Edgy black comedy is both entertaining and shocking

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2015)

Mary Herron energizes Bret Easton Ellis's controversial novel with an intelligent script and powerful direction in this violent, thought-provoking black comedy that will leave audiences shocked to the core. Christian Bale plays Patrick Bateman, a wealthy Wall Street investor living in the luxury apartments of New York City. During the day, Bateman is hard-working employee at the Wall Street industry with a loving fiancée Eveyln Williams (played by Reese Witherspoon), but is secretly in love with another blondie named Jean (played by Chloe Sevigny). When his friends and co-workers do not is that Bateman is hiding a dark and fatal secret when, at night, he lives with a life as a sadistic serial killer; murdering his fellow mates one by one. As his vicious body count steadily rises, he soon becomes increasingly insane and finds himself questioning reality and those around him. Actor Jared Leto makes a fantastic appearance as one of Bateman's close friends, and William Dafoe plays a New York detective who is assigned the case of the murders that rise from Patrick Bateman's hostility.
This is not your average serial killer flick. Instead of doing what most slasher-horror films do, centering on victims being slaughtered by one by one by a vicious psychopath, this revolves around the serial killer himself and how it murdering affects him psychologically. However, this film is not a horror film. Instead, it is a dark comedy that uses philosophical elements and some horror elements to create a chilling, thought-provoking story, and a captivating, but harrowing main character. Christian Bale takes on a risky role as the main character Patrick Bateman, a serial killer who sports a similar characteristic of Norman Bates from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. This vicious mentality is demonstrated in the scenes where he invites a friend over to his luxurious apartment, and treats them to classic 80s pops songs by artists like Phil Collins, Huey, Lewis, and Whitney Houston and gives them a smart talk about the before ending their life in a gruesome manner. In other scenes, and his dialogue in these scenes help portray the character's cruel sense of humor. Christian Bale is just fearless in this role, and his performance is stunning, probably one of the best performances he has given in his career. My only flaw with the film is the twist ending which is supposed to shock audiences, but only ends being more confusing than it needs to be.
American Psycho is a pretty captivating film, and a worthy adaption of Bret Easton Ellis's novel. It is very spine-chilling, very funny, and quite thought-provoking. I only recommend this movie to viewers 17 and over due to the graphic violence and sexuality that is present throughout.