{"id":972600,"date":"2025-03-07T04:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T09:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/?p=972600"},"modified":"2025-03-07T04:14:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T09:14:06","slug":"american-psycho-ending-misunderstood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/movies\/american-psycho-ending-misunderstood\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Years On, American Psycho\u2019s Ending Is Still Misunderstood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Late last year, it was reported that director Luca Guadagnino is <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/film\/news\/american-psycho-remake-luca-guadagnino-1236182608\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">developing a new film<\/a> adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis&#8217; 1991 novel,<em> American Psycho<\/em>. Ellis has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepinknews.com\/2025\/01\/08\/american-psycho-remake-not-happening-bret-easton-ellis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cast doubts<\/a> on that report by suggesting it&#8217;s more of an idea than a committed project, but the news sparked mixed reactions. Guadagnino tackling this relevant text through a modern lens seems appealing, but many argue that director Mary Harron\u2019s 2000 <em>American Psycho<\/em> film doesn\u2019t need a companion.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Harron\u2019s film has aged incredibly well, a strange cloud looms over its legacy. For 25 years, conversations about Harron\u2019s adaptation have been dominated by a debate over its ending. Fans remain eternally divided over whether the events of the film occur largely as they are presented or whether most (if not all of them) are all in protagonist Patrick Bateman\u2019s head.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\r\n\n\t\t<div class=\"ad-dog__cnx-container\"><script id=\"0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796\">\n\t\t\tcnx.cmd.push(function() {\n\t\t\t\tcnx({\n\t\t\t\t\tplayerId: \"106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t}).render(\"0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796\");\n\t\t\t});\n\t\t<\/script><\/div>\n\t\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s bizarre that the <em>American Psycho<\/em> film has succumbed to the simplified fate of its ending debate. Not only was its ending not meant to be nearly as ambiguous as it has become, but that often misunderstood finale feeds into some of <em>American Psycho<\/em>\u2019s most disturbing themes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-it-s-all-in-his-head-theory\">The \u201cIt\u2019s All In His Head\u201d Theory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>American Psycho<\/em> protagonist Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is a yuppie who works as an investment banker by day and commits gruesome murders at night. After a particularly bizarre string of violent incidents, Bateman seemingly confesses his crimes via a message he leaves on his lawyer\u2019s answering machine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as Bateman wanders the aftermath of his supposed spree, he finds that nothing is quite as it seems. The realtor selling one of his victim\u2019s apartments denies the home was recently the scene of a crime. Bateman\u2019s lawyer not only treats his message like a joke but insists that he recently had dinner with one of Bateman\u2019s high-profile victims. All the while, Bateman continues seeing and hearing increasingly bizarre, seemingly impossible things as those around him insist that he\u2019s too square to have done such horrible things.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That finale forms the basis of the \u201cit\u2019s all in his head\u201d interpretation of the material. Those around Bateman appear to offer compelling evidence that he could not have done those things, and the nature of Bateman\u2019s final spree is absurd. He blows up cars with a pistol and evades the entire NYPD. In the movie, an ATM tells him to feed it a stray cat. In the book, he watches a Cheerio be interviewed on TV.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who subscribe to that interpretation argue that Bateman is a privileged, pathetic young man whose hollow life has led him to fantasize about acts of violence largely inspired by the shallow media he consumes. It\u2019s a theory that is not only seemingly supported by the text but is that kind of \u201caha!\u201d revelation that seems so clever that it makes some feel stupid for believing anything else.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only problem with that otherwise fascinating theory is that it\u2019s wrong. At the very least, it\u2019s a simplified reading of the events of the story that historically diminishes some of its most important and fascinating themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-american-psycho-s-overlooked-themes-tell-the-true-story-nbsp\">American Psycho\u2019s Overlooked Themes Tell The True Story&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>American Psycho<\/em>\u2019s most consistent theme is \u201cidentity.\u201d Specifically, it asks how one can forge and maintain a distinct identity in a capitalist culture where the consumption of the same media, fashion, food, and brands drives people to turn themselves into roughly the same version of the people they believe they should be.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s that theme that helps explain many events that otherwise seem inexplicable. When characters claim to have had lunch with one of Bateman\u2019s victims, they seem to be confused about who they met. In the movie (and especially in the book), people often confuse one person in Bateman\u2019s world for somebody else. Even elements of their lives that are designed to identify them (such as their famous business cards) are hilariously similar to many eyes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest tell comes when Bateman visits his victim\u2019s apartment. The realtor catches Bateman in a lie when she asks if he read about a listing in <em>The New York Times<\/em> that doesn\u2019t exist. However, she asks that he simply leave and never come back. The strong implication is that she knows there has been a murder, suspects Bateman knows more than he should about it, but would greatly prefer that this whole thing be swept under the rug so that she can sell a recently cleaned luxury apartment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>American Psycho<\/em> observes and often criticizes the kind of world that enables a murderer like Patrick Bateman to get away with it all. As a handsome white man of means, he can always blend in. Those inside that world are either indifferent or focused more on themselves. Those outside of it are rarely offered a look inside and can hardly afford to take a closer second look.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bateman himself seems frustrated by the idea that all of this is as easy as it seems to be. He can use violent language because the people around him all see themselves as sharks with chainsaws. He can murder women (especially sex workers) because society tells him that they\u2019re ultimately not bothered that much by such violence. He tries to conceal the murder of someone more like himself, but even that effort proves to be superfluous. It turns out charging someone modern market price for an apartment is more valuable than making a big deal out of a tenant\u2019s death.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To be clear, Bateman almost certainly seems to suffer a break from reality around the time that ATMs start asking for cats and he\u2019s murdering en masse. Patrick Bateman actor Christian Bale described the process as going from \u201cpsychopath to psychotic.\u201d Those events likely did not occur exactly as we saw them, though they do not necessarily negate what we saw before. They instead emphasize the idea that the real and imagined murders are ultimately interchangeable if they are committed by the right kind of person in a world that is ultimately indifferent. Mind you, that\u2019s not simply a read of the film. It\u2019s what those who crafted the story have long tried to preach to people who wouldn\u2019t listen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-american-psycho-s-director-and-creator-have-made-their-intentions-clear\">American Psycho\u2019s Director and Creator Have Made Their Intentions Clear<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>American Psycho<\/em> director Mary Harron has always been clear about her feelings towards the alternate interpretation of her movie. In an <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/mary-harron-failed-american-psycho\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interview with Charlie Rose<\/a> (which Ellis and Bale joined), Harron describes the movie\u2019s ending as a \u201cfailure\u201d that resulted in \u201cpeople keep coming out of this film thinking that it\u2019s all a dream.\u201d While she and screenwriter Guinevere Turner intended to retain the ambiguity of Ellis&#8217; work, she says that \u201cI just got the emphasis wrong\u2026it makes it look like it was all in his head. And as far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Turner expanded on that sentiment <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/american-psycho-ending-explained-by-writers-mary-harron-guinevere-turner\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">by simply stating<\/a> \u201cWe didn\u2019t think that everything was real because some of it is literally surreal. But we just decided, together, that we both really disliked movies where the big reveal is that it was all in someone\u2019s head or it was all a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>American Psycho<\/em> author Bret Easton Ellis has historically emphasized the story\u2019s surreal elements and the doubt they cast on Bateman\u2019s reliability as a narrator. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortlist.com\/news\/the-bret-easton-ellis-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a 2010 interview<\/a>, Ellis said of Bateman\u2019s murderers that &#8220;I was always on the fence about whether they were fantasy or real. I don\u2019t know and I prefer it that way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ellis has said that Harron\u2019s movie \u201ctries to have it both ways by suggesting that [it\u2019s real] and it wasn\u2019t.\u201d He mostly likes the adaptation but suggests that the story fundamentally doesn\u2019t \u201creally work as a film\u201d and is \u201cunadaptable because it\u2019s about consciousness.\u201dHe believes that\u2019s why the movie \u201cconfused a lot of people.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the ambiguity regarding certain events and themes in <em>American Psycho<\/em> was always there (LA Times reviewer Henry Bean brought up the idea that the murders never occurred in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1991-03-17-bk-622-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1991 review of the book<\/a>), that broader \u201cit\u2019s all a dream\u201d interpretation seems to have gained steam when the movie was released. And while it is incredibly difficult to adapt such a cerebral novel into a movie (<em>Lolita<\/em> famously ran into a similar problem), the reaction to <em>American Psycho<\/em> touches upon a more unique and often more insidious trend in modern movie history.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-american-psycho-s-misunderstood-ending-teaches-us\">What American Psycho\u2019s Misunderstood Ending Teaches Us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s remarkable to see which elements of the <em>American Psycho<\/em> movie have had the most lasting impact on popular culture. Christian Bale\u2019s performance practically won him the Batman role (specifically, that of Bruce Wayne). That aforementioned scene with the exchange of the business cards has become a prolific meme. Bret Easton Ellis has tried to distance himself from the idea that <em>American Psycho <\/em>contributed to a style known as \u201cserial killer chic:\u201d a phrase the Wall Street Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/american-psycho-the-musical-review-serial-killer-chic-1461285000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">even used to describe<\/a> the truly bizarre <em>American Psycho: The Musical<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While many cerebral, perspective-driven works are often simplified when they are consumed and processed by a mass audience, it\u2019s telling that <em>American Psycho<\/em> has been adopted as an unlikely piece of \u201cbro\u201d media. Like <em>Fight Club<\/em>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/movies\/the-wolf-of-wall-street-review-2\/\">The Wolf of Wall Street<\/a><\/em>, <em>Breaking Bad<\/em>, <em>Taxi Driver<\/em>, and more, it offers a clear condemnation of toxic masculinity and the world that toxicity results in. Time and time again, though, we see viewers (often young men) idealize the central figures of those works. If they are not simply ignorant to the themes of those stories, they consider them irrelevant compared to the primal allure of their central figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s especially frustrating and darkly funny that <em>American Psycho<\/em> has joined that pantheon. Patrick Bateman\u2019s rambling monologues about the artistic merits of the most basic forms of pop culture (many of which he seems to have stolen from some magazine or newspaper) reveal his shallowness and inability to become the individual he claims he desires to be. Yet, the story that Patrick Bateman stars in has since been widely misinterpreted by a contingent whose arguments often echo existing theories despite all evidence that contradicts them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that is what makes the \u201cit\u2019s all a dream\u201d interpretation of <em>American Psycho<\/em>\u2019s ending so frustrating. It\u2019s not that it\u2019s entirely invalid. It even ties into certain themes of the story.&nbsp; But when you track that interpretation\u2019s rise in popularity and realize it coincides with the rise of <em>American Psycho<\/em>\u2019s \u201cserial killer chic\u201d legacy, it\u2019s hard not to see it as another example of simplifying the story\u2019s most complex concepts in service of celebrating Patrick Bateman\u2019s \u201ccoolness.\u201d It\u2019s a lot easier to justify the idealization of a character if they only <em>wished <\/em>to commit murder. A popular online argument for that theory even argues that we\u2019ve \u201call had those kinds of thoughts.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or maybe the joke is on the rest of us. Maybe the mass adoption of the \u201call in his head\u201d theory proves the book\u2019s deeper, subtler, and often lost themes right. Isn\u2019t that what people tell Bateman when he tries to confess to his crimes? What could justify the book&#8217;s themes more than the idea of Patrick Bateman writing a tell-all about his deeds that is then turned into a movie only to have people dismiss his crimes as fantasy as they celebrate his charisma, hair, taste in music, and those wonderful white business cards?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s what makes the prospect of a modern <em>American Psycho<\/em> interpretation so fascinating and potentially frustrating. Such an adaptation could indeed help undo decades of damage. It could find a way to not only showcase the relevance of the story for the modern era but address those who widely misinterpreted it as they embraced Patrick Bateman\u2019s most superficial qualities.&nbsp; Then again, maybe we\u2019re past all of that. When you consider where the world is at, maybe it all was an American Dream.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>American Psycho is streaming now on Prime Video and Hulu in the US, and on Netflix in the UK.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Late last year, it was reported that director Luca Guadagnino is developing a new film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis&#8217; 1991 novel, American Psycho. Ellis has cast doubts on that report by suggesting it&#8217;s more of an idea than a committed project, but the news sparked mixed reactions. Guadagnino tackling this relevant text through a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":126803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"dog_exclude_from_homepage":false,"dog_do_not_display_featured_image":false,"dog_external_link":"","dog_product_price":0,"dog_product_button_label":"Buy 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This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>25 Years On, American Psycho\u2019s Ending Is Still Misunderstood | Den of Geek<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The debate over American Psycho\u2019s ending reveals a lot about the movie&#039;s broader cultural impact.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/movies\/american-psycho-ending-misunderstood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"25 Years On, American Psycho\u2019s Ending Is Still Misunderstood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The debate over American Psycho\u2019s ending reveals a lot about the movie&#039;s broader cultural impact.\u00a0\" 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