[3] The film grossed $1.4 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its historical accuracy and Lynch's performance.

In 1974, Jeffrey Dahmer is a high school freshman living in Bath, Ohio, with his parents, Lionel and Joyce, and his younger brother Dave.

During school, Jeffrey imitates the speech and gestures of his mother's interior designer (who has cerebral palsy), catching the attention of aspiring artist John "Derf" Backderf and his friends.

Derf and his friends form the "Dahmer Fan Club," using Jeffrey for a variety of pranks (known as “Doing a Dahmer”) such as sneaking him in every yearbook photo, and conning their way to a meeting with Vice President Walter Mondale during a school field trip to Washington, D.C. Joyce starts relapsing into chronic mental illness, leading to increasingly bitter fights between her and Lionel.

At graduation, Lionel hands Jeffrey the keys to the family Volkswagen Beetle which he would later use to commit his first murder.

The closing credits note that Hicks was never seen again and Jeffrey Dahmer admitted to killing 17 men when he was finally arrested in 1991.

[5] Lynch had previously been employed as a teen actor by the Disney Channel, most notably starring in the show Austin & Ally.

John Backderf, the author of the graphic novel, was enthusiastic about this casting against type, stating that Lynch's performance would make viewers "uncomfortable because it's so familiar".

Most prominently, it was Neil who gave Dahmer the final ride home, not Derf, and it was likely right after Hicks’ murder, not before.

The website's critical consensus reads, "My Friend Dahmer opens a window into the making of a serial killer whose conclusions are as empathetic as they are deeply troubling.