Netflix Controversial R-Rated Adaptation Is A Horror Comedy Masterpiece

In American Psycho, the titular psycho is Patrick Bateman, an investment banker who seems to have it all: a great job, a great girl, and a great apartment.

That doesn’t keep him from constantly comparing his life to the rest of the yuppies in his inner circle by day, but by night, he becomes a serial killer who stalks the streets of New York City with an immunity only afforded to the ultra-rich.

If you’ve never seen it, you’ll likely be amazed American Psycho‘s stacked cast. Chloë Sevigny plays Bateman’s secretary, and Reese Witherspoon plays his fiancée, while Jared Leto plays his intracompany rival, and Willem Dafoe plays a police investigator who might end our protagonist’s reign of terror.

Nobody can hold a candle to Christian Bale who imbues Bateman with a smooth charm that perfectly masks the unrestrained rage just beneath the surface.

The original American Psycho novel by Brett Easton Ellis isn’t exactly a laugh riot…the novel is an engaging examination of the intersection between capitalism, culture, and carnage, but its blood-soaked pages aren’t likely to make you smile, much less guffaw.

However, the film adaptation knows when to lose itself in Bateman’s psychosis, whether he’s privately freaking out about a colleague’s business card in public or executing an annoying coworker right after giving his review of a Huey Lewis and the News album.

None of this lessens the extremely graphic violence, but the moments of dark comedy bring us intimately inside the mindset of this cinematic monster. 

While the script is tight and the cast is wonderfully talented, much of the credit for American Psycho’s brilliance goes to director and co-writer Mary Harron.

She took what was once considered an unfilmable novel and transformed it into one of the most transcendent films in horror history, one with lasting cultural resonance.

Honestly, it’s a tragedy that Harron didn’t tackle many more horror films, but we can see more of her bloody brilliance on display in her films The Moth Diaries and Charlie Says.

Creating a film as controversially gonzo as American Psycho was quite the risk, but it paid off: against a budget of only $7 million, the movie went on to earn $34.3 million.

While audiences liked it more than critics, the film currently has a critical rating of 68 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics generally praised the movie for its expert blend of comedy and horror and for the career-making performance of Christian Bale.

For my part, I’m happy to give the film 4 out of 5 stars. It doesn’t entirely stick the landing in trying to adapt the surprise ending of the novel, but the film as a whole is full of quotable moments and creatively violent scenes.

Moreover, the movie has been out for over two decades and holds up shockingly well, which is likely why it still has such a revered place in meme culture (just ask anyone who ironically–or worse yet, seriously–portrays future Batman Patrick Bateman as their idealized “Sigma male” role model).

In short, I’ve been a big fan of Christian Bale since the release of his 2000 film, American Psycho. Before that, I really didn’t understand any of his work…too artsy, too intellectual. It was in American Psycho that Bale’s presence became more apparent, and you should stream it on Netflix today.

I mean, what else were you going to do, put on a Genesis album?

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