Ryan Murphy Breaks His Silence On The Criticism Of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story From The Victims' Families
Many critics praised "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" when it first premiered to Netflix. As its title suggests, "Dahmer" is a dramatization of the killing spree notoriously perpetrated by real-life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, portrayed by series co-creator Ryan Murphy's longtime collaborator Evan Peters. At the time of its release, a number of reviewers highlighted the fact that Dahmer is not necessarily its primary point-of-view character but rather, his victims and their lives are oftentimes at the show's forefront.
However, shortly after "Dahmer" became available to Netflix subscribers, it was subject to criticism from multiple relevant parties. Among the backlash to "Dahmer," one production assistant described her time on set as an altogether bad experience. Furthermore, some family members of Dahmer's victims criticized the series for how it mines real-life tragedy for entertainment. Tony Hughes is one such victim of Dahmer's real-life killing spree fictionalized in "Dahmer," and his mother told The Guardian she was unhappy about this in no uncertain terms. "I don't see how they can use our names and put stuff out like that out there," she said.
Now, for the first time since statements like these started circulating, Murphy has weighed in on the growing pushback against his "Dahmer" show.
Ryan Murphy claims no one to whom the show reached out responded to its inquiries
On October 27, roughly one month after "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" released to Netflix, series co-creator Ryan Murphy responded to the family members of Dahmer's victims that have criticized his show during a Directors Guild of America event. An "American Horror Story" and Murphy fan account on Twitter with the handle @ahszone shared a video of his remarks shortly afterword.
"Over the course of the three, three and a half years when we were really writing it, working on it, we reached out to 20 — around 20 of the victims' families and friends, trying to get input, trying to talk to people, and not a single person responded to us in that process. So we relied very, very heavily on our incredible group of researchers who — I don't even know how they found a lot of this stuff, but it was just like a night and day effort to us trying to uncover the truth of these people," Murphy said.
For what it's worth, two different family members of victims that appear in "Dahmer" told The L.A. Times that they were not contacted by anyone involved with the show prior to its release. Nevertheless, Murphy is now on the record claiming that the team behind the series reached out a number of relevant parties, which may well not include the family members that have since claimed radio silence from those behind "Dahmer."