Rish Outfield's reviews
Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), a soulless Wall Street tycoon by day and conscience-less monster by night, occupies his time with cold Eighties materialism and even colder-blooded murder.
I found this film wholly unpleasant. After seeing this film, tyranist and I talked for a minute. The first thing I asked him was "How long did you shower when you got home?" I found it perverse and nauseating. But hey, that's just me.
Bale's character is a horrible human being, truly horrible. Even more than the murder and sexual predatorism, I found Bateman's day-to-day activities the most disturbing (conversations around the tables, the stuff he put in his hair, the chat at the parties). It made me sad and embarrassed for our society. But terribly, I was a bit jealous of him. This is one of those movies I hope the aliens that investigate our planet DON'T find after we wipe ourselves out.
I can't really put into words what I felt. I did not enjoy the film, but not for usual reasons. It was well-made, well-acted, etc. but I just found no joy in it. I think that may have been its aim, and in that case, it was successful.
Best Scare: I'd say that the best traditional scare would be when a severed head showed up in the refrigerator, but what I found most creepy was just how soulless and inhuman all the young bastards were.

The tyranist's thoughts
It seems like every year has at least one over-hyped horror movie that comes out of the independent or just plain under-funded ranks. The year 1999 had The Blair Witch Project, which you can probably tell we didn't like much. Now the year 2000 has this. American Psycho. It wasn't the box-office success that Blair Witch was, but it certainly had a hype machine behind it. Too bad. I didn't like this one either.
My dislike for this one comes back to a problem with the plot. If you are going to read the skulls below, this will be given away anyway so don't feel to betrayed by what I am about to spoil for you. After investing a ton of effort in the movie, things like trying to like characters and trying to respect off-screen gore, the ending undoes everything. Suddenly, this psychopath that I have come to know, is not really a psychopath, but just a pretty imaginative guy having a nervous break down. Nobody's dead. Not a single murder has been committed. He hasn't just gone on a shooting rampage. Nothing. And that is how I felt. Betrayed. After trying really hard to like the movie, they took it all away. That is why this gets two skulls for "It's All A Dream" Ending.
Christian Bale did a fantastic job. I hated his character and I think that is what I was supposed to do. I really liked Chloe Sevigny and wish that a little more development had happened there. Reese Witherspoon was wasted.
Perhaps the highlight of the film was the 80's setting. Ah, the days of corporate decadence. They have truly left us.