My Friend Dahmer (film)

My Friend Dahmer is a 2017 American biographical drama film based on the 2012 graphic novel of the same name by John "Derf" Backderf. Written and directed by Marc Meyers, it tells the story of Jeffrey Dahmer's adolescence and high school years in the late 1970s, from the perspective of his high school friend, John Backderf (Derf).

The film stars Ross Lynch as Dahmer, Alex Wolff as Derf, and Anne Heche as Dahmer's mother, Joyce. It explores Dahmer's increasingly disturbing behavior and social isolation in the years leading up to his first murder.

My Friend Dahmer premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and received generally positive reviews, with praise directed towards Lynch's performance and the film's nuanced portrayal of Dahmer's formative years. The film attempts to understand, though not excuse, the factors that contributed to Dahmer's development into a serial killer.