BRECKSVILLE: Mike was among old friends.
Derf was there goofing around — at one point mugging for a vintage camera in front of an old school bus.
And Jeffrey was there, too. Standing along the fringe — quietly hanging out just like in real life.
For the past 21 days, actors in 1970s era clothes have been recreating the high school years of Jeffrey Dahmer in and around Northeast Ohio for a film adaptation of writer-artist John “Derf” Backderf’s graphic novel My Friend Dahmer.
Michael Kukral, now a geography professor in Indiana, said it has been an eerie experience watching the final scenes being filmed depicting his own teenage years when he, Derf and Dahmer were friends back at Revere High School.
“I was back at my own prom,” said Kukral, who is simply referred to as “Mike” in the book and film.
Watching actor Ross Lynch, who starred in several popular Disney Channel shows and movies, become Dahmer was particularly disturbing.
“He has it down, from the walk to the mannerisms,” Kukral said. “At one point, it gave me the creeps. It also made me a little bit sad.”
The movie traces Dahmer’s life as a teenager in Bath Township — back when he was just another “awkward” kid and his darker side was hidden from those around him.
The movie, set to be released in 2017, ends with his first killing in June 1978 of a man hitchhiking to a concert at the former Chippewa Lake amusement park in Medina County.
By the time the bone fragments of Steven Hicks, 18, were discovered behind Dahmer’s childhood home, he was already one of the most infamous serial killers in U.S. history — having mutilated and even eaten some of his 17 victims.
Kukral, who moved away from Summit County in 1984, said he was in Europe when news of his childhood friend’s arrest broke in the early 1990s. It was the image of the Dahmer family home that first caught his eye.
“My first thought was that Jeff’s dad had killed someone,” he said. “I couldn’t fathom that Jeff would do something like that.”
The Bath Township home that held the secrets of Dahmer’s early fascination with animal carcasses and the eventual mutilation of live animals and the later fantasies of having sex with and killing men opened the door for the actors and the director to get inside the complicated head of the once socially awkward teen.
Quest for authenticity
Director Marc Meyers said he first toured the home with Backderf in October 2012, when he was still working on adapting the book into a screenplay.
“What is better than that,” he said. “It just adds another level for the telling of the story and for the actors.”
Instead of having to re-create Dahmer’s home on a soundstage, Meyers said, they were able to film at the actual home over six days in August.
While walking on the property, they found the remnants of the actual “hut” where Dahmer started his experimentation.
“We rebuilt the hut in that actual spot for the film,” he said.
It was this authenticity and filming in other spots in the area where Dahmer grew up that offered a very “original” experience for the actors, who include Aurora native Anne Heche.
“You can’t get more real than this,” Meyers said.
The film is being produced by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Ibid Filmworks, a company consisting of the husband-and-wife team of writer-director Meyers and producer Jody Girgenti.
Girgenti said the whole crew has been impressed by just how cooperative the area has been, from motorists having to confront unexpected detours while scenes were shot to the actors who lined up to work as extras.
“We’ve shot everything for this film in the area and the surrounding towns,” she said.
One of those extras was Matt Urbanic, 21, of Strongsville, a student at Cuyahoga County Community College.
His role was that of a random student; the part might be small, but he’s not complaining.
“It has been fun,” he said. “I’m excited to see it when it is done.”
The film’s final scenes were shot Friday night, including that of Dahmer and his buddies riding in a school bus, before the crew broke up shop from a rented warehouse on Miller Road in Brecksville.
Meyer said he will probably take a week or so to catch his breath back in New York before tackling the arduous task of poring over hours and hours of scenes to get the film ready for the festival season next year — and an eventual release nationwide.
“It is like a massive puzzle,” he said. “You start putting the pieces together, and the story starts to take shape.”
Craig Webb can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3547.