What’s that smell?
The first trailer featuring Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer has arrived, and it’s all about the scents. Netflix’s new series, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, looks gross, mysterious, creepy, and intriguing all at once. The latest installment in Ryan Murphy’s ongoing deal with Netflix appears to be his most unsettling one yet.
Jeffrey Dahmer invites a friendly fellow to his darkened, yellow-toned home in the beginning of the trailer. After the man inquires about the horrendous smell—let’s remember, he was killing victims in his home, so that’s where the stench probably comes from—it’s game over.
We don’t get to see anything incredibly grisly in the trailer just yet, but it’s definitely coming. For the most part, the series teases the twisted relationship between Dahmer and his neighbor (Niecy Nash), who is completely baffled by the way Dahmer lives his life.
“What do you do in there?” she asks him. “The smells. Power tools going all hours of the night. I hear screaming coming from your apartment.”
Dahmer journeys next door to apologize to her, even bringing a gift with him to extend an olive branch. It’s a sandwich. A stale, pale, gross sandwich. A sandwich you’d probably see in the trash. His neighbor refuses to eat the sandwich, questioning what may be inside. Poison? Blades? Spoiled turkey?
The most likely option is, disgustingly, human. Dahmer was a known cannibal; he was even nicknamed the “Milwaukee Cannibal.” From 1978 to 1991, Dahmer brutally murdered seventeen people, often resorting to strangulation, necrophilia, and body preservation (which explains the nasty smells). He was sentenced to life in prison in 1992, and he was later beaten to death by a fellow inmate in prison.
So far, Murphy’s $300-million Netflix deal has brought us a flurry of hit-or-miss series. Beginning with his high school satire The Politician, Murphy has gone on to release Ratched, Hollywood, and Halston. After Monster, Murphy’s collaboration with Jennifer Coolidge, The Watcher, will debut on Netflix.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story will debut on Netflix on Sept. 21.
