American Psycho (2000)

“

I have to return some videotapes.

„

― Patrick Bateman

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American Psycho

IMDb rating of 7.6

Directed By

Mary Harron

Produced By

Edward R. Pressman
Chris Hanley
Christian Halsey Solomon

Written By

Bret Easton Ellis

Starring

Christian Bale
Willem Dafoe
Jared Leto
Josh Lucas
Samantha Mathis
Matt Ross
Bill Sage
Chloë Sevigny
Cara Seymour
Justin Theroux
Guinevere Turner
Reese Witherspoon

Music By

John Cale

Cinematography

Andrzej Sekuła

Editing By

Andrew Marcus

Produced By

Edward R. Pressman Productions
Muse Productions

Distributed By

Lions Gate Films (United States)
Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (International)

Release Date(s)

April 14, 2000

Runtime

102 minutes

Country

United States
Canada

United StatesCanada

Language

English

Budget

$7 million

Images of American Psycho

American Psycho is a 2000 Canadian-American satirical comedy psychological horror film co-written and directed by Mary Harron, based on Bret Easton Ellis’s 1991 novel of the same name. It stars Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Chloë Sevigny, Samantha Mathis, Cara Seymour, Justin Theroux, Guinevere Turner, and Reese Witherspoon.

Plot

Warning

: this text contains details about the plot/ending of the film.

In 1987, New York investment banker Patrick Bateman’s life revolves around dining at trendy restaurants while keeping up appearances for his fiancée Evelyn and his circle of wealthy and shallow associates, most of whom he dislikes. From his focus on fitting in and wealth, Bateman describes the material accoutrements of his lifestyle, including his daily morning exercise, beautification routine, designer wardrobe and expensive furniture in great detail. He also frequently discusses his music collection, which includes Huey Lewis and the News, Phil Collins and Whitney Houston.

Bateman and his associates flaunt their business cards in a display of vanity. Enraged by the superiority of co-worker Paul Allen’s card, Bateman murders a homeless man and kills the man’s dog. At a Christmas party, Bateman makes plans to have dinner with Allen, who mistakes Bateman for another coworker, Marcus Halberstram. Bateman gets Allen drunk and lures him back to his apartment. While playing “Hip to Be Square” on the stereo, Bateman delivers a monologue to Allen about the artistic merits of the song and of Huey Lewis and the News, then murders him with a chrome axe. He disposes of Allen’s body, and then goes to his apartment to stage the situation so that others believe Allen has run off to London.

Bateman is later interviewed about Allen’s disappearance in his office by private detective Donald Kimball. During the night, Bateman takes two prostitutes, whom he names Christie and Sabrina, to his apartment and explains to them the improvement he saw in the band Genesis after they moved away from progressive rock toward a more pop rock sound beginning with the album Duke. After they have sex, Bateman tells them to stay, while taking out instruments he uses for bodily harm. In the next scene, they leave his apartment bloodied and injured.

The next day Bateman’s colleague Luis Carruthers reveals his new business card. Bateman tries to kill Luis in the restroom of an expensive restaurant but cannot bring himself to strangle him. Luis mistakes the attempted murder for a sexual advance and declares his love for Bateman, who flees in disgust. After murdering a model, Bateman invites his secretary, Jean, to dinner, suggesting she meet him at his apartment for drinks before. When Jean arrives, Bateman, unbeknownst to her, holds a nailgun to the back of her head while the two converse. When he receives an answering machine message from his fiancée, Evelyn, he asks Jean to leave. Kimball meets Bateman for lunch and tells him he is not under suspicion.

Bateman later invites Christie and his acquaintance Elizabeth to Allen’s apartment for sex and kills Elizabeth during the act. Christie runs, discovering multiple female corpses in various rooms as she searches for an exit. A naked Bateman chases her while wielding a chainsaw, and drops it on her as she flees down a staircase, killing her.

Bateman breaks off his engagement with Evelyn. That night, as he uses an ATM, he finds a stray kitten. The ATM displays the text “feed me a stray cat”. As he prepares to shoot the cat, a woman sees and tries to stop him. He shoots her and lets the cat go free. A police chase ensues but Bateman destroys the police cars by shooting their gas tanks. Fleeing to his office, Bateman enters the wrong office building, where he murders a security guard and a janitor. In an office he believes is his, Bateman calls his lawyer Harold and frantically leaves a lengthy confession on Harold’s answering machine.

The following morning, Bateman visits Allen’s apartment, expecting it to be full of decomposing bodies and in the middle of a police investigation, but it is vacant, freshly painted and for sale. The realtor tells him to leave. As Bateman goes to meet with his colleagues and lawyer for lunch, a horrified Jean finds detailed drawings of murder, mutilation and rape in Bateman’s office journal.

Bateman sees Harold at a restaurant and mentions the phone message he left the prior night. Harold mistakes Bateman for another colleague and laughs off the phone message confession as a joke, saying he had dinner with Allen in London days earlier. A confused Bateman returns to his friends. In a final voice-over narration, he realizes he will continue to escape the punishment he deserves, and that there has been no catharsis: “This confession has meant nothing”.

List of deaths

Name

Cause of Death

Killer

On Screen

Notes

Al

Stabbed repeatedly in stomach

Patrick Bateman

Yes

Dog

Stomped to death

Paul Allen

Hacked multiple times with an axe

Patrick Bateman

Yes

Courtney Rawlington

Decapitated

Patrick Bateman

No

Sabrina

Unknown

Patrick Bateman

Yes

2 Girls

Unknown

Patrick Bateman

No

Girl

Unknown

Patrick Bateman

No

Christie

Chainsaw fell into back in stairs

Patrick Bateman

Yes

Old Woman

Shot in chest

Patrick Bateman

Yes

Police Officer

Shot

Patrick Bateman

Yes

Police Officer

Blown up in police car explosion

Patrick Bateman

Yes

Receptionist

Shot in chest

Patrick Bateman

Yes

Janitor

Shot in chest

Patrick Bateman

Yes

Cast

• Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman
• Reese Witherspoon as Evelyn Williams
• Chloë Sevigny as Jean
• Justin Theroux as

  Timothy Bryce

• Josh Lucas as

  Craig McDermott

• Bill Sage as

  David Van Patten

• Matt Ross as

  Luis Carruthers

• Jared Leto as

  Paul Allen

• Samantha Mathis as

  Courtney Rawlinson

• Willem Dafoe as

  Detective Donald Kimball

• Cara Seymour as Christie
• Guinevere Turner as

  Elizabeth

• Krista Sutton as

  Sabrina

• Catherine Black as

  Vanden

• Stephen Bogaert as

  Harold Carnes

• Anthony Lemke as

  Marcus Halberstram

• Patricia Gage as

  Mrs. Wolfe

• Reg E. Cathey as Homeless Man

Production

Producer Edward R. Pressman purchased the film rights to Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho in 1992, with Johnny Depp expressing an interest in the lead role. After discussions with Stuart Gordon to direct fell through, David Cronenberg became attached and brought Ellis to adapt the novel into a screenplay. The process was difficult for Ellis, due to Cronenberg’s scene constraints and not wanting to use any of Ellis’s restaurant or nightclub material from the novel. The script ended with an elaborate musical sequence to Barry Manilow’s “Daybreak” atop the World Trade Center. “I’m glad it wasn’t shot, but that kind of shows you where I was when I was writing the script”, Ellis reflected. “I was bored with the material.” Cronenberg was still listed as being attached to direct in March 1994, but with a new script by Norman Snider.

Pressman appeared at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival to pre-sell distribution rights, but to no avail. Mary Harron replaced Cronenberg as director while writing a new script with Guinevere Turner. Harron cast Christian Bale in a deal on good faith, and attached Willem Dafoe and Jared Leto in supporting roles. Development was looking to move forward following six years of rejection by Hollywood studios when independent Canadian distributor Lionsgate Films acquired worldwide distribution in April 1997. After having waited for a year, Bale and Harron were aiming to begin filming in August 1998 on a $6–10 million budget, but Lionsgate instead pursued Edward Norton and Leonardo DiCaprio for the lead role, arguing Bale was not famous enough. Lionsgate was still hoping to finalize a deal with Harron, while Bale’s handshake deal without a pay or play contract was let go. Harron refused to meet with DiCaprio, displeased as she specifically chose Bale and believed DiCaprio’s screen presence would have been too boyish for Patrick Bateman. She also believed the actor’s reputation as a teen idol following Romeo + Juliet and Titanic would distract from American Psycho‘s production and tone.

Lionsgate was planning to increase the production budget to $40 million in the hopes of securing DiCaprio’s $21 million asking price. At the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, a press release was issued that DiCaprio had taken the offer, which was quickly rebutted by DiCaprio’s manager, Rick Yorn, who claimed the actor had simply expressed interest in the part. Yorn also wanted to make clear that DiCaprio had no knowledge of the development history under Harron and Bale. DiCaprio drafted a shortlist of replacement directors, including Oliver Stone, Danny Boyle, and Martin Scorsese. Working from a new script written by Matthew Markwalder, Stone was brought aboard, whom Harron called “probably the single worst single person to do it”. The director wanted to eliminate the satire from Harron’s script, emphasizing the psychological character traits of Patrick Bateman. However, Stone could not agree on the film’s direction with DiCaprio, who decided to star in The Beach instead.

Bale remained committed, turning down other movie roles and auditions for nine months, confident DiCaprio would depart. Lionsgate made an offer to Ewan McGregor, who turned it down after Bale personally urged him to do so. Harron and Bale were eventually brought back under the agreement that the budget would not exceed $10 million. Bale spent several months working out by himself, and then three hours a day with a trainer during pre-production, to achieve the proper physique for the narcissistic Bateman. The actor struggled with the role until he noticed Tom Cruise in an interview on Late Night with David Letterman, being struck by Cruise’s energy and “intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes”. Bale also used Nicolas Cage’s performance in Vampire’s Kiss as inspiration for this role. Filming began in March 1999 in Toronto, Canada.

Release

As promotion, one could register to receive e-mails “from” Patrick Bateman, supposedly to his therapist. The e-mails, written by a writer attached to the film and approved by the book’s author Bret Easton Ellis, follow Bateman’s life since the events of the film. He discusses such developments as his marriage to (and impending divorce settlement with) his former secretary, Jean, his complete adoration of his son, Patrick Jr., and his efforts to triumph over his business rivals. The e-mails also describe or mention interactions with other characters from the novel, including Timothy Price (Bryce in the film version), Evelyn, Luis, Courtney, David, Detective Kimball, and Marcus. However, the film’s star, Christian Bale, was not happy with this kind of marketing: “My main objection is that some people think it will be me returning those e-mails. I don’t like that … I think the movie stands on its own merits and should attract an audience that can appreciate intelligent satire. It’s not a slasher flick, but it’s also not American Pie. The marketing should reflect that.”

Lionsgate spent $50,000 on an online stock market game, Make a Killing with American Psycho, which invited players to invest in films, actors, or musicians using fake Hollywood money. This marketing ploy did little to help the film’s box office but the studio’s co-president Tom Ortenberg still claimed that it was a success: “The aim was to gain exposure and awareness for the picture, and we did that,” he said. “Lionsgate will make a tidy profit on the picture.”

American Psycho premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) initially gave the film an NC-17 rating for a scene featuring Bateman having a threesome with two prostitutes. The producers excised approximately 18 seconds of footage to obtain an R-rated version of the film.

Home media

A special-edition DVD was released on July 21, 2005. In the U.S., two versions of the film have been released: an R-rated and unrated version. For the edited version and R-rated cinematic release in the U.S., the producers excised about 18 seconds of footage from a scene featuring Bateman having a threesome with two prostitutes. Some dialogue was also edited: Bateman orders a prostitute, Christie, to bend over so that another, Sabrina, can “see your asshole”, which was edited to “see your ass”. The unedited version also shows Bateman receiving oral sex from Christie. The uncut version was released on Blu-ray on February 6, 2007. A 4K Blu-ray was released with the Uncut Version on September 25, 2018 in US and October 15, 2018 in United Kingdom. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment also released the film on Blu-ray around Australia, Spain, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Thailand, and Taiwan in December 2008.

Reception

American Psycho debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, where it polarized audiences and critics; some showered the film with praise for its writing and performance from Christian Bale, others with criticism for its violent nature. Upon its theatrical release, the film received positive reviews in crucial publications, including The New York Times which called it a “mean and lean horror comedy classic”. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 69% based on 150 reviews, with a average rating of 6.3/10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “If it falls short of the deadly satire of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel, American Psycho still finds its own blend of horror and humor, thanks in part to a fittingly creepy performance by Christian Bale.” Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “D” on an A+ to F scale. It was called the “next Fight Club“, which Leto also appeared in, by the Guardian.

Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and regarded Christian Bale as being “heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor”. In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan wrote, “The difficult truth is that the more viewers can model themselves after protagonist Bateman, the more they can distance themselves from the human reality of the slick violence that fills the screen and take it all as some kind of a cool joke, the more they are likely to enjoy this stillborn, pointless piece of work”. Newsweek magazine’s David Ansen wrote, “But after an hour of dissecting the ’80s culture of materialism, narcissism and greed, the movie begins to repeat itself. It becomes more grisly and surreal, but not more interesting.” In his review for The Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote, “If anything, Bale is too knowing. He eagerly works within the constraints of the quotation marks Harron puts around his performance”.

Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers wrote, “whenever Harron digs beneath the glitzy surface in search of feelings that haven’t been desensitized, the horrific and hilarious American Psycho can still strike a raw nerve”. In a somewhat positive review for Slate magazine, David Edelstein noted the toned-down brutality and sexual content in comparison to the novel and wrote that the moment where Bateman spares his secretary is when “this one-dimensional film blossoms like a flower”. Edelstein would later describe the film Joker and American Psycho as an “Anthem for incels”. Owen Gleiberman gave the film an “A−” rating, writing for Entertainment Weekly: “By treating the book as raw material for an exuberantly perverse exercise in ’80s Nostalgia, Harron recasts the go-go years as a template for the casually brainwashing-consumer/fashion/image culture that emerged from them. She has made a movie that is really a parable of today.” Time magazine’s Richard Corliss wrote, “Harron and co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner do understand the book, and they want their film to be understood as a period comedy of manners”. A.O. Scott (also from the aforementioned New York Times) praised the film as well.

Bloody Disgusting ranked the film at No. 19 in its list of the “Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade”, with the article praising “Christian Bale’s disturbing/darkly hilarious turn as serial killer/Manhattan businessman Patrick Bateman, a role that in hindsight couldn’t have been played by any other actor. … At its best, the film reflects our own narcissism, and the shallow American culture it was spawned from, with piercing effectiveness. Much of the credit for this can go to director Mary Harron, whose off-kilter tendencies are a good complement to Ellis’s unique style.”

Original author Ellis said, “American Psycho was a book I didn’t think needed to be turned into a movie”, as “the medium of film demands answers”, which would make the book “infinitely less interesting”. He also said that while the book attempted to add ambiguity to the events and to Bateman’s reliability as a narrator, the film appeared to make them completely literal before confusing the issue at the very end. On a 2014 appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, Ellis indicated that his feelings towards the film were more mixed than negative; he reiterated his opinion that his conception of Bateman as an unreliable narrator did not make an entirely successful transition from page to screen, adding that Bateman’s narration was so unreliable that even he, as the author of the book, didn’t know if Bateman was honestly describing events that actually happened or if he was lying or even hallucinating. However, Ellis appreciated that the film clarified the humor for audiences who mistook the novel’s violence for blatant misogyny as opposed to the deliberately exaggerated satire he’d intended, and liked that it gave his novel “a second life” in introducing it to new readers. Ultimately, Ellis said “the movie was okay, the movie was fine. I just didn’t think it needed to be made.”

Since the mid 2000s, the film has attracted a sizeable cult following, which has grown in the 2010s due to various social media platforms.

Legacy

Sequel

A direct-to-video sequel, American Psycho 2, directed by Morgan J. Freeman and starring Mila Kunis, was released in 2002. The sequel’s only connection with the original is the death of Patrick Bateman (played by Michael Kremko wearing a face mask), briefly shown in a flashback. The film was denounced by American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis. In 2005, star Mila Kunis expressed embarrassment over the film, and spoke out against the idea of a sequel. “Please somebody stop this,” she said. “Write a petition. When I did the second one, I didn’t know it would be American Psycho II. It was supposed to be a different project, and it was re-edited, but, ooh … I don’t know. Bad.”

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