“We thought about the victims” – Deadline

In his second appearance in two days to talk about Damer — Monster: Jeffrey Dahmer Storrin, the creator Ryan Murphy said his goal for the limited series was to tell “a complex story of people.”

“We weren’t really interested in the Dahmer monster,” Murphy said at a quasi-press conference Saturday at Netflix headquarters. “It was [about] who was complicit in the creation of the monster. There were many, many different things about it. It was a complex human story…it touched on systemic racism, homophobia. We always thought about the victims.”

Murphy believes the limited series has been so popular – he said viewers will have streamed one billion hours sometime next week – because “the world is such a dark place” and people need a place to “put their anxiety”. »

“I think post-Covid people are really interested in mental health,” Murphy continued.

Echoing what he said Thursday at the SAG event, Murphy said his team spent a lot of time researching the serial killer and “did their due diligence” by reaching out to 20 friends and family of the victims. “We didn’t get an answer,” he said simply.

Murphy was joined at the event by co-stars Evan Peters, Richard Jenkins and Nissi Nash. Questions from reporters and critics were selected and asked by Netflix employees. Murphy, who was also a moderator, did not address the reaction of the victims’ families, who publicly said they had never heard from his team.

“We were desperate for other information,” Murphy said of the research process. “We relied heavily on multiple sources.”

Peters plays a notorious serial killer in the ten-part series, told largely from the victims’ point of view, and delves deep into the police incompetence and apathy that allowed the Wisconsin native to go on a years-long killing spree. The series dramatizes at least 10 occasions when Dahmer was nearly caught but eventually let go.

The series is created by Murphy and Ian Brennan, who created and executive produced alongside Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Coutun, Evan Peters, Janet Mock and Carl Franklin.