Is It A Fantasy or Is It Real?

Rating: Null/10 (21 July 2015)

No one knows if all the things that Patrick Bateman does in American Psycho are actually happening or are all in his mind. The Director, Mary Harron says Patrick actually kills Paul, the prostitutes, the homeless man, and countless others in real life. But to look at this movie as just a white collar businessman-psychopath that kills people would be wrong. As you watch the movie you notice the reoccurring theme that no one seems to remember Patrick's name or even listen to him. Even his own fiancé doesn't listen to him. He tells people that he is mentally insane and after a girl asks him what his job is he tells her that he mostly works in "murders and executions" she mishears what he said and thinks she heard "mergers and acquisitions" Then, after the grand finale of the film where Patrick goes on a killing spree. He confesses to a co-worker, Harold that he is a serial killer and killed Paul Allen (another co-worker). But he just laughs and thinks of it as a joke and tells Patrick that he had lunch in London with Paul the other day. This shows that either Patrick is only committing the murders in his head or Harold forgot the person he had lunch with's real name and thought he was Paul Allen. What makes this movie great is the black comedy and social satire. The fact that Patrick openly admits to murdering people all the time is quite disturbing and hilarious. It also shows how self absorbed the people are in this portrait of the late 80s. They seem to only care about themselves and forget names and people. Patrick lives in an expensive penthouse and only cares about his looks showing the exaggerated materialism and shallowness of the time period. I hope that in the future, none of this comes true. We need to learn to listen to people because, for all we know, your friend could turn out to be the next Patrick Bateman.