American Psycho is a 2000 horror comedy film directed by Mary Harron, who co-wrote the screenplay with Guinevere Turner. Based on the 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis, it stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a wealthy New York City investment banker who leads a double life as a serial killer. Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Chloë Sevigny, Samantha Mathis, Cara Seymour, Justin Theroux, Turner, and Reese Witherspoon appear in supporting roles. The film blends psychological horror and black comedy to satirize 1980s yuppie culture and consumerism, exemplified by Bateman.
Ellis considered his novel unfilmable; however, producer Edward R. Pressman was determined to adapt it and bought the film rights in 1992. Stuart Gordon, David Cronenberg, and Rob Weiss considered directing the film before Harron and Turner began writing the screenplay in 1996. They sought to make a 1980s period film that emphasized the novel's satire. The pre-production period was tumultuous; Harron chose Bale to play Bateman, but because distributor Lions Gate Films sought Leonardo DiCaprio in the role, Harron was fired and replaced with Oliver Stone. After DiCaprio and Stone left due to creative differences, Harron was rehired and allowed to cast Bale. Principal photography began in February 1999 in Toronto and New York City.
American Psycho premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2000, and was released theatrically in the United States on April 14. The film received mostly positive reviews, with praise for Bale's performance and the screenplay, and grossed $34 million on a $7 million budget. It has since developed a cult following and a strong presence in meme culture since the 2010s. By December 2024, a new adaptation of the novel, directed by Luca Guadagnino, was in the works.
Plot
In 1987, New York City investment banker Patrick Bateman meticulously maintains a polished social façade while harboring violent impulses. He dines at trendy restaurants, obsesses over his physical appearance, and navigates a shallow circle of wealthy associates he secretly despises, all while engaged to Evelyn Williams. During a business meeting, he and his colleagues flaunt their business cards respective designs. Bateman is enraged by the perceived superiority of his colleague Paul Allen's card. Later, he encounters a homeless man and his dog in an alley; initially offering help, Bateman instead insults and brutally kills them.
Bateman's envy intensifies over Allen's more affluent successful lifestyle, able to easily secure reservations at Dorsia, an elite restaurant Bateman cannot access. At a Christmas party, he arranges dinner with Allen, who mistakes him for another co-worker, Marcus Halberstram. During the dinner, Allen's condescending attitude fuels Bateman's resentment. Bateman gets him drunk, lures him to his apartment, and murders him with an axe. He disposes of the body and uses Allen's keys to access his apartment, leaving a message on Allen's answering machine claiming he has gone to London. When private investigator Donald Kimball questions Bateman about Allen's disappearance, mentioning sightings of Allen in London, Bateman deflects suspicion.
Bateman hires prostitutes Christie and Sabrina, engaging in sadistic acts before paying them to leave. His violence nearly arouses colleague Luis Carruthers when he attempts to strangle him in a restaurant restroom, but Carruthers misinterprets the act as a sexual advance, horrifying Bateman, who flees. Kimball's second interview heightens Bateman's paranoia, but he continues his spree, seducing a model and later toying with killing his secretary, Jean. At his apartment, Jean narrowly escapes harm after Bateman warns her that he might lose control, unaware of the model's severed head in his refrigerator.
Kimball later informs Bateman that a colleague claims to have dined with Allen on the night of his disappearance, solidifying Bateman's alibi. Kimball dismisses the idea of Allen's murder as implausible, leaving Bateman relieved yet unnerved. Bateman rehires Christie and invites acquaintance Elizabeth for a drug-fueled encounter that turns deadly. Christie discovers corpses in his apartment while fleeing, only to be killed when Bateman drops a chainsaw on her in a stairwell.
Bateman unravels after breaking off his engagement with Evelyn. An ATM bizarrely displays "Feed me a stray cat", prompting him to nearly kill the kitten that had appeared, but he shoots a woman who intervenes instead. Fleeing from police, he shoots an officer, inexplicably blows up a patrol car, and kills more innocents before hiding in his office building. In a frantic voicemail to his lawyer, Harold Carnes, Bateman confesses to around 40 murders, including Allen, Christie, Elizabeth, and others.
The next day, Bateman visits Allen's apartment, now vacant and for sale. A realtor, suspicious of his dust mask, denies the apartment's connection to Allen and urges him to leave. Jean, alarmed by Bateman's disturbed state, finds his journal filled with graphic sketches of murder. At lunch, Carnes mistakes Bateman for someone else, laughs off the confession, and claims he recently dined with Allen in London, undermining Bateman's reality. As his friends discuss dinner reservations and muse about Ronald Reagan's persona, Bateman, uncertain if his crimes were real or imagined, narrates his unrelenting pain and desire to inflict it on others. Recognizing that his punishment and liberation from a hollow existence will never come, he declares his confession meaningless.
Cast
Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a New York City investment banker who leads a double life as a serial killer Justin Theroux as Timothy Bryce, a colleague of Bateman Josh Lucas as Craig McDermott, a colleague of Bateman Bill Sage as David Van Patten, a colleague of Bateman Chloë Sevigny as Jean, Bateman's secretary Reese Witherspoon as Evelyn Williams, Bateman's fiancée whom he despises Samantha Mathis as Courtney Rawlinson, Luis Carruthers' fiancée who is having an affair with Bateman Matt Ross as Luis Carruthers, a colleague of Bateman and closeted homosexual Jared Leto as Paul Allen, a fellow investment banker whom Bateman kills Willem Dafoe as Donald Kimball, a private investigator who investigates the disappearance of Paul Allen Cara Seymour as Christie, a prostitute Guinevere Turner as Elizabeth, a woman whom Bateman kills
Other cast members include Stephen Bogaert as Harold Carnes, Bateman's lawyer; Reg E. Cathey as Al, a homeless man; Krista Sutton as Sabrina, a sex worker; Catherine Black as Vanden, Williams' cousin; Patricia Gage as Mrs. Wolfe, a real estate agent; and Anthony Lemke as Marcus Halberstram, Bateman's colleague with whom he shares a passing resemblance. Former U.S. president Ronald Reagan appears in archive footage of his 1987 address concerning the Iran–Contra affair.
Production Early development
The film is an adaptation of the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, which was published in 1991 amid significant controversy over its graphic depiction of violence against women. Ellis had been disappointed by the 1987 film adaptation of his first novel, Less than Zero (1985), and did not expect that anyone would be interested in adapting American Psycho, which he considered possibly unfilmable. Nonetheless, development of a film adaptation began in 1992, after Johnny Depp expressed interest and producer Edward R. Pressman bought the film rights. Pressman, to Ellis' surprise, was "obsessed" with turning American Psycho into a film. Ellis discussed the project with filmmaker Stuart Gordon but felt that he was unsuitable.
David Cronenberg and Brad Pitt respectively became attached to direct and star, and Ellis was brought on to write the screenplay. The process was difficult for Ellis; Cronenberg did not want to use any of the restaurant or nightclub material from the novel (which he considered boring), wanted to excise the violence, and mandated that the script be 65–70 pages. Ellis considered Cronenberg's directions "insane" and ignored them. Ellis' draft departed significantly from the novel, as he had "been living with it for, like, three and a half years, four years" and had grown bored with it. It ended with an elaborate musical sequence to Barry Manilow's "Daybreak" atop the World Trade Center, a change which Ellis felt exemplified how fatigued he was with the material.
The development was prolonged due to what Variety called American Psycho "literary complexity", which made adapting it to film difficult. Cronenberg was dissatisfied with Ellis' draft and by March 1994 had sought a new draft from Norman Snider; Ellis later recalled that Cronenberg left the project after he disliked Snider's draft even more. Ellis wrote another draft for Rob Weiss in 1995, but the film again failed to materialize. Pressman did not want to make a film that would offend people and described Ellis' draft as "completely pornographic". Pressman appeared at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival to pre-sell the distribution rights to no avail.
Development under Mary Harron After Mary Harron's film I Shot Andy Warhol premiered at the 49th Cannes Film Festival to positive reviews in January 1996, she received a call from Roberta Hanley—who operated the production company which held the American Psycho film rights—with an offer to direct the film. Harron had attempted to read the novel when it was originally published but found it too violent. However, rereading it, she realized that "just enough time ha[d] passed" to produce a period film set in the 1980s, "bring out the satire", and comment on the era, which interested her. Harron was ambivalent towards the other "very mainstream and boring" offers she was receiving following I Shot Andy Warhol and decided to make American Psycho due to its "risky" nature.
Harron read the existing drafts; while she somewhat enjoyed Ellis', she felt that most were too moralistic, missing the novel's preciseness in depicting social privilege. Harron told Pressman that she would only join the project if she could write her own screenplay. Pressman commented that out of all the directors who attached themselves to American Psycho, Harron was "the only person who actually ever conveyed a clear solution as to how to do it". Harron recruited Guinevere Turner, with whom she had been working on what would become The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), to co-write. Turner was not a horror fan and had never heard of American Psycho, but Harron convinced her that it would be a good project to pursue. Though she found the novel unsavory, Turner appreciated its blend of humor and horror and concluded that "with the right spin it could be a really subversive, feminist movie".
Harron and Turner excised most of the novel's violence outside four sequences of Bateman's murders. Their approach to the material and Bateman's character was influenced by Mario Bava's giallo film Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970), with Bava historian Tim Lucas noting that both films feature protagonists motivated by a desire for self-discovery in their killings. Harron recalled facing scrutiny for depicting Bateman as homophobic—a criticism she found odd since no objections were raised over his murders. She also received requests to delve into Bateman's psychology but said that "having a very clear psychological explanation [wasn't] of great interest to me" since she found the concept generic, shallow, and unrealistic. Harron rejected suggestions to explore Bateman's family and background; she felt it was unnecessary and that Bateman was simply "a monster".