Harron and Ellis have both said that the question of whether Patrick killed a colleague named Paul Allen is intentionally left ambiguous, as both possibilities reinforce the message of American Psycho. Patrick could have killed a co-worker and no one around him would have noticed or cared because he was living in the amoral, high-powered environs of Wall Street.
In his circles, wearing the wrong outfit was a bigger misstep than costing millions of homeowners their life savings, meaning Bateman and the viewer will never know for certain whether he killed a colleague since inhumane acts mean that little to his co-workers and friends.
Many viewers read the M. The killing of his co-worker is more likely to be an imaginary exploit since Bateman would likely be ejected from high society circles if he kept killing colleagues. Backstabbing, headhunting, poaching, and other colorful dysphemisms are frequently used to illustrate the duplicitous, amoral corporate culture of finance.
This filmmaking advice from George Romero was originally published on May 26, He died on Seven years ago, when working on Unfriended, producer Timur Bekmambetov realized the potential for stories that New wide releases The Pirates! Connect with us. Continue Reading. The key is in the film's deep, deep satire. As demonstrated by the fact that Patrick Bateman is constantly misrecognized by other characters throughout the film, the protagonist of American Psycho is painted as little more than a face in a yuppie-filled crowd.
His intense desperation to fit in has actually rendered him invisible, with his job, his Valentino suits and his Oliver Peoples glasses serving as his camouflage. He's so invisible that he can go on a murderous rampage through downtown New York and walk away with nobody noticing. And, again, his high status prevents anyone from believing his rather outrageous story of death and mayhem.
In regards to the "murder" of Paul Allen specifically, this exact same satire explanation can also explain Bateman's encounter with his lawyer in the movie's final scene. Allen is presented throughout the film as being a bigger deal than the protagonist, but it's not out of the question that he is also perceived by others to just be another of Bateman's ilk who can easily be confused with someone else who has similar fashion sense and career.
It's a stretch -- hence why it's not our primary theory -- but maybe Harold just had dinner in London with someone he thought was Paul Allen, while the real Paul dissolved in a bathtub in Hell's Kitchen as Bateman suggested in his confession.
Where this theory really loses a wheel, however, is when you consider the status of Paul Allen's apartment at the end of the movie. Some may argue that the place looks so sterile that it's possible Bateman unknowingly did the cleanup himself, but that doesn't explain the presence of the realtor and her apparent unawareness of who Paul Allen is. This fact goes a long way in crippling theories that say American Psycho 's lead really did kill his nemesis.
This is because they feel that the finale is actually too ambiguous, and they don't love the fact that people walk away from the story wondering if it's all just a dream. They want to make it very clear: Patrick Bateman is most definitely a serial killer. It was while being interviewed by Charlie Rose a few years back that Harron addressed divisive opinions about the end of American Psycho , and she explained that it was never her intention to try and get audiences to rethink the death and murder that had occurred throughout the film.
Instead, the problem was that she feels she was unable to match the uncertainty in the ending of the original novel, and didn't make the movie's point clear enough. She explained,. One thing I think is a failure on my part is people keep coming out of the film thinking that it's all a dream, and I never intended that.
All I wanted was to be ambiguous in the way that the book was. I think it's a failure of mine in the final scene because I just got the emphasis wrong. I should have left it more open ended. It makes it look like it was all in his head, and as far as I'm concerned, it's not.
The main problem with the final scene is the aforementioned Carnes, who can't keep his clients straight. After misidentifying Bateman as "Davis" and claiming to have had dinner in London with Paul Allen, viewers are tricked into thinking that Bateman can't separate fantasy from reality. In truth, it's Carnes and the rest who are confused, and it's Bateman — who exhibits the most meticulous attention to detail — who simply can't have his confession taken seriously.
Even if Bateman really is a killer, and the action does not merely take place inside his sick and twisted mind, that doesn't mean everything we see play out actually happened. The story's primary plot arc follows Patrick Bateman's mentality from psychopathy to full-blown psychosis. But at some point, we're starting to see things through Patrick's eyes. He's losing his mind. She states that the event really took place, but "in real life, they probably weren't as attractive as they are, and it wasn't all as Penthouse Letters as it is.
Of course, the moment we realize that something is truly astray with the reality being portrayed on screen is when the ATM instructs Bateman to feed it a stray cat. He's just going nuts. Bateman himself even questions whether or not that's even possible, looking at his gun with confusion. Thus, it's highly probable that his epic rampage wasn't quite so epic — if it even happened at all. Patrick Bateman wore a face mask before it was cool.
But along with their hydrating factors, he uses products to fake his humanity. His face masks parallel the real mask he wears daily, but as he begins to realize as the film goes on, no amount of hair products and lotion can fill the void he has inside.
Everyone at the company goes to painstaking lengths to mirror each other's looks, all wanting what they can't have, whether it's someone else's haircut, their girl, or even something as trivial as business cards. The ridiculous lengths each character goes to, in order to become a carbon copy highlights the superficial consumerism that the film dramatically critiques.
While some serial killers copycat another killer's MO that they have a creepy fascination with, Bateman turns the tables, using his coworker's own copycat tendencies to get away with murder. Much like the book it's based on, American Psycho isn't really about Patrick Bateman.
Rather, the film aims to portray the self-indulgent and hedonistic Wall Street elite of s New York in a negative light. The whole reason Bateman gets away with the murder of Paul Allen is because Allen, like others in the company, doesn't even know who he is.
Their attention is firmly focused on acquiring material wealth, lording it over others, and snorting cocaine in club bathrooms. Their biggest problems revolve around getting dinner reservations at Dorsia. Even the owners of Allen's apartment are willing to dispose of a serial killer's evidence to ensure maximum profit.
In a group discussion with Charlie Rose, American Psycho 's author admitted that the book is primarily a critique of male behavior — something director Mary Harron recognized from the get go. These days, the film is easily and often analyzed as a positive example of what can happen when the "female gaze" is cast on male vanity and, in this case, male violence. All of the central characters are male, and many of Bateman's victims are female. Most importantly, there are absolutely no redeeming qualities about Bateman.
In fact, there are no redeeming qualities about any man in the entire film. If you think American Psycho 's ending is bizarre, wait till you hear about the original conclusion. David Cronenberg occupied the director's chair before Mary Harron, but instead of hiring a scriptwriter, he asked Bret Easton Ellis to write the script.
The catch? Cronenberg forbade Ellis from writing scenes set in restaurants or clubs. Apparently, even with a heavy dose of homicide, those settings are too boring. Ellis decided to invent a bunch of new scenes. The most baffling was the intended ending: A musical number atop the World Trade Center. A musical scene definitely would have lent itself to the theory that the murders are all in Patrick's head, but it also might have confused the audience further.
Moreover, that already dicey concept would not have aged well: The film came out just one year prior to the September 11th attacks. The crass scene may very well have prevented American Psycho from becoming the cult classic it is today. While it's probably best that the musical number stayed on the cutting room floor, fans itching to see Bateman burst into song do have an outlet: Duncan Shiek turned the story into a Broadway musical.
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