Definition
American Psycho is a 2000 film directed by Mary Harron, based on Bret Easton Ellis’s 1991 novel of the same name. It stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a wealthy New York investment banker in the 1980s who leads a double life as a serial killer. The film is a satire of yuppie culture, consumerism, and the hollow materialism of the Reagan era. It is also a horror film, a dark comedy, and a meme factory. Bateman’s obsessive descriptions of business cards, his skincare routine, and his murderous breakdowns have become some of the most referenced scenes in internet culture.
Why It Matters
American Psycho is the ultimate critique of capitalism’s soul-destroying power. Bateman is not a villain in the traditional sense — he is a product of his environment, a man so consumed by status symbols that human life has become meaningless to him. The film’s ambiguity (does Bateman actually kill anyone, or is it all in his head?) has been debated for decades. The internet has embraced the film ironically: Bateman’s monologues about Whitney Houston and Phil Collins are quoted sincerely by people who missed the satire. The “Sigma Male” meme directly references Bateman as an ideal. The film is a mirror: if you watch it and think Bateman is cool, the film has failed you — or you have failed the film. Either way, the critique is complete.
Example
“He watched American Psycho at 22 and thought it was a horror movie. He watched it again at 32 and realized it was a comedy. He watched it at 42 and understood it was a tragedy. Bateman was not a monster. He was a diagnosis. The film was the symptom. The culture was the disease.”
Related Terms
- Christian Bale — The actor who gave Bateman his iconic performance
- Yuppie — The culture American Psycho satirizes
- Sigma Male — The internet meme that idolizes Bateman ironically
- Consumerism — The critique at the heart of the film
- Bret Easton Ellis — The novelist who created Patrick Bateman