The Problem With True Crime

Article and Graphic by Kendall Darnell

Troy Bolton to Ted Bundy isn’t the direction most people saw Zac Efron’s career going. With Ross Lynch and Evan Peters being cast as Jeffrey Dahmer in “My Friend Dahmer” and “Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” respectively, it’s clear the trend of teen heartthrobs playing serial killers is here to stay.

During their time in the public eye, both Bundy and Dahmer had a concerning amount of teenage girls lusting after them, sending fan mail, and offering their hands in marriage. They were regarded as attractive, so casting pretty boy actors to play them isn’t entirely out of left field. However, Efron and Lynch bear little resemblance to their killer counterparts if you ask me. It’s no doubt there were lesser-known yet more similar looking actors up for those roles. 

So why Zac Efron and Ross Lynch? It’s simple; these movies wanted to drum up the same hype Bundy and Dahmer did themselves. The casting of Disney alum with no similar roles under their belts was a calculated decision. “My Friend Dahmer” and “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” offer commentary on just how unnerving it was for such monstrous men to have hordes of girls making googly eyes at them. It’s ironic considering they’ve purposely tried to replicate the same reaction. 

Efron and Lynch come with pre-established groupies ready to lose their minds over anything they do, including brutal murder. It’s odd and morally grey, if not plain wrong, to stir up a new generation into drooling over real-life serial killers with real-life victims. From thirsty TikToks to fan fiction, there’s no limit to the lengths of an infatuated teenage girl, no matter how foul the object of her affection is. Subjecting the victims’ families to these reactions yet again, decades later, just for more hype and a bigger payday is simply not okay.

Evan Peters has been absent from the former scrutiny as he gets a pass in some regards. His casting as Dahmer is not as surprising given his long stint in “American Horror Story.” He has a strong following of teenage girls, but it’s clear that wasn’t his strongest attribute. His portrayal of Dahmer in the new Netflix series is objectively incredible. But just because he isn’t the problem doesn’t mean there aren’t other issues.

Part of the show quite literally depicts how the victims’ families were upset with Dahmer’s family and other outlets profiting off their sons’ murders, yet those in charge are doing the exact same thing. No effort was made to come to an agreement with the remaining families, as made clear by their reactions to the series.

The whole show is laden with an undertone of “poor Jeffrey.” While they don’t rely on Peters for a strong viewer reaction, they do clearly try to make the audience feel bad for a man who tortured, killed, and ate 17 primarily gay men of color. There is a way to present his traumatic upbringing, continued mental issues, and bad luck in life without offering it up as justification for his twisted actions. Nothing can explain away what Dahmer did and it’s damaging to act as such. Jeffrey Dahmer was a human being, same as you and me, but humanizing him after all he’s done is wrong.

What good do these projects do if they blatantly engage in the same behavior they attempt to criticize? Not to mention, much of their information is wildly inaccurate and sometimes completely fabricated. There are healthy ways to discuss true crime, but the highly sensationalized, incredibly insensitive dramas of recent years are the exact opposite.