Fifteen years ago American cinema screens were hacked and sliced by the black comedy American Psycho. I didn’t see the flick until it came out on DVD. I watched it at a friend’s house in St. Louis and it’s still the only time that I immediately re-watched a film as soon as it ended.
The movie’s splatter film aesthetics are subverted by it’s anti-capitalist messaging, but the best part is that throughout all the slaughter and kinky sex this movie is totally hilarious. At the middle of all of this juggling is a brilliant performance by Christian Bale, supported by great turns from Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto and Reese Witherspoon.
The central mystery of the film revolves around its subjective reality: Is Bateman really a psycho killer or does he just imagine himself to be? It should come as no surprise that the making of the film was nearly as odd and and full of unexpected twists as what ended-up on screen. Uproxx has gathered some of the evidence…
The movie was originally going to be in black and white and rated X. Ellis’ novel was getting the attention of Hollywood as far back as 1991, when it was slated to be directed by Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator). Gordon had tapped young heart-throb Johnny Depp to star as Bateman and planned to shoot the movie in black and white and stick as close to the book’s graphic violence as possible. This would have meant the dreaded X-rating, and the project fell through. It bounced around to David Cronenberg with Brad Pitt starring before eventually landing at Lions Gate with Mary Harron directing.
Willem Dafoe shot each of his scenes three different ways. In order to create some mystery about how much Detective Kimball knew about Patrick Bateman, Dafoe acted out each of his scenes in three different ways. Dafoe would say his lines under the premise that his character knew that Bateman killed Paul Allen, then like his character didn’t know he killed him, and finally, as if his character was unsure if Bateman was involved with Paul Allen’s disappearance. The various scenes were then edited to together to give the audience an unsure feeling of how much Detective Kimball really knew.
Timothy Bryce’s business card has a typo. Bateman may not have the nicest business card in the group, but at least his doesn’t have any typos. Look closely at Timothy Bryce’s card, and you’ll notice that “acquisitions” is spelled incorrectly.
Check out the Uproxx link above for more insights into the making of the flick. Also, be sure to watch this selection of deleted scenes and interviews for more insights into this classic…
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