American Psycho

Greetings dopers, one and all. I happened to recall a movie that captured my evil little imagination. As you can probably deduce from the title, I refer to the relativly recent release of the classic, American Psycho.
It was interesting at the end as it didn’t actually clarify what had passed. Two possibilities that occurred to me.
1- Was he mad, and no one actually died? This is suggested from his surreal encounter with the cops, the teller machine (FEED ME THE CAT), the insistance of the psychiatrist at the end that he had met so-and-so since his ‘death’ and the sudden cleaning of his slaughter house. Also the notepad would suggest that a lot of what happened was going on his head. If he was mad in the crazy-delusional sense it doesnt seem in character for him to actually kill.
2. The people he killed were as shell like as himself, and their lives swallowed without a ripple. This is suggested by the references to how like so-and-so Bateman is, how vacuous his friends are, and how little he actually does in his job. It is not like anything any of them did would be missed.
The evidence probably points to the more literal interpretation (2), though the first one is as interesting. Lemme know your opinions on this film. Will you ever look at a business card the same way?

BTW any other theories and philosphies from the movie/book please post.

If anyone begins a calm diatribe on bland music, panic.

I haven’t seen the film, although I have read the book. My take on it is that Bateman is imagining the whole thing; his life is so empty and devoid of meaning that he lives in a bizarre fantasy world. He’s imagining that he’s really an interesting person, someone who other people would feel genuine emotion (hatred, disgust) towards if only they really knew him.

One theory that supports the “He imagined it” theory is right before he kills Paul Allen, he’s in the bathroom putting on the raincoat and he takes these pills. Plus, he drags Paul’s corpse (that’s in the bodybag) and the blood is smeared all over the lobby floor and the security guard doesn’t even notice anything.

From,

Anake

I believe that it was all in his head. The scene that leads me to this conclusion is at the very end after he talks to the lawyer in person. One of his friends mentions something like, “Why did we get beer? I want a damn scotch!” Then it cuts to Bateman as he slowly lifts a scotch to his mouth and drinks it. He did’t have it before or after, but when it was mentioned by his friend he realized that he wanted one too so he just pretended. BTW I think the movie is a great adaptation of the book.

I never noticed the Scotch part. Thanks for mentioning it. Yet another thing to look for when I re-watch the movie.

I think he imagined most of the murders. Another scene that is bizarre is where the hooker, Kristie, escapes and is running down the hall and screaming/pounding on doors and nobody answers their doors. But one murder I do think was real, the only one, is with the homeless guy, Al, and the dog, Gizmo (the dog’s name is in the book).

From,

Anake

One more theory. At the very end, before the lawyer part, Jean is looking into his apointment book and sees all the drawings he drew of all the murderers he has ever done. I think that the murders (except for Al and Gizmo) were Bateman drawing them into his book. The whole part with the Detective was weird, too.

That’s all I have for now.

From,

Anake