On American Psycho

Let’s talk about American Psycho.

The latest spin of the “Wheel of Death” at Little Bracket of Horrors gave the team, American Psycho.

You have to have grown up in the 80s to understand much of the nuisances of American Psycho. The narcissistic, self-absorbed Patrick Bateman is the quintessential rich 80s yuppie. Are the things he does all in his head, fantasies of things he wants to do but society won’t let him? Or is he really doing these things in a real life? Either way, his self-righteous superficialness allows him to feel justified in his actions.

That is the disturbing part of this movie. You know Patrick Bateman is a self-important prick, a true psychopath, whether it is all in his head or not, but his position in society lets him do the horrendous things he does with impunity. He is even caught transporting a body and his friend seems to not even notice, or ignores it, solely because Patrick is a rich friend. That is as frightening as any of the bloody moments the film gives us.

And Bateman IS a psychopath. He tells us from the very beginning that he puts on a mask to hide his true self. He is obsessed with every detail and, as almost everyone in the 1980s did, trying to do everyone around him better. His identity is so attached to being better than the next man that he goes into rages when things don’t go his way. But he flips to his other self on a dime, becoming cordial and engaging, even friendly. That is the core of a psychopath, being able to flip into a public persona people can relate to.

American Psycho received a lot of flack from media and activists upon its release for being mindlessly violent and misogynistic. They make a valid point but maybe unfair. They seem to miss the story. This whole movie (or at least the violent parts) are happening in Patrick Bateman’s fantasies. The character is misogynistic and violent. It’s believable that this is how a psychotic would think, especially in the 1980s. I can imagine a Ted Bundy thinking in similar ways during his heyday.

Patrick Bateman even talks about Ed Gein (by the way there is an Ed Gein Experience somewhere in the world – frightening thought right?) almost with an excited awe, like Gein was his hero. He quotes Ed Gein in saying, “When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, I think two things. Part of me wants to take her out, talk to her, be real nice and sweet, treat her right. Another part of me wants to know what her head would look like on a stick.”

Ultimately, American Psycho is a comment on the excesses of the wealthy, especially in the 1980s.Through extreme excessive violence, the film shows how a rich psychopath could abuse and kill people with impunity, just because they have money. The movie shows how the selfishness of the wealthy is literally killing people.

Best quote:

“What do you do?”

“Well, I’m in murders and executions.”