A Devilishly Good Time!

Rating: 9/10 (18 March 2010)

Very few horror films are entertaining. In fact, most horror flicks are morally flawed, disturbing, and too dark natured. It makes you hate humanity or at least question it. The characters are even worse than the things they do. They're often psychotic, half-human wild-eyed mutants that kill without the consulting of a conscience. Horror is anything evil and sadistic....not fun!
American Psycho is an exception to the rule. Here we have mild-mannered, clean-cut, and charming Patrick Bateman who has a lucrative career as an investment banker in Lower Manhattan, a million-dollar apartment high-rise, and a 6-figure bank account, and snotty, elitist attitude to boot. But, our snotty Yuppie friend has a secret....a dark secret! He happens to be a serial killer that can't be caught! How's that for terrifying! A Yuppie who's a douchebag, pompous jerk, a nerdy white guy is his own right and has a fetish to murder people.
AP is not your average horror film. There's no gore aplenty like in Friday the 13th or the Saw franchise, well there's the part where Bateman chases and eventually kills a woman with a chainsaw down a flight of steps and the bloody scenes inside Paul Allen's apartment. Most of American Psycho's horrid lure is based solely on human psychology wrapped in avant-garde surrealism of 80's Wall Street flash. It's all about craving for absolute attention and being considered a nobody even when you have everything you could ever desire at your feet. Bateman(played by Christian Bale) is both a disturbing and comedic character. Bale's performance has motion rooted in satire and mocks the upper-class lifestyle with perfection. In fact the whole cast except Willem Dafoe and Chloe Sverginy are satirical foils which are at first humorous, then irritating/annoying, then detestable.
The truth is almost every male in this movie is a self-centered asshole
that behaves more like a spoiled teenage girl in a locker room gossipping with her friends rather than executives in a boardroom. All they do is compete and talk behind each others backs. You still have the pompous jerk alpha male, the slut, the pure innocent girl, the geek, and the killer himself. With all horror films, the jerk, old bum, a few sluts, indeed get murdered, but it's done so brilliantly and with such discretion. American Psycho is enjoyable for having already obnoxious and rather stupid characters meeting there demise(except the homeless guy with the dog in the alley) that deserve to get killed. You're catching yourself cheering for Patrick Bateman whose the serial killer! Wow! A horror movie that makes you think is a wonderful experience that no one ever experimented before. It's like Sweeney Todd, only this time no one loses an eye and fun doesn't seem to stop!
My only criticism is that it could've used more of the 1980's stylistic touch, pastel-colored clothing, a Ferrari Testarossa speeding down Fifth Avenue, etc. What American Psycho should've done was focus on the mid-80's which truly defined the decade in question and evolve into the early 1990's. Because no one remembers 1988 and 1989 that much.