PSA: Don’t Be Horny for Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer, You Sickos

We’re friends, right? And friends can be honest with each other about the important things in life, like how Emmy-winning actor Evan Peters is an absolute smokeshow. That’s why I feel safe offering some friendly advice. As hot as Peters is, we all need to put those feelings aside as we head into Netflix‘s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

Lately there’s been a disturbing trend of romanticizing and sexualizing serial killers. We saw the worst of this when Netflix was going through its Ted Bundy phase. The year was 2019, and the streamer released two hit Bundy-focused projects within months of each other: the docuseries The Ted Bundy Tapes and Zac Efron’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.

If you were to believe Twitter, the biggest takeaway from both of those projects was that Ted Bundy was a babe. Little attention was paid to how Bundy used his conventionally attractive looks and charming personality as a tool to lure in his victims and misdirect those who were suspicious of him. Nope, the hot take at the time boiled down to “he’s a 10 but he confessed to 30 murders.” These projects led to a moral nightmare, encouraging people to view these crimes as pure entertainment and dismiss the very real victims who suffered because of this man. It was a deeply disturbing trend, and one that Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story may continue through little fault of its own.

Like Efron before him, Evan Peters is hot. But he’s also a deeply committed actor who has proven that he fully understands the responsibility of portraying real killers. American Horror Story: Cult required Evans to portray Charles Manson, Marshall Applewhite, David Koresh, and Jim Jones in rapid order. Even with AHS‘ notoriously intense production schedule, Evans researched each of these people and worked to get into their dark headspace. From what we’ve seen so far, he’s doing the same with Dahmer for Monster. Netflix even released a video of Peters explaining what he did to prepare for this role and why it was so important to him that this project respected the victims first and foremost.

That’s another reason why it’s crucial to look as Peters as an actor rather than a celebrity in this project. Based on the trailers and marketing around this miniseries, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story does not seem like it’s really about Jeffrey Dahmer. Rather, it’s about his victims, the pain he caused, the systematic pitfalls that led to him getting away with so many murders, and the racism and homophobia that were instrumental to his reign of terror. Examining how the police failed this community on nearly every level is an important and relevant story to tell. It’s exactly the sort of framing that not only justifies but elevates dramatic miniseries like this. But all of that nuance gets lost the second someone makes a “this murderer is hot” joke.

The real Jeffrey Dahmer absolutely was a monster. Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer murdered and dismembered 17 boys and men. He would target Black men as his victims, and on at least two occasions, he drilled holes into his victims’ heads and poured hydrochloric acid into them. His murders often involved necrophilia and cannibalism. Four of his victims were legally children, and he was once even arrested for drugging and sexually violating a 13-year-old boy. Stories like that were disturbingly common in Dahmer’s life. Yet he was allowed to walk free again and again as he continued to hurt people. Dahmer’s case is ultimately a deeply sad one not just because of the people he victimized but because it was preventable.

This is all to say, please don’t glorify Jeffrey Dahmer. Don’t let your thirst for Evan Peters get in the way of what Monster is trying to do. The last thing we need is another Ted Bundy renaissance on our hands.