In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and sentenced to 957 years in prison for murdering 17 men and boys and dismembering their bodies.

Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called the film "a meditation on perversion as hypnotic as it is repulsive" and labeled it a "Critics' Pick".

"[3] John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter said that “Jeff stands apart from the true-crime pack" and called Swant's portrayal of Dahmer "eerily convincing.”[4] John Gholson of Movies.com said “I’d go so far as to say that Jeff is one of the greatest serial killer movies ever made.”[5] Owen Gleiberman, writing for Entertainment Weekly, said the film was "for hardcore Dahmer obsessives only.

Through a mix of documentary footage and staged scenes, director Chris James Thompson explores the days during which Dahmer’s crimes were first discovered.

Interviews with the medical examiner on the scene and the officer who first interrogated Dahmer bring us into a newly queasy communion with the horror of his crimes.