YMMV / American Psycho

• Adaptation Displacement: It was a book first, something even some fans of the film would be surprised to know.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Arguably one of the main themes of the book and the film is just what exactly is real and what isn't. Is Patrick Bateman a genuine serial killer who got away with his deeds thanks to several twists of fate and the inattention of others, a hallucinating coward who fantasized about murdering people who slighted him but will never have the guts to carry it out, or is he simply a bored, nondescript white collar worker daydreaming about being a serial killer to make himself and his humdrum life seem more interesting? The film plays with this as well and even Ellis has been very hush hush on whether or not Bateman is a killer.
  • It has been speculated that Bateman might be a closeted homosexual, due to his obsession with beauty products, lack of genuine sexual interest in women besides advancing his narcissism, the story's setting in a time of Gay Panic (the 1980s), and the fact that the book's author is a gay man, though Bateman shows zero sexual interest in men either and is a virulent homophobe besides (unless Bateman is an Armoured Closet Gay played straight), so this appears to be mostly based on gay stereotypes (or, more charitably, aspects of queer coding that aren't necessarily applicable here). If anything, he's probably autosexual.
  • Bateman angsts over not feeling remorse for his actions. But does that mean that he feels remorse for them anyway? When he reports himself to the police, is it actually his way of trying to stop? And does he hope that if he's arrested, he'll be able to get help and find out what is wrong with him?
  • Oliver Harper believes that Bateman's father (who "practically owns the company") covers up his crimes and that the woman at Paul Allen's apartment was sent by him. Of course, that's if he really committed said crimes to begin with.
  • Are the people that surround Patrick really so blinkered, stupid and self-absorbed that they can't recognize he's a monster? Or is this how a deluded sociopath who believes himself untouchable would view the world: as superficially different but ultimately interchangeable zombies, that can be placated, cajoled, victimized and slaughtered at will? The ending of the musical leans toward Patrick being a solipsist a little more, but the book and film keep it, as with many aspects of his perception, ambiguous.
  • Similarly, are Bateman's coworkers really as shallow, self-absorbed and prejudiced as he is? Or is Bateman projecting his own flaws onto them, either because he wants to feel superior to them or because he genuinely can't conceive of someone else in his position not being like that?
  • In the famous business card scene, did Bryce really prefer Van Patten's card over Bateman's? Or was he being sarcastic? The knowing look he gives Bateman after joking "how'd a nitwit like you get so tasteful?" implies it to be the latter, but Bateman takes it genuinely because of how insecure he is of the mere possibility that Bryce prefers Van Patten's card.
  • Among other things, Harold told "Davis", AKA Patrick, that Evelyn dumped him, not the other way around, as was shown earlier. Either he mistook Patrick and Evelyn for another couple, Bateman imagined himself as the dumper, or Evelyn twisted the narrative in order to save face.
  • In each scene with Detective Donald Kimball, Mary Harron asked Willem Dafoe to portray his character three different ways: 1) Kimball knew Patrick Bateman killed Paul Allen, 2) Kimball didn't know Bateman killed Allen, and 3) Kimball wasn't sure if Bateman killed Allen. Harron would then edit the takes together, giving the audience an unsure vibe of what Detective Kimball thought of Bateman.
  • After Bateman confessed to his lawyer, Harold Carnes, that he killed Allen, the latter claims that's impossible because he had dinner with Paul earlier. Either he simply doesn't believe Patrick, he mistook Paul for someone else, he's covering up for Bateman, or Paul really is alive and unharmed.
  • Patrick himself pretends to be Paul Owen/Allen, even after his murder. People believing Paul is alive could have been meeting Patrick.
  • Benjamin Walker's portrayal in Broadway is less Mask of Sanity and more desperate to feel something at all. After "Nice Thought", after Mrs. Bateman tells Jean he used to be a nice child, he almost mournfully tries to remember if there was ever anything good in him.
  • Does the drug consumption play a role in Patrick's insanity? Does he assume cocaine only because it's a trend or because it could be a temporary escape from his numb life? Or is it a vicious circle?
• Aluminium Christmas Trees: Peanut butter soup is actually a real thing (nkatenkwan, the national dish of Ghana), although it's usually made with chicken and yam, rather than duck and squash.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Everyone told Christian Bale not to take the role of Patrick Bateman, believing that the film would be career suicide. It wound up being his breakout role as an adult actor.
• Award Snub: Christian Bale didn't receive an Academy Award nomination for his performance. Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner were also ignored for Best Adapted Screenplay.
• Awesome Music:
  • The soundtrack is comprised of the cheesiest '80s songs imaginable, and Patrick's tastes are often the subject of parody. Patrick's enthusiasm is oddly infectious, though. This aspect can be lost now, because a lot of the music featured that was despised in The '90s has been rehabilitated in the public consciousness, and has a lot more respect than when the book and especially the film came out. In particular, Huey Lewis and the News actually had a Colbert Bump thanks to this film.
  • One of the songs in the credits is a remix of "Who Feelin' It" by Tom Tom Club. Not only is it a catchy song with some good beats, but it even manages contrast with the more simple songs from other bands of the 1980s Patrick listens to in the movie.
  • The musical version has some for its more original songs. Most notable are the songs "Selling Out" and "This Is Not An Exit."
  • Also from the musical, "Killing Time" is downright hypnotic.
  • The musical's rendition of "In the Air Tonight" is gorgeous, with the eerie harmonies and near-total lack of instrumentals making for a very haunting number.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In a chapter that begins and ends in mid-sentence, Bateman wanders on the street, doing things like shoplifting a can of ham from Gristede's for absolutely no reason and buying crack rock from a street dealer and eating it in front of him. This just demonstrates his sociopathy; he doesn't feel differently about shoplifting and torturing people to death.
• Can't Un-Hear It: Try and read the book without hearing Christian Bale. Go on, we dare you. Also, Willem Dafoe as Donald Kimball.
• Common Knowledge: Quite some people erroneously believe that songs used with the "Sigma Male" memes (such as "The Perfect girl" from Mareux) are part of the American Psycho soundtrack, when they actually aren't.
• Complete Monster:
  • Novel and film: Patrick Bateman is a despicable and narcissistic psychopath who moonlights as a mass murderer while keeping up his appearance as a stockbroker. Bateman's murderous tendencies having started for no discernible reason, he began brutally raping, torturing, and butchering innocents in the most horrifying ways he could imagine, even cannibalizing some of his victims. Bateman's evil is so petty and unpredictable that he disembowels vagrants after pep talks, takes an axe to one of his associates for having a better business card, and tortures defenseless animals. One of his worst moments in the novel comes when Bateman slashes a child's throat just to see how it feels, quickly deciding it isn't as fulfilling as killing someone who has lived a full life. After going on a shooting spree, Bateman comes to the conclusion that he is completely wicked with no capability of care or compassion for others. Though the idea that some of his crimes were just imagined is implied, Bateman's character is nevertheless pure evil. Driven by his sadism and pathological desire to be important, Patrick Bateman fully earns the various terms he is referred to as: an inhuman, a ghoul, and a monster.
  • American Psycho: The Musical: Patrick Bateman is, as usual, a vapid stockbroker tormented by his own blandness, embracing his psychopathy and sadism to make himself feel unique. A proud narcissist who values his material possessions over his supposed friends and family, Bateman has dark fantasies daily of killing his co-workers, fiancée, and mother. Bateman began killing an unknown time ago and has countless murders from past years attributed to him, his motives being sheer bloodlust or even just petty jealousy as he knifes homeless men while imagining them as his friends, tortures a neighbor with a nail gun for mocking his taste in art, and kills Paul Owen with an axe for disrespecting his favorite band and having an account Bateman wants for himself. After a bloody, horrifying killing spree in which he cannibalizes dozens of victims, bathes in their blood, and dances around a pile of their corpses, Bateman brags that he has never once wanted to make anyone happy, and views himself as the only person who matters or is even truly alive in a world that won't respect him.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Like much of Ellis's work, it's hard not to be jealous of the ultra-easy, financially stable lifestyle that the monstrous Villain Protagonist leads. As mentioned on this page, many viewers have taken to following some of Bateman's less-psychopathic (but otherwise shallow) lifestyle choices. It should be noted that none of the yuppie characters actually enjoy their decadent lifestyles, as they only go to fancy restaurants and the like for the sake of appearance rather than for personal satisfaction.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Some fanfiction writers tend to treat Luis as the Token Good Teammate of Patrick's social circle, and while it's true he's not quite as disgustingly sexist as his friends and is in a Transparent Closet, they tend to gloss over the fact that he's still as shallow, self-absorbed and classist as everyone else he associates with, plus he's fine with objectifying men when he can get away with it, like attractive waiters.
  • Patrick Bateman also gets a dose of this, largely thanks to Christian Bale's iconic portrayal. His manic, monstrous side often gets ignored by the fans in favor of his goofy monologues about music, handsome and charming appearance and of course, the famous morning routine.
• Fountain of Memes: Bateman's Laughably Evil antics have produced quite a lot of memes, "Hip To Be Square", Bateman Walking and "Do you like Phil Collins?" being some of the best known examples.
• Friendly Fandoms: There's a huge amount of crossover between the film's fans and those of Jerma985, owed to various memes in the latter community that portray Jerma as a similarly hammy Serial Killer and riff on his uncanny similarity to Patrick Bateman. Many Jerma fans even made deepfakes superimposing his face onto Bateman's.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Patrick gives detailed descriptions of each character's clothes, including brand names and prices. Readers who are extremely knowledgeable about 80's fashion will notice that the outfits are clownishly mismatched.
  • There's a similar gag involving the food at the various restaurants, which go from outrageous but plausible (red snapper pizza) to outright inedible (mud soup and charcoal arugula).
  • In the film, Patrick's business card is actually pretty terribly designed, with poor spacing and many typography issues. It also misspells "acquisitions." These problems extend to the business cards of his coworkers too, since their cards are all almost identical; as this business card manufacturer breaks down, they all contain basic spacing and lettering mistakes, including the recurring misspelling of "acquisitions" (though apparently that misspelling was a genuine typo on the film production side of things. It just so happens to fit the satire perfectly).
• Hard-to-Adapt Work: The book was deemed nigh unfilmable due to its graphic violence and sexual content. The film managed to maintain the spirit of the book while losing some of the more graphic scenes.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • A narcissistic sociopath who was born and raised in a life of privilege in Manhattan's upper echelons who despises everyone around him and eventually became a serial killer. Are we describing Patrick Bateman or Robert Durst?^note Durst's crime spree began before the novel was ever written, but he wasn’t suspected until long after.
  • Much is made in the novel about how Japan's market dominance will lead to them owning most of America by the end of the 90s. The very year the book was published, the asset price bubble in Japan popped, ushering in the Lost Decade.
  • Patrick excuses himself from Detective Kimball by saying he has "a lunch meeting with Cliff Huxtable at the Four Seasons in 20 minutes." In 2014, this line either became this or a possible dose of Fridge Brilliance.
  • The joke about Patrick's love of Whitney Houston being used to drive home how pretentious and tasteless he is has lost a lot of its bite, since her death at the young age of 48 elevated her to Posthumous Popularity Potential status.
• He Really Can Act: This was the moment everyone started taking Christian Bale seriously as an actor.
• Heartwarming Moments: In the musical, Bateman confesses to the detective after Jean's Love Confession, and being at peace thinking he's going to get punished soon, he tells her she's getting a promotion as a reward for putting up with his bullshit, and thanks her for everything. Of course he's right back to solipsist misery ten minutes later, but it's probably the sole kind moment of his life.
  • While no doubt for pragmatic reasons, Patrick gives Jean the option of leaving his apartment unharmed instead of trying to kill her again after the first attempt gets interrupted.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Mostly due to Christian Bale playing Batman...
  • The fact that Bateman and Batman are separated by one letter can be amusing to some people.
  • Patrick murdering Paul Allen is now Batman swinging an axe in the Joker's face and getting investigated by Nuidis Vulko for it. On a related note, the make-up used on Jared Leto's Joker could be described in the same way as Paul Allen's business card.
    Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, that tattoo even looks like a watermark!
  • Then Jared Leto would go on to play a different kind of bat-man.
  • A Batman-related one originating in the book: one of the clubs Bateman references is called TDK.
  • Who better than the Eleventh Doctor himself to play Bateman, A.K.A Dubs Guy?
  • Tom Cruise shows up briefly in the novel as a tenant in Patrick's building. Christian Bale later based his performance as Bateman on Tom Cruise.
  • At one point, Patrick coldly tells Jean "You can always be thinner, look better." Four years later, Christian Bale would (in)famously lose a staggering 63 pounds for his role in The Machinist and then lose 30 pounds several years later for The Fighter.
  • Gloria Steinem was openly and vocally critical of the novel for its treatment of female characters. Steinem would later marry David Bale, making her the step-mother of Christian Bale who would go on to play Patrick Bateman.
  • Even funnier for the Musical, not just the fact that David Cronenberg's version of the film adaptation would have ended in a music number. But the fact that in the Broadway show, this would be Benjamin Walker's second time playing a character wielding an axe.
  • At one point, Patrick says "Hasta la Vista, baby!"
  • An attractive, wealthy 27 year-old American man who works a white collar job but never actually seems to do much work, has few-to-no genuinely close relationships, uses money to get what he wants, can appear charming and charismatic on the surface when he wants something, hides a troubled personal life and disturbed mind, has controlling and emotionally-detached relationships with women combining sex and violence, gets away with anti-social or outright criminal behavior, and dates a shy young woman with poor self-esteem who thinks he's Prince Charming. Are we talking about Patrick Bateman... or Christian Grey? Unlike Bateman, Christian is supposed to be a romantic hero, though detractors of Fifty Shades often disagree. The cherries on top are that a) Mr. Grey shares his first name with the actor who played Patrick, and b) Bret Easton Ellis expressed interest in writing the screenplay of the Fifty Shades of Grey film adaptation, and one can only can imagine what that would've turned out like.
  • With his obsession for appearance, clothes, beauty products and middle-of-the-road music, along with his long and shallow speeches, Patrick could easily be mistaken for an influencer today, psychopathy aside. It becomes Harsher in Hindsight when you consider the less than pristine reputation of several influencers (or it continues to be Hilarious in Hindsight, depending on one's view of influencers).
  • In the book, Patrick Bateman is noted to be a fan of Donald Trump. While Trump certainly has his share of well-heeled supporters Bateman would fit right in with, his support base after entering politics is often stereotyped as being among the lower classes Bateman has contempt for.
• The Inverse Law of Fandom Levity: The book is a bleak yet darkly comedic story about Patrick Bateman, a narcissistic man who lives a luxurious yet empty and unfulfilling life, and spends several of it's chapters killing people^note However, Bateman's status as Unreliable Narrator makes it ambiguous if he's actually a serial killer or if he's a delusional fantasist as a means of livening up his dull, humdrum life. The movie is similar though it does tone down the overall violence by omitting some of the more brutal scenes from the book. Misaimed Fandom aside^note Much like Arthur Fleck, he's considered a poster boy of the "Sigma Male" grindset and is idolized by the Manosphere despite the book/movie portraying Bateman as a shallow, narcissistic loser, Patrick is often portrayed as far sillier than in canon, being associated with the meme song It's Hip to Fuck Bees which is often used as a replacement during the scene where he monologues about Huey Lewis and the News before hacking his coworker Paul Allen to death with an axe. In addition, he's often portrayed as being outshined by Paul Allen who always has a better version of what Bateman has or is portrayed as even more of a pathetic loser that in canon.
• Love to Hate: Patrick Bateman is an awful human being, but Christian Bale's performance is so hilarious and meme-worthy that it becomes impossible not to enjoy every second he's onscreen.
• Memetic Badass: In the infamous business card scene, Paul Allen's "subtle", watermarked and tastefully-thick off-white card is apparently the best out of all the virtually-identical ones everybody else was showing off, becoming Patrick Bateman's motivation for murdering him with an axe. Thanks to such a feat, the phrase "Let's see Paul Allen's [X]" has become popular, depicting him as always having a far superior version of something everyone else has, especially in comparison to Bateman.
• Memetic Loser: While already of low reputation in the works themselves, the Misaimed Fandom developed around Bateman has also given rise to posts and jokes that parody the idealization around his character. Using scenes of his worst and most pathetic moments, or having pictures of him accompanying descriptions of socially out-of-depth moments, he's sarcastically referred to as an ideal "Sigma male" on his "grindset".
• Memetic Mutation: There's a good argument to be made that this is one of the most oft-quoted films on the Internet; much of the movie's script is subject to snowcloning relevant to any random topic brought up on its IMDb board, and many clips only a few seconds long of select Bateman lines exist on YouTube with dozens if not hundreds of thousands of views. Some even racked up millions.
  • Patrick Bateman has become memetic in and of himself, as well as some of his lines and reaction shots.
    • "Ya like Huey Lewis and the News?"^ExplanationBateman leads into his killing of Paul Allen by grabbing a CD copy of Fore! from his collection and monologuing about the band. The comedically gushy nature of the monologue and the Mood Whiplash between it and the murder instantly led to the scene becoming a subject of parody, both parroting the monologue in reference to anything Huey Lewis and rewriting it to fit other artists and franchises, and almost every video on Youtube centered around the song "Hip to Be Square" (the song which plays during the aforementioned monologue and murder scene) will have more than a few comments referencing Patrick or his dialogue.
    • Dubs Guy/"Check 'Em"^ExplanationA still from the Huey Lewis monologue depicting Bateman pointing at his stereo while saying "Fore!" The image became popular on 4chan thanks to him appearing to point at a post's serial number in the still, leading it to be used as an impromptu charm for getting a post with consecutively repeating digits (or "doubles").
    • Patrick Bateman with an axe^ExplanationA publicity still◊ depicting an alternate take of Bateman swinging an axe into Paul Allen's skull, which became popular as a reaction image.
    • Patrick Bateman listening to his Walkman^ExplanationA scene depicting Bateman walking to his office while listening to "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves, which became a popular subject of parody thanks to the contrast between the song's upbeat tone and Bateman's stoic demeanor, with video edits replacing the audio and/or altering his walk.
    • Gigachad Bateman/Chadrick Basedman^ExplanationA photoshopped image◊ of Bateman that's been warped and distorted to give him a comically-muscular appearance, first seen on a /tv/ thread, making rounds by accompanying posts involving unorthodox behavior or anything "based".
    • Patrick sweating nervously is frequently used as a reaction gif.
  • Business card comparisons^ExplanationThe business card scene is subject to edits replacing the cards with something else, be it cat videos, Dragon Ball Z AMVs, fursonas or the 19 dollar Fortnite card.
  • "Let's see Paul Allen's [X]."^ExplanationReferences to the scene have spun off into this phrase, where Bateman feels absolutely humiliated by Paul's supposedly fancier card. Said references depict Paul Allen as somehow having a superior version of whatever someone else has, typically compared to Bateman.
    • Humorously, people have begun to quote Paul Allen saying "Can't. I got an 8:30 res at Dorsia" in response to this meme.
  • "Why isn't it possible?" "It's just not." "Why not, you stupid bastard?"^ExplanationIn reference to Bateman's conversation with his lawyer about Paul Allen's fate at the end of the film, this meme most often depicts Bateman asking why something that seems like it would make sense doesn't in reality, such as why 2+2 doesn't equal 22. This Cold Ham response is the result of his wishes being denied.
  • He didn't say that.^Explanation In a 4chan post asking for favorite movie lines, someone uploaded an image of Paul Allen right before Patrick murders him, captioned with the intentional misquote "Patrick, it's you!! You're the American Psycho?!!" Another user immediately called this out as fake, leading to a trove of other users responding by pretending that it actually was in the movie. A screencap from the thread depicting the misquote and the "he didn't say that" response became a popular subject for edits based around nonexistent forced title drops in other movies.
  • A deleted scene of Bateman pretending to listen to Detective Kimball has become a popular meme template.
  • Arabian Psycho.^note Some popular YouTube videos reimagine the story as taking place in one of the Gulf States, with Patrick as an Arab Oil Sheikh. The idea caught on with many fans, and it's not uncommon to see famous lines from the original story rewritten to be more in-tune with it.
• Memetic Troll: Bateman's cartoonish mannerisms and off-kilter behavior as depicted in the film have lent the character for use as a mascot for bursts of offensive humor and black comedy, contributing to his status as a Fountain of Memes.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Patrick himself is highly revered among the misogynist online communities of MGTOW ("men going their own way") and incels for his commanding presence, attractive features, and ability to coerce women into having sex with him. They ignore the fact that he's a barely contained sociopath whose partner is cheating on him, has to pick up prostitutes for his weird sexual encounters (and even then, they barely pay any attention to him), and has been suspected to be a closeted gay man (or possibly autosexual). He's also extremely shallow, just putting on a thin appearance of being cultured, and is frequently outshone by his coworkers, something that drives him into cold sweats or even tears at stuff as simple as business cards or being able to get a table at a fancy restaurant.
  • A particularly comical case of this is that Bateman, at some point, became a symbol of a "sigma male" who is "on his grindset"—that is to say, a guy who elevates himself above "distracting" female relationships to focus on becoming the hardest worker imaginable. This appears to be born out of people whose sole familiarity with Bateman is that he works on Wall Street and wears a suit, and therefore he must be a hard worker and advance to the top of the working world. In the actual film and book, Bateman never does any onscreen work whatsoever, a point is made to show his schedule is empty, and the film heavily implies that the only reason he has a job is that his dad owns the company.
  • Patrick's grooming regimen at the beginning is supposed to show that he's both an extreme narcissist, as well as being prone to excess. Instead, it's inspired many people to emulate such behavior.
  • The film’s soundtrack is one of the most often praised aspects of the movie, so much so that Huey Lewis and the News got a Colbert Bump because of it. However, as detailed under Awesome Music above, the soundtrack was supposed to be seen as the cheesiest blend of '80s music imaginable to emphasize Bateman’s Wicked Pretentious nature.
  • Similarly, Bateman's love of '80s era Genesis and his dismissal of their proggier era (Trespass to Wind and Wuthering) is also meant to show Bateman as delusional of his "good taste", but there really are Genesis fans who don't like their prog era and mainly prefer their poppier material that relate to Bateman's take on the band. This is often because of Phil Collins' critical reappraisal and how liking his music became cool again after his overexposure in the '80s died out.
• Nausea Fuel: If you're sensitive to blood and gore, you will put the book down at least once due to the extremely graphic violence described. Don't say we didn't warn you.
• Nightmare Retardant:
  • The sheer absurdity leading up to and/or during some of Patrick's murders makes it hard to take them seriously. This is intentional.
  • The part where he shoots at a couple police cars... all of which explode quite spectacularly. In the movie, even Patrick is surprised.
• Offending the Creator's Own: Like the novel, the film adaptation was also controversial for its violence towards women, yet the director and writers of the film, Mary Harron (Director/writer) and Guinevere Turner (writer), are women and feminists.
• One-Scene Wonder: The realtor at the end of the film is strongly implied to also be, like Patrick, an American Psycho who removed evidence of Paul Allen's murder to still be able to sell the apartment, but one that's actually in control her emotions and the situation around her and who is ruthless at succeeding in her job as opposed to the rather lazy Patrick who coasts off of his father's wealth and power while not actually doing anything at his job apart from listening to music and obsessing over his murders and equally violent fantasies. Her cold-hearted nature is so unnerving that even Patrick is put off by her.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Seeing the guy who would be made famous by his role as Batman play a psychopathic murderer The Joker would be shocked by is quite odd. Even odder is that one of his victims would go on to play the Joker! Many like to say that American Psycho is the only movie where people get to see Batman kill the Joker.
  • You even get the R-rated version of Little Women with Laurie and Amy screwing each other.
  • Reg E. Cathey is the homeless guy that Bateman kills.
• Signature Scene: Mostly due to the number of memes originating from it, the best known scene of the movie is the Huey Lewis and the News monologue and the corresponding murder of Paul Allen.
• Song Association: Just try to mention Huey Lewis and the News anyone who's seen this movie (and plenty who haven't!) who doesn't immediately launch into Patrick Bateman's speech about their music.
• Tear Jerker:
  • This depends on your interpretation of the ending of course, but Bateman's existence is so shallow and meaningless he can't even understand basic human interaction. He even cries during one of his murders that he just wants to be loved. And everyone around him is so self-absorbed they literally don't notice his frequent confessions to his crimes. By the end, it feels like a cry for help. It's a tiny reminder that even if Bateman is an irredeemable monster, he is still a human being like everyone else.
  • EVERYTHING with Jean, She really loves Patrick but he spends most of his time treating her like garbage and their "date" becomes very bad. And that's not even getting to the ending when she finds Patrick's planner filled with drawings of his murders...
  • The movie scene with Patrick and Courtney sharing a surprising intimate moment over each other's insecurities of their love lives and how broken as individuals they are. Like everything else, it doesn't come up again.
  • "This Is Not An Exit", especially the Broadway version that comes down harder on the "it's all just fantasy" angle, almost makes you feel sorry for Bateman. Almost. Towards the end, he shares a Longing Look with Jean, the one person he at least had any sort of humanity for, and then she fades into black.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Our main protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is a cannibalistic, perverted, sadistic, psychopathic monster who tortures and kills people for his own selfish, petty reasons, and even when he isn't doing those things, he's still an arrogant dick to everyone, and the surrounding characters are all shallow, selfish, uncaring jerks who are just as superficial and unlikable as Patrick, and the story mainly focuses on Patrick engaging in shallow activities and torturing people. With a story as bleak as this, it will be hard for many to read the story without potentially becoming depressed; the film tones down much of the book's content as a result.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The book was published in 1991 but based on the culture of late 80s Wall Street yuppies. The book is an extremely specific Reference Overdosed satire, with some pages having a good dozen or so references to pop culture, fashion, brand-name products, food, locations, and people relevant to the lifestyle being satirized. In fact, the constant '80s references dated the book so heavily that the film adaptation nearly a decade later was made as an intentional period piece.
  • Bateman's music tastes are firmly in what was trendy at the time, such as Phil Collins-era Genesis, with him specifically dismissing more experimental or difficult work. Two chapters are dedicated to Patrick Bateman suddenly inserting a very detailed review of an album immediately after brutally murdering someone. Additionally, many of Bateman's opinions on music were meant to clash with what was acceptable for music fans to like in 1991, but a combination of Popularity Polynomial and changing career paths resulted in many of his preferences becoming commonplace: among others, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, and Talking Heads were heavily rehabilitated in the 2000s and 2010s, while Sting's later career trajectory is widely seen as increasingly middle-of-the-road.
  • From the first chapter, Les Misérables is present in the form of bus ads, discarded playbills floating in the wind, and instrumental versions of songs playing in restaurants as characters try to debate which cast version it is. At the time the book is set, Les Mis was the trendiest Broadway show and getting the rare and expensive tickets was a sign of your wealth and influence. A story set in the mid-to-late 2010s would use Hamilton as the comparative equivalent.
  • The food Bateman eats is a parody of nouvelle cuisine, with unusual combinations of trendy or expensive ingredients in tiny portions for dinners that cost hundreds of dollars. All of the restaurants Bateman visits are either real restaurants that were popular with yuppies at the time or thinly veiled versions of them.
  • Donald Trump is commonly referenced in his pre-politics form as a millionaire businessman that Bateman idolizes. He's so obsessed with Trump and his version of success that he can be distracted by references to him and makes pathetic attempts at claiming to know him and his family (including his then-wife Ivana).
  • Patrick's go-to excuse and alibi is that he needs to return videotapes. Not only have videotapes been completely supplanted by DVDs, but streaming services such as Netflix have rendered movie rental stores obsolete since the early 2010's.
• Values Resonance: A major factor behind the film's reappraisal is how well its portrayal of '80s upper-crust bigotry and class disparity has aged, with the Great Recession and growing awareness of the privileges offered to the upper classes during the 21st century leading the movie to become far better-regarded as an effective critique of American society by the time its 20th anniversary rolled around in 2020.
• Vindicated by History: The film polarized critics when it came out. Its Rotten Tomatoes rating is only 67%, and its Metacritic score is 64; decent, but not stunning. In addition, audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the movie a D. Since then, it's been almost universally recognized as a classic. One can say that, once it hit DVD, the film really came into its own - commercially and artistically. Over time, it also came to be seen as one of the (if not the) definitive Christian Bale performances, overshadowing even his work in The Dark Knight Trilogy.
• Watch It for the Meme:
  • A lot of people watch the movie just for the Huey Lewis and the News speech.
  • As the Memetic Mutation entry shows, the general antics of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman tend to attract viewership, thanks to the reaction images and gifs made from it all.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?:
  • A major theme underlying the film is that the less violent aspects of Bateman's sociopathy are much in line with some of the prevailing right-wing philosophies of The '80s. Of particular note is his insane homophobia and the conversations he and his associates have about how they believe that a straight man can't get AIDS, which was a common belief at the time the novel was set, especially on the right. Bateman himself also makes several references to Ronald Reagan, and how Bateman believes that they're both equally insincere. He also enjoys taunting the homeless (when he isn't killing them) by calling them deadbeats and spouting Reagan-esque "wisdom" at them.
  • There's also Bateman's little speech towards the beginning of both the movie and the book, where he mentions all the "hot button" topics of The '80s, mention how "we need to do this, do that, do this, etc"... while completely failing to even begin explaining how he plans on fixing said problems, mirroring the "feel good" politics of the 80s that (according to their critics) pumped up confidence in America while failing to solve any real problems.
  • Bateman and his circle of "friends" are also extremely shallow, and are completely obsessed with having everything that everyone else they know has, but bigger, better, more expensive, representing 80s consumer culture at its most vapid. The final scene has one of them mention wanting reservations somewhere - not because he's hungry, he just wants to make sure they have reservations to eat somewhere later.
• The Woobie:
  • Jean. Bateman offhandedly insults her outfits several times, and she was obviously waiting for that date with him for years. The date ends sourly especially in the movie adaptation. Also, in the film, she finds his journal with images of murdering/raping women. A scene in the book involves Jean's hesitant admission of love to Bateman. His response is even more tentative because he is unable to explain to her the sheer extent of his sociopathy and depersonalization. This frames just how hopeless her love for him is; Bateman even points this out in his own internal monologue.
  • Christie. After sex, Bateman beats her up so badly that she ends up in the hospital. He seeks her out again, and she's so desperate for the money that she agrees to go to his apartment a second time. She nearly escapes, but dies from an expertly timed chainsaw dropped onto her by Bateman (or is electrocuted with a car battery in the book).

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