Editing ‘Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ an interview with Steph Filo and Taylor Joy Mason
Last September, 2022, a series hit our Netflix home screens that both intrigued and horrified in equal measure. ‘Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ became the subject of millions of people’s ‘have you seen it?’ conversations. The fact that the series is based on a horrifyingly true story of a serial killer who went uncaught for 13 years, taking the lives of 17 young men and boys, had many of us torn as to whether or not to watch at all.
But this series was different to the sensationalised stories we’d seen about the infamous killer in the past. It was an important story that needed to be told, one that highlighted the systemic racism, homophobia and bias in the police force that led to someone literally getting away with murder and slipping through the net time and time again.
Edit Girls spoke with two of the shows editors, Taylor Joy Mason and Stephanie Filo about their work on the series, the emotional toll a story like this can take on you and how they approached each of the episodes they cut.
Tell us about your first reactions to reading the scripts for ‘Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’, what stood out to you most?
Taylor: If I remember correctly, some of the episodes were still being drafted when I started, so I didn't read the entire series right away, but I was familiar enough with the story to expect a terrifying read. I was surprised to learn that events would unfold in reverse chronological order and definitely thought it was the right choice. I imagined that recalling Dahmer’s arrest from episode one could give the audience some respite (no matter how small) as they journeyed through one traumatic event after another in the series.
Jeffrey Dahmer, played by Evan Peters, is arrested at the start of the series, before we ‘journey’ back and learn about his victims.
Steph: I had actually somewhat 'retired' from editing true crime several years earlier so I was initially hesitant to take on a project like this, but when I read these scripts I knew I really wanted to be a part of telling this story in this way and being a part of pushing to make sure the right story was told. What stood out to me reading the scripts was that there was a lot of attention to the victims' stories and the ways the system failed them, which I haven't seen done in any retelling of this story or within this genre in general. Something else that struck me was the almost objective nature of the series. It really gets under your skin because you as a viewer/reader are forced to sit and reckon with what actually happened and the way it happened.
“When I read these scripts I knew I really wanted to be a part of telling this story in this way and being a part of pushing to make sure the right story was told.”
How familiar were you with Jeffrey Dahmer’s crimes and victims before reading the scripts?
Steph: I was extremely familiar with this story prior to reading the scripts, but also extremely familiar with the way this story was sensationalized at the time it happened. My dad is a human rights attorney and growing up, this story was one of the first times the two of us really talked about the justice system or that I sort of came into consciousness about the police and systemic neglect. It actually shaped a lot of the way I view all true crime stories over the years, because almost always there are extra factors at play that led us to where we are.
Southone Sinthasomphone, played by Khetphet Phagnasay, the father of Dahmer victim Konerak.
Taylor: I heard the name Dahmer when I was much younger. He was usually grouped with the names of other known serial killers, but I wasn’t too familiar with the demographic he targeted or the true horrifying nature of his crimes. I really dove into the victims’ backgrounds as we started shooting and learned more about their family dynamics and aspirations all of which made their deaths feel more devastating.
“My dad is a human rights attorney and growing up, this story was one of the first times the two of us really talked about the justice system or that I sort of came into consciousness about the police and systemic neglect.”
Together you worked on 4 out of the 10 episodes. How aware were you of how the episode you were editing fitted in with the narrative of the whole series?
Steph: This is a very non-linear series, so I think we all had to be hyper-aware of different scenes and their placement throughout each episode and what they were there to convey. There are scenes from some episodes that finish playing out in others and we jump through different timelines throughout, so we all had to be pretty up to speed with what was happening and when. On a broader scale, as each episode focused on a different victim and a different way that the system failed, we also had to be hyper aware of how each of these scenarios and story arcs tied into the larger overall picture at hand.
“I was fortunate to get to work on two of the episodes that, in my opinion, placed the most emphasis on the victims, their families, and the absolute failings of the criminal justice system.”
Taylor: It was my understanding that each episode of the series would focus more or less on a different victim. I was fortunate to get to work on two of the episodes that, in my opinion, placed the most emphasis on the victims, their families, and the absolute failings of the criminal justice system. Those were the aspects that initially drew me to the series.
The story behind Dahmer’s youngest victim, 14 year old Konerak Sinthasomphone, played by Kieran Tamondong, highlights police negligence at it’s worst.
Taylor, one of your episodes, ‘Silenced’, follows Tony Hughes, a gay, deaf, Black man in the prime of his life, who was thriving and happy. The episode plays out like a romantic story, and certainly you’re left routing for Tony to find love, but there’s obviously this real sense of dread, knowing what is coming when he meets Dahmer - did that dichotomy influence how scenes were edited throughout the episode?
Taylor: Surprisingly, that dichotomy had little bearing on the edit because we chose to focus on Tony Hughes, for this episode. The goal was to immerse the audience in Tony’s world and even see Dahmer as he would have seen him- blind to any impending danger. This episode provided some emotional reprieve for the audience, and for myself to be honest, until the very end of course.
Episode 6, Silenced, provides some emotional reprieve as we’re given a glimpse into the joyous, love-filled life of victim Tony Hughes.
Taylor: Hughes' journey through life as a gay, deaf, Black man was remarkable in and of itself. In order to immerse the audience in Tony’s world, I crafted scenes from his POV (as scripted) with little to no sound, only playing high or low frequencies or vibrations that Tony may have heard or felt. The effect of this was two-fold: not only would the audience experience what Tony experienced but they’d be hyper-focused on what was going on visually inside the frame which normally creates more empathy toward our characters. This made Tony’s death feel even more devastating but it is important that the audience really feel the true horror of what Dahmer had done in order to spark outrage for the system that enabled him.
‘Silenced’ was crafted almost entirely from Tony’s perspective as a deaf man with little to no sound.
“It is important that the audience really feel the true horror of what Dahmer had done in order to spark outrage for the system that enabled him”
Lionel, (played by Richard Jenkins), as a character seems to be sympathetically treated, but at the same time there is a certain absent-mindedness about him - how did you find editing him as a character?
Steph: It's been really interesting hearing the ways that people have received this character. I think that approaching Lionel's character was actually one of the most challenging parts of editing this series for me, because there are SO MANY layers to him. On the one hand, you feel for him because he is finding out a lot of horrific things about his son - I can't even imagine where that takes a person emotionally or what goes through a person's head during all of this. On the other hand, though, this is a person who was quite neglectful and who had years and years of warning signs. He did enable a lot of Jeff's behavior to go on by looking the other way. Because of this, showcasing his character sort of had to be approached objectively, so that the viewer could take what they want from his interactions. What framing can I use to avoid swaying the audience one way or the other? You almost had to jump into the headspace of where they were at the time - the way he interacts with younger Jeff is pretty cold and distant until later when Jeff has been captured, so what's a way that I can convey that feeling on the screen?
Lionel’s relationship with his son was complicated and made for a challenging edit unearthing the layers of his character.
There's a scene in episode 4 where a young Jeffrey tries to 'confess' his dark fantasies and instead of listening to him, Lionel cuts him off completely and changes the subject. The coldness of that interaction needed to exist in a way that felt uncomfortable and palpable to the audience so that we could understand these small things that ultimately helped lead to Jeffrey's progression. The only times Lionel really does open up in the series, he either spends that time blaming others, or he doesn't quite know how to use his words because he's not a very "open" kind of guy. His character shifts so much throughout the series culminating in one final courtroom shot of him in episode 8 that pushes in really close on his face while the audio slowly becomes muffled and you sort of see him finally processing everything and what he is finally coming to terms with. I really wanted to be able to build out his character arc with this so that you can see him going from this sort of cold/removed character to someone who is finally weighing the gravity of the situation and starting to understand the part he played in all of this.
“I think that approaching Lionel’s character was actually one of the most challenging parts of editing this series for me, because there are SO MANY layers to him.”
In the courtroom the audio becomes muffled and the camera moves in slowly as Lionel is faced with the true horror of what his son has done.
Steph, you’ve spoken about how challenging the courtroom scenes in episode 8 were to cut, can you tell us about the process and your feelings around editing such emotionally intense scenes?
Steph: The one piece of this story that has haunted me since it happened in the 90's is the footage of the victim impact statements in the courtroom, so I knew when I was given this episode that I had to approach it with as much respect and authenticity as possible. I started by watching the real life footage many more times than is probably healthy, and talked through it with my AE, Lyric Ramsey, almost daily. I would watch the footage and then go cut a different scene, and then watch the footage again and go cut a different scene for several days until I felt like I was in the right headspace to really delve into the courtroom dailies and live in that moment.
Actor DaShawn Barnes portrays sister of Dahmer victim, Rita Isbell, delivering a heart-wrenching victim statement.
There were different versions of the script where different parts of the speeches were trimmed out or cut for time, but it felt really important to me to push to make sure that everyone was heard, everyone was represented and that the heart of their speeches stayed intact. As editors, a lot of times our job is to trim out things to make stories more concise (much like what was happening in the script trims), but sometimes the heart of a story lies in those moments, especially when you are dealing with the ways a person processes grief, and especially in this case an immense grief that one can truly never recover from. Although it is a scene that took a lot of emotional reserves and weight to pull together, it's one of the scenes I'm most proud of thus far in my career.
“The one piece of this story that has haunted me since it happened in the 90’s is the footage of the victim impact statements in the courtroom, so I knew when I was given this episode that I had to approach it with as much respect and authenticity as possible.”
There is a certain amount of leaping back and forward in the timeframe across the series - how do you treat those leaps in the edit?
Taylor: I think those leaps in this series are used to try and understand the mind of someone like Dahmer. Flashbacks of young Dahmer's family struggles are intercut with scenes of his brutal behavior as an adult throughout, specifically, to try to explain where his obsession came from. Moving between past and present was an attempt to answer some of the why of it all, which, I still don’t think there’s an answer to but I’m also less interested in, to tell the truth. I think the area to focus on is the incompetence of law enforcement at the time which is sadly still a major issue today.
Making the leap back into Dahmer’s childhood can be seen as an attempt to explain the ‘why of it all’ but editor Taylor feels the incompetence and negligence of policing is the more important topic in the series.
Steph: The time jumps kind of evolved with time, and sometimes jumped from episode to episode as we were going. For example, there's a scene that has one or two shots at the end of episode 3 that we then bounce back into different parts of it at various times in episode 4 and I believe also episode 5. There is a long stretch of time jumps in episode 4 where we are watching Jeffrey's progression from high school through college, through the military, to getting kicked out, and it is all intercut with a Christmas dinner scene at Lionel's house. It used to play a little bit more linearly, and sort of progressed over different rounds of notes. Our producing editor, Regis Kimble, is a wizard and was really helpful in encouraging us all to play around and try different approaches to these timeline shifts throughout the process. Ryan Murphy and Alexis Martin Woodall also have a really good eye for restructures as well and episode 8 was almost completely re-ordered in a way that really helped pull some of those time jumps together.
“There is a long stretch of time jumps in episode 4 where we are watching Jeffrey’s progression from high school through college, through the military, to getting kicked out, and it is all intercut with a Christmas dinner scene at Lionel’s house.”
How important was it to balance the line of gratuity when it came to the images of Dahmer’s violence?
Steph: Ultimately this is a horrifying story, but it's not a horror series. This story is way more about the people affected and the systems that failed them, and so it really didn't make sense to show gratuitous violence in these episodes in my opinion. There are gruesome moments throughout, but the most gruesome aspect of this story is a system that failed a significant number of black and brown men.
The negligent, homophobic and racist policing that surrounded the case is depicted clearly in this scene with Dahmer survivor Ronald Flowers. who responds to his ignored pleas with you’re going to believe “a white man with a criminal record over the word of a Black man”
Taylor: This was definitely a conscious decision. To tell a story familiar to most people with gratuitousness already seen by most people, would be exploitative at this point. It was important for us to just highlight the ways in which someone so obviously troubled and venal, managed to navigate the world so freely with literal skeletons in their closet. We needed to avoid sensationalizing the things we were already familiar with and really spend time exposing how and why people like Tony Hughes and 14 year old Konerak Sinthasomphone were failed by the system that was supposed to protect them.
“There are gruesome moments throughout, but the most gruesome aspect of this story is a system that failed a significant number of black and brown men.”
Evan Peters, who plays Jeffrey Dahmer, has spoken in interviews about his process to get into that dark persona - how did you find editing his performance and did it take an emotional toll?
Steph: Evan's performance was fantastic. It was pretty haunting to edit his footage because you could see him staying in that persona between takes. He poured everything he had into that role, and I think that translated to every aspect of production and post. The realness of his performance (and all of the performances, really), made for a bit of a harrowing edit, but one that I think we are all very proud of.
Evan Peters received a Golden Globe for his powerful portrayal of Jeffrey Dahmer.
Taylor: Editing Evan’s performance was a privilege. He’s such a talented actor who really considered the role and I’m thankful that he gave us performances that didn’t require manufacturing on our end. It was important to be able to focus on the story, the balance of emotional beats, execution, and the victim’s experiences, which we were able to do because, for the most part, Evan did the heavy lifting required to make Dahmer's character feel authentic.
“Editing Evan’s performance was a privilege. He’s such a talented actor who really considered the role and I’m thankful that he gave us performances that didn’t require manufacturing on our end.”
Is there anything else you’d like to share about the process and experience of editing ‘Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’?
Steph: I think that every project that we as editors work on takes up a space in our minds and hearts forever. Editing this show for me was a reminder to really push to set boundaries between work life and home life. It's something that I don't think we talk enough about as editors, but really protecting our headspace and heartspace while we work on projects is so vital. When you are cutting any project but especially a project like this, your whole heart and soul goes into it - I know my assistant editor and I were constantly consuming Jeffrey Dahmer information, reading books and essays, watching documentaries, talking back and forth throughout the day about ways to make sure things didn't feel left out or how to make moments feel more authentic and tonally correct. Thinking about how sound would play such a huge role in making this experience feel as immersive as possible and adding to the story itself was a big part of how I approached my episodes, but in doing that you are also putting yourself into a really dark and immersive experience. So I think the only thing I would add is that we as editors really need to be sure to practice self-care and find ways to distance ourselves from the content when we are away from it so that we can bring our best selves to work but also protect our minds and hearts along the way.
“As editors (we) really need to be sure to practice self-care and find ways to distance ourselves from the content when we are away from it so that we can bring our best selves to work but also protect our minds and hearts along the way. ”
Taylor: It means a great deal to be tasked with the responsibility of telling this story. The stakes were so high considering that real people’s lives are affected by its re-telling and I still grapple with the part I played in that. I only hope that my approach to editing this story as sensitively and respectfully as I know how, is not lost and that this series will at the very least promote an open dialogue about the major systemic failings we had and still continue to face.
Editors on ‘Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’
Curtis Thurber (3 episodes) - S1. E3 - Doin’ a Dahmer / S1. E7 - Cassandra / S1. E10 - God of Forgiveness, God of Vengeance
Stephanie Filo (2 episodes) - S1. E4 - The Good Boy Box / S1. E8 - Lionel
Regis Kimble (2 episodes) - S1. E1 - Episode One / S1. E5 - Blood on Their Hands
Taylor Mason (2 episodes) - S1. E6 - Silenced / S1. E2 - Please Don’t Go
Robin August (1 episode) - S1. E9 - The Bogeyman