An element of The Jeffrey Dahmer Files which was evidently downplayed within the finished cut of the film but still survives in the deleted scenes included in the Region 1 DVD release has to do with the wider community that surrounded Dahmer, and the perfectly banal, everyday situations in which their individual lives would intersect with his, as both parties went about their respective businesses.
I was quite intrigued when I saw that this release came packaged with a few deleted scenes, hoping that there might be additional or extended interview footage with any of the film's three interviewees, but alas, no. Not that I wasn't still fascinated in seeing what didn't make the final cut. There are five deleted scenes in total, all of which depict further episodes from the life of Andrew Swant's Jeffrey Dahmer as he wanders around Milwaukee in his typically nonchalant manner, although for the most part these centre far less on Dahmer than they do upon the people around him, giving us inklings of the lives that ran parallel to his own, casually rubbing shoulders with Jeffrey without ever suspecting that they were in the company of a habitual killer. Presumably, the idea here is to give a sense of how Dahmer appeared to other people, of the miscellaneous connecting points in any urban environment which enable all varieties of lives to unwittingly intermingle, and to convey something of the disconnect which the highly introverted and secretive Dahmer felt from the community in which he lived (his terse verbal interactions with others tend to be mostly functional, and there's a definite sense of nobody with whom he comes into contact being in any way close to him). Here's a rundown of what we get in the deleted scenes:
Foul Odor: This sequence is particularly interesting in that it contains a "cameo" appearance from Apt. 213 (which was Dahmer's apartment number in real life, although for some reason that I cannot quite fathom Thompson's film has had him move next door to 214). Here, it belongs to a neighbour who's seen making her way down North 25th Street on a mobility scooter, returning to the Oxford Apartments and proceeding to knock on Jeffrey's door to complain about the highly unpleasant odor leaking from his apartment. Dahmer politely insists that he has no idea what's causing the smell but promises to contact the landlord about it tomorrow. She responds by warning him that, “Neighbours are talking also, and they may not be as nice as I am trying to be.”
Glasses: Dahmer goes to the opticians to pick up a new pair of glasses, while another customer reluctantly tries on a pair of frames at the insistence of the woman behind the counter. He casually asks for Dahmer's opinion on the frames and is told that they look good. Dahmer pays for his glasses by cheque, as he is seen to do for just about every onscreen purchase he makes throughout the film.
Painting: Two graffiti artists spraying an abandoned warehouse are startled and run away when they hear Dahmer approaching. Observing him from a distance, neither of them recognises him or has the foggiest idea who he is, but finally decide that he is harmless when they see him pull out a can of beer and start drinking. At this point, they feel safe to ignore him and return to their art, which they conclude is "not bad at all."
Smoking: A scene between Andy and Brian from Eye In The Sky, seen smoking together in their van before calling at Dahmer's apartment to discuss home security. One of them (Andy) tells an anecdote about how he dealt with a noisy snorer in the adjacent room while staying at a hotel in Iowa by giving him a sneaky midnight telephone call. "I hear him answer it - hello, hello, hello - like he got startled and just woke up. So I just hang up the phone right away. He’s stopped snoring, and I fall asleep. Pretty fucking hilarious.") This story has nothing to do with Dahmer and is a total tangent, so it's not too surprising that they wound up jettisoning it. I'll keep that tip in mind though, Andy.
Suitcase: This is the one deleted scene where the focus is firmly upon Jeffrey himself, and deals with his hasty purchase of a large suitcase in order to smuggle the body of Steven Tuomi out of the hotel room where Dahmer killed him while heavily intoxicated. We see a blatantly flustered Dahmer run into a bag store and immediately snap up their biggest and cheapest. The sales assistant who's approached him comments upon his quick decision and asks if he is going on a trip somewhere, but gets only the most monosyllabic of responses. “Yeah”. “Sounds like fun.” Dahmer pays by writing a cheque (of course) and then makes a speedy exit.
Of all the deleted scenes, this is the one whose excision from the finished film I find the most regrettable. Perhaps Thompson figured that there were enough sequences revolving around the Tuomi incident and how it would have appeared from the exterior for viewers to already get the idea, and that to show Dahmer hastily singling out the suitcase for purchase would just be superfluous. All the same, it is interesting to see a situation in which the cracks in Dahmer's demeanor are vaguely visible, and another individual is able to pick up that something isn't quite right (albeit not to the extent where they come anywhere close to figuring out the truth). I also really dig the mise-en-scène with that "All Sales Final" sign, with its implicit warning of there being no turning back (this, fortunately, can still be glimpsed in the final cut).
Finally, if you do want to hear some supplementary material from Pat Kennedy on the case, then this interview with shock jocks Opie and Anthony might be of interest (Thompson's there too, apparently, although he barely seems to get a word in edgeways; they also both exit around the 33:10 mark, at which point you're okay to tune out). Kennedy talks at great length about his experiences with Jeffrey Dahmer, and while much of this is just repeating information given in the film, he expands upon what was said there quite substantially, and also touches upon a couple of issues which he doesn't get to cover in the film itself - namely, his reaction to Dahmer's death in 1994 and his perspective on the two police officers who infamously returned an injured victim to Dahmer's apartment. Kennedy also mentions a book he'd written about his personal experiences in working on the Dahmer case which he was then in the process of shopping around to various publishers - is there any possibility of this being published posthumously?
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