 1978 to 1991. He was given the moniker of "The Milwaukee Cannibal" by the tabloids as his crimes often involved cannibalism, necrophilia, and the preservation of body parts. Dahmer has been portrayed on the big screen twice before, most recently in 2017's My Friend Dahmer, where he was played by former Disney star Ross Lynch, and previously in 2002's Dahmer, where he was played by the MCU's Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner.
The first look image, courtesy of Collider, gives a glimpse of Peters in character as Dahmer. Queasily lit in yellow, with his back turned to camera, the picture might not show the clearest look at the character, but it does provide a good sense of the unsettling mood of the show. A nine-second teaser for Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is also available to view on Netflix's site. Check out the image of Peters below:
Besides Peters, the show will also star Niecy Nash, Colin Ford, Shaun J. Brown, Penelope Ann Miller, and Richard Jenkins. Nash, will play a concerned and nosy neighbor, while Miller and Jenkins will play Dahmer's parents. As suggested in the picture, the show seems to be going with a more psychological horror route, forgoing the campy gore of Murphy's American Horror Story, in which Dahmer appeared in two episodes of AHS: Hotel. Executive produced by Rashad Johnson of the racial justice organization The Color of Change, Monster will likely have a social critique bent, focusing on how Dahmer benefited greatly from white privilege, as well as detail the many police oversights and mistakes that lead to Dahmer evading capture for so long.
The tonal shift from the often over-the-top one that Murphy employs for AHS is an important one, as playing this particular story in a campy manner would do a disservice to Dahmer's real-life victims. Peters is a good choice, as has tackled portraying killers both real and fictional before. In AHS: Hotel he played hotel-owner James Patrick March, based on H. H. Holmes and his infamous murder castle, and in AHS: Cult, he played Jim Jones, Charles Manson, and David Koresh, all real cult leaders responsible for multiple murders. Peters is often one of the more grounded performers on AHS, so undoubtedly his take on the killer in Monster: A Jeffrey Dahmer Story will feel lived in and appropriately creepy.
