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It's funny how some people 'get' certain movies and other people don't, part of the magic & mystery of cinema. There are plenty of films I don't get, but 'American Psycho' is one that hits the target. To me, it aims to skewer 1980's culture of greed and superficiality, when young hotshots made killings in the stock market while measuring their status based on what restaurants they can get into on short notice and the quality of font on their business cards.
Within this environment we are introduced to Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street executive who harbors secret homicidal desires that become increasingly difficult to control. In the first scene Patrick in voiceover describes his daily routine, which leads me to believe the entire movie follows his level of psychology. In reality, Patrick is a major hump: associates commonly confuse him with another broker, he gained his position as CEO simply because his father runs the company, he's trapped in a relationship with a nagging woman who obliviously disregards his opinions, his unattractive mistress is hooked on pills and is in a constant catatonic state, nobody considers him a threat even when his gloved hands are wrapped around the throat of a co-worker, and his taste in cheesy commercial pop music is openly ridiculed. However in the guise of an almost over-the-top Christian Bale, Patrick thinks he is a handsome hotshot, exemplified by his exaggerated posing for the camera as he videotapes his 3-way with a couple prostitutes visibly unimpressed by his status. His world is one of demented fantasy that escalates as his urge to kill grows.
This is not a horror movie - this is a very black comedy, savagely scoring many observational points (a favorite: undermining the common belief that heavy metal music fosters violent behavior) as well as generating a lot of laughter. Some of it comes uneasily, but stage me a scene funnier than Bale running naked down his apartment corridor maniacally waving a chainsaw. If you don't find that funny, then you probably didn't 'get' it. And I bet you won't hear Huey Lewis 'Hip To Be Square' the same way ever again.
