On July 22, 1991, two police officers entered the Milwaukee apartment of Jeffrey Dahmer. Inside, they found several body parts and severed heads in his fridge and freezer, as well as countless polaroids of mutilated bodies. Dahmer was arrested and later confessed to gruesomly murdering at least 17 people, mostly young gay men of color, during a 13-year killing spree that started in 1978.  

How did the serial killer get away with it for so long? That’s the question DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story seeks to answer. The logline for the new Ryan Murphy project describes it as “a series that exposes these unconscionable crimes, centered around the underserved victims and their communities impacted by the systemic racism and institutional failures of the police that allowed one of America’s most notorious serial killers to continue his murderous spree in plain sight for over a decade.”

Those failures are hinted at in the first teaser, which you can watch above. The short clip shows Dahmer, played by Evan Peters, emerging from the shadows as a woman’s voice calls in the background: “Excuse me? Jeff? I gotta say, that smell is worse than ever. I saw you go out to the dumpster and throw out a whole bunch of bad meat, so the smell should be gone by now. Jeff?” 

The voice in question belongs to Glenda Cleveland, Dahmer’s neighbor, played by Niecy Nash in the series. According to Nash, Cleveland’s numerous efforts to notify law enforcement of the smells and even screams coming from Dahmer’s apartment went unanswered. Why? “Because it was a Black woman complaining and calling them to do something,” the actor says in an exclusive Netflix Queue featurette. Cleveland’s concerns were dismissed, and Dahmer’s victim count kept climbing.

Peters didn’t take on the role of the notorious serial killer lightly. Playing Dahmer took the actor to a dark place, he tells Queue. “I was very scared about all of the things that Dahmer did, and [I knew that] trying to commit to that was absolutely going to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life.”

The first trailer, which also premiered on Queue, doesn’t shy away from Dahmer’s horrific acts — but unlike many other serial killer narratives, DAHMER goes beyond the story of its titular character. As Queue notes, Murphy consulted with Rashad Robinson, president of racial justice organization Color of Change, to spotlight the voices and pain of Dahmer’s victims. “It’s called The Jeffrey Dahmer Story but it’s not just him and his backstory,” Peters says. “It’s [about] how society and our system failed to stop him multiple times because of racism and homophobia.”

That systemic negligence, Nash adds, is exactly why Dahmer’s story is still all too relevant today. “The theme of this entire piece is timeless,” she says. “You still have communities that are being underserved, being overpoliced in the wrong way. We have people crying out for change and to be heard by the powers that be.”

Richard Jenkins and Penelope Ann Miller round off the cast as Dahmer’s parents, while Molly Ringwald and Michael Learned co-star as his stepmother and grandmother. Watch the full trailer below:  

DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story Main TrailerSo you gonna open your gift?

Head over to Netflix Queue to read more from Peters and Nash. DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story will premiere Sept. 21 on Netflix.