Shocking Scene in Ryan Murphy’s New Series Sparks Outrage—Viewers Question Creative Limits
You ever find yourself thinking, “How many times can American Horror Story resurrect the past before it starts haunting itself?” Well, in the freshly minted 13th season, Ryan Murphy decided to crack open the vault yet again, but this time with a twist that’s got Twitter clutching its pearls—Jeffrey Dahmer, yes, that Dahmer, is back in the spotlight and people are anything but chill. I’ve got to admit, seeing a notorious serial killer swiping on a dating app in a glittery horror universe where Evan Peters might as well own Oscar-worthy frequent flyer miles—well, it’s so wild you almost wonder if Murphy wrote it on a dare . But as the fandom celebrates iconic cast returns, a noisy debate has exploded online: Are we crossing the line between spooky entertainment and real-life tragedy? Is this edgy storytelling, satire gone astray, or just another symptom of our true crime-obsessed era—where even monsters get a punchline?
Curious just how far the show has pushed its luck this time, and whether the internet’s outrage is justified or, honestly, inevitable in today’s climate? LEARN MORE
Warning: This article contains spoilers and mention of serial killers.
Ryan Murphy has assembled his returning cast for the just-released 13th season of American Horror Story, where infamous serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer’s appearance caused a stir.
Bringing back the fan favourite characters across its earliest seasons, AHS 13 sees the likes of Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, Leslie Grossman, and Jessica Lange reprise multiple roles.
However, despite Dahmer only making a brief appeared 10 years ago in the show’s Hotel season, he’s back.
But his return has been met with backlash.
In an opening scene with Peters, who played Dahmer in Murphy’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story show on Netflix, actor Seth Gabel reprised his version in a way that shocked some people online.
There, Evans played Mr March, a historic hotel owner (AHS Hotel) who used it as a way to disguise his murders, and Gabel was Dahmer as the pair sat in the back of a Waymo taxi.
In the scene, the pair talk about their ‘appetite’ for killings, as Dahmer in real life was a man who tortured and murdered 17 predominantly Black and POC (people of colour) in the 70s, 80s and start of the 90s.
However, what online viewers took issue with was the depiction of Dahmer browsing what appears to be a dating app similar to Grindr in the show’s sixth episode.
If you don’t know what Grindr is, it’s like Tinder, for gay men, and Dahmer in the show revealed that it almost made the killing process ‘too easy’.
Over on X, a watcher scathed that the show was making light of real-life suffering.
They wrote: “Jeffrey Dahmer was a real person and serial killer who murdered 17 innocent men and boys. His youngest victim was 14 years old. He drugged them, performed experiments, killed them, sexually violated their corpses, took photos of their bodies, dismembered and ate parts of them.”
They added: “He is not a fictional character or someone to use for a comedic bit. Ryan Murphy is a weirdo with no respect for the victims or their families. His obsession with real murderers and falsifying their stories while advertising it as factual is beyond unethical and disgusting. This is wrong and gross.”
Another person chimed in that this could impact the families of those who were killed, stating: “seventeen real families get to watch their sons’ killer get a comedy bit.”
Dahmer is seen using a dating app (FX)
However, someone defended the show, writing: “That is actually an actor playing a fictional character inspired by Dahmer. I hope you can enjoy art without feeling this way someday.”
But this isn’t the first time Murphy has seen backlash to his Dahmer depictions as Peters’ show was also slammed.
Murphy’s Monster co-creator Ian Brennan, also had to respond to allegations that they sought to ‘humanise’ and even glorify killers by giving them sympathetic Netflix season’s that are played by attractive people.
Brennan said there was ‘a distinction’, saying to Variety: “We’re, if not humanizing, Homo sapiens-izing. What’s interesting is showing that these are human beings without trying to humanize them or make them sympathetic.”
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