Director – Mark Savage (Hell’s Coming for You, Purgatory Road)\
Starring – Scott Asmar (The 2nd Law, Existence), Jabbarri Bush (Buried in the Backyard, Twice Bitten), and Sean Michael Conway (Dead Till Death, Popeye the Slayer Man)
Release Date – 2026
Rating – 2.5/5
I love oddball horror. While many of my genre friends are chasing the next extreme horror hit, I’m over here looking for goofy horror that has some originality over gore. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love gore but I need it to fit the film. A few days ago I was sent the press release for the horror comedy Jeffrey Dollmer. I couldn’t pass up adding this to my October horror binge and requested a screener link which I was lucky enough to get. I couldn’t wait to check it out and quickly moved it to the top of my watch list.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows a group of models who are on a shoot when one of them finds a little doll he names Jeffrey. Many laugh thinking it’s because the doll resembles notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer but he claims he didn’t realize it at the time. Before long, those on the shoot are murdered one by one and they realize that the doll is actually possessed by Jeffrey Dahmer who is continuing his murders even in death. **Spoiler Alert**
I want to take a moment to discuss something that happened to me on social media before I get too deep into my review. I always post what I’m watching on Facebook and Instagram where those that are interested can see what I’m reviewing next. When I posted the poster for Jeffrey Dollmer to Instagram I found myself at the center of someone’s crusade about “insensitivity.” Some “fan” of the genre commented over 50 times about the film and how it was insensitive to those involved. He went on about the film about him or any serial killer should exist and so on. I eventually blocked them and while I do tend to have an open mind about most things, I found this one to be a bit ridiculous. Anyway, Jeffrey Dollmer had some moments but the clever title and story was quickly replaced with someone else’s homework.
The acting in this one is extremely stuff. While the cast all had some experience in front of the camera, they failed to put their time and energy into memorable characters. Most of the characters are unlikable but they could have made the scenes a bit more fun instead of the awkward performances we see in some of the scenes.
The story for this one took the name of Jeffrey Dahmer and gave it a clever twist to Dollmer only to completely bastardize the story from Child’s Play with a serial killer, which is fictionalized, who passes his soul from his dying body to a puppet. As Dahmer is getting arrested, he passes his soul to this doll. I’m not a fan of the first two Child’s Play films and the fact they took the main point of the film and used it here got under my skin big time. Horror has endless possibilities and we shouldn’t be borrowing from lame ass genre titles especially when there was a plethora of other idea they could have used here. With that being said the film does move on from this fairly quickly and establishes it’s own identity. It moves on to a classic slasher story with everyone getting picked off one by one. This part becomes fun and does have a few laughs.
Finally, the film has a decent amount of blood and some fun prosthetics. They look good and fit the scene but the deaths are not that memorable. Overall, Jeffrey Dollmer is a solid first time watch but does have it’s own issues. While the story does rub me the wrong way, it is a solid slasher for the most part. If you are looking for something a bit different or like weird genre titles like I do then I recommend checking it out.
