Analysing 'American Psycho' - The Yuppie Serial Killer

The psychological thriller genre has always been my favourite of them all. There has always been a different representation of psychopathy in each film and it has never failed to catch my attention. In this video essay, I break down Mary Harron's classic 'American Psycho' (2000). I analyse the Yuppie Culture, breakdown some iconic scenes, give my thoughts on the ambiguous ending. Essentially, my aim is to explain why it is a perfect example of a psychological thriller and how it manages to explore human perception and unstable character development, all of which answers the question: what makes a serial killer?
INSTAGRAM: / thisiszohair_yt
TWITTER: / thisiszohair
I do not own any of the footage or music used in this video; I am using all of this under fair use and most importantly for entertainment.
Music: / audiolibrary

[@nikauloscollins3984]

Let’s see Paul Allen’s analysis of Patrick Bateman.

[@zacharygregory4925]

Oh my god, it even has a watermark

[@traysutherland8491]

He's alright. Is that a raincoat?

[@tootiredtostop1606]

(0 0)

[@alainthegenus1656]

Lmao lol

[@JamietheEmperor]

Yes that's what it means

[@quattrobajeena135]

Patrick def offed Paul. The Lawyer didn’t even know who Patrick was his own client. He probably thought he had dinner with Paul

[@thisiszohair]

🔪🔪

[@reignman4]

Yep he killed Paul and his Dad probably covered it up to preserve his family’s rep.

[@legendary2553]

The lawyer was doing his job

[@legendary2553]

He created a defense for bateman

[@thawedantarctican2171]

As @legendary said, he created a defense. If you REALLY look at the lawyer's facial change from behind when Patrick is saying "No, you didn't", you can see him give a raised eyebrow, as to say "I'm giving you an alibi. Shut the fuck up."

[@dsweetestkitty1527]

The reason no one questioned his murders is because if it doesn’t benefit them they simply don’t care especially if it would harm their image I think it’s shown best in the book when there’s a wanted poster of Bateman and instead of a cab driver turning him in he steals his Rolex because there’s no cash reward for turning him in

[@thisiszohair]

🤐 🤐

[@miaserna9096]

Ohh now ur making me want to read the book

[@dsweetestkitty1527]

@@miaserna9096 If you do read it I suggest listening to the audiobook along with it because it really helps paint the scene especially when he goes into 3 page-long descriptions ab what he’s wearing or other materialistic things it also helps with pronunciations of designer brands you might not know

[@thefamousbluelime]

About taking off that facemask in one go, what makes it even more impressive is that the director was worried about them having to do it over, and then Christian Bale did it in the first take.

[@thisiszohair]

🤯🤯

[@ericmartinez1665]

🐐

[@Rapid1453]

the director herself regrets the ambiguity at the end, she says she never meant to give the impression that it wasnt real, that it was all in patrick's head

[@PhantomCooper]

In the book all the wall street guys are constantly confusing each other for other people, that's why detective Kimble and Patrick's lawyer thought they saw Paul alive. Thinking that everything is just in Patrick's head is missing the bigger point that the book and film are trying to make about how capitalism not only creates people like Bateman, but also a homogenous society where everyone looks and acts the same. Where real estate agents will try to cover up that a murder happened in an apartment so that it doesn't lower the property value. It's not that Patrick didn't commit all those murders, it's just that the world around him doesn't care. at least that's what I took away from the movie.

[@senpaizac4687]

Fun fact: the mask wasn't supposed to come down in one piece, it just happend when they shot the scene

[@thisiszohair]

So satisfying to watch

[@newhybrid101]

He is simply.Not.There

[@timmyrohan1731]

Notice when the camera cuts to Patrick getting in the taxi, 26:40 there is NO trail of blood

[@thisiszohair]

🤯🤯🤯

[@123cillitbang]

Oops😅 Good catch!

[@davidmacy6167]

Huh I didn't know what channel I was watching when I clicked on this video. I thought you had tens of thousands of subs and that this video was a few hundred thousand views as I was watching it. I didn't realize this was a underrated video until I finished watching it. Keep it up man.

[@thisiszohair]

Wow thank you mate, I appreciate the kind words, more content to come

[@tb.7788]

i don’t think the calling out the anti semitic remark was to fit in. i mean it was literally the opposite of fitting in no one else felt that the comment was uncalled for. anyways let’s see paul allen’s anti semitic remark

[@Aquilaris]

I feel like he was just wanted to virtue signal, without truly believing in the ideas he espoused, as was the case with a posterior scene, of him making a speech calling for an end to all the so-called "injustices" of their times.

[@thisiszohair]

well said!

[@RedMartyr]

The lone chemist made a good point about collective identity. thats the reason why everyone looks like everyone else. Im surprised that their business card even says their own names on them- they should all say Goldman Sachs lol (Have to add- when youre "rich" people dont ask questions. they clean up that blood trail lickity split in fear of being sued.)

[@thisiszohair]

Oh my god it even has a watermark...

[@NeonPixels81]

Patrick definitely killed Paul - the director herself confirmed it accidentally. Everything in the film actually happened. It's a commentary on how literally everyone in the film in Patrick's world is more concerned with their own pocketbook than moral or ethical concerns. - The Real Estate agent: A murder in an upscale apartment that she's trying to sell would reduce the price dramatically. It's highlighted many times in the film that reputation and image are everything. Selling a "murder apartment" would be nearly impossible among the clientele that could afford it. It's extremely clear that by the end of their interaction, the Agent knows who Bateman is, knows he's the killer, and just doesn't care as long as it doesn't impact her sale. There's also some symbolism here - as she decides she "doesn't know who he is", she steps backwards from the hallway light into a shadow, which the director commented on. - His lawyer: Two things - one, it's made clear that everyone in Patrick's world is interchangeable, they're all good looking, wealthy white dudes that even wear the same designer suits, glasses, etc. His lawyer may genuinely believe that he had dinner with Allen, might have sat through an entire week of dinners and, because everyone talks past one another, it just never came up that he wasn't dining with Paul Allen. Plus we see that even Bateman won't correct anyone until the very end, because he's afraid it'll affect his chances at a promotion. There are more examples but these are the big two. He definitely did everything the film depicts. It's not a fantasy, it's not an illusion, and that's what makes it even more terrifying - preserving the "status quo" is far more important to everyone in this world than even human life.

[@InsertName159]

Even Bateman going on a shooting spree and blowing up a police car with just a glock 17 was real?

[@NeonPixels81]

@@InsertName159 According to the director, yessir. My thinking was that some of the more fanciful things were him having psychotic breaks, but the director claims otherwise.

[@InsertName159]

@@NeonPixels81 I guess at the end of the day it's just Hollywood logic of course

[@perryjohnson6461]

What about when he yells at the bartender that’s she’s a stupid bitch, but she acts as if he just stood there and smiled or when the entrance to the apartment reads, “Feed me the stray cat”? These things seem to me to suggest he has hallucinations, not to mention that he takes medication just before apparently killing Pail Allen. Why would he take medication when clearly in a state in which he wants to kill someone? If there are two sides of Bateman, why would the one who wants to kill still take medication, that is likely an antipsychotic?

[@newhybrid101]

In the film its obvious it didn't happen

[@ZodiacBoi42]

What scares me most about the movie is the fact that it is so realistic, I mean they just caught that architect in Florida, it’s scary.

[@channdler]

This is a fantastic Video man

[@a.walters123]

The reality at the end of this film still leaves me wondering, despite watching it multiple times and seeking out explanation analyses. The director adamantly insisted that Patrick Bateman did not have a break with reality and did not imagine the murder aspects of the movie, however the author neither confirmed or denied it and saying it was deliberately ambiguous with no answer, almost as if he himself did not decide one way or another. Many impossible things occur towards the end which suggest a psychotic episode so severe there is a full break with reality. The fact that the ATM demands that he feeds it a cat, the fact that he has impossible aim and able to kill every single person he shoots from a distance. He is able to blow up a police car and then stares at the gun in confusion and wonderment. We know he is taking prescription likely for some serious mental issue. At the same time, there’s small moments of confirmation, like the real estate agent who is very disturbed when he lies about the ad in the paper, and talks as if she knows what he’s done. Also, his “lawyer” and his reaction. There’s videos on KZbin which analyze the character and movie as a whole, but I haven’t found a video that analyzes the possible false reality in a thorough way.

[@darialalik3545]

YOU LEGEND 😌 love this sm

[@Aquilaris]

This is an excellent video. Very well done!

[@thisiszohair]

wow thank you so much!

[@mocdartens8969]

Really enjoyed this analysis! Keep it up!

[@thisiszohair]

Thank you!

[@gghostin]

This is good stuff dude👍

[@thisiszohair]

Thank you mate, much appreciated!

[@damianstarks3338]

Awesome/perfect analysis.

[@proera47]

love from new york great video man

[@thisiszohair]

Thank you so much! Always wanted to visit NY ☺️ look forward to more content, my Instagram: @thisiszohair

[@proera47]

@@thisiszohair you should come out here it’s great food and different cultures and going to visit your page and give a follow right now

[@nu-metalfan2654]

There is a very thin line between Thriller and Horror that often can get blurry. Movies like American Psycho, Misery, Seven, Shutter Island, Silence Of The Lambs, Psycho, The Shining, and Jacob’s Ladder all fall closer to the Horror side. I mean I guess you could call them Chillers, I think the term Chiller could possibly be better. A pure Thriller would be movies like Along Came A Spider, Enemy, Prisoners, The Game, Gone Girl, Eyes Wide Shut, Kiss The Girls, Zodiac, Fight Club, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Memento, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Basic Instinct, Cape Fear, Primal Fear, Single White Female, The Bone Collecter, and 8MM, when I think of pure Thriller those movies immediately come to mind.

[@thisiszohair]

there's a bunch on this that i really want to see!

[@steveballinger9643]

Great video! Defoe doesn’t arrest him, there’s no bloodbath in his former apartment and Paul Alan lives! We live in Patrick’s world and it’s awful

[@thisiszohair]

🙌❤️

[@heikkijhautanen4576]

Bale really does his best role here!!!

[@leviathan_is_me]

The movie, while wonderful in what it is. Is still quite flawed in doing the book justice. The book leans more toward a series as opposed to a movie. The book drags, and is considered "boring" while sprinkled with high tension violence. The book makes it perfectly clear he knows as much about firearms as he does Genisis albums. He is very well practiced as well. I could drone on, I'll end here though.

[@thisiszohair]

need to read the book!

[@leviathan_is_me]

@@thisiszohair find a good audiobook reading of it, it helps tremendously. The book is a difficult read. Not technically, it is just VERY dull and drags a lot. Hearing it from someone else let's you really visually focus instead of eventually reading monotone through the PAGES of descriptions of appetizers and why a cummerbund is a totally acceptable accessory only if the suit is........ugh.

[@ginny-wp9gv]

Love it!!! 😍

[@DeathStarU.S.A]

HEY PAUL!

[@elidavis6728]

Great vid

[@thisiszohair]

🙌❤️🔥

[@operator7209]

Awesome

[@MySerpentine]

I love how pleased Patrick is when Paul Allen points out that he's wearing a raincoat. Like 'holy shit somebody actually noticed something I was doing.'

[@ZodiacBoi42]

My theory is that ultimately Patrick DID kill people, perhaps not Paul, but I think the music represents the times he walks to work everyday, headphones in. I like to think that he envisions killing at that time in his day, sick and frustrated with his life, and as he slowly devolves more into madness it either becomes a reality or will. I think almost every time a death occurs 80s music is playing, so therefore, maybe the lines become blurred by his imagination and reality. By the end he can no longer tell the difference

[@evn556]

Nice analysis 👍

[@thisiszohair]

Thank you so much Evan! Just uploaded a Harry Potter Narrative Essay earlier today, stay tuned for more content

[@Apvizionz]

Anyone else think Patrick also looks a little aroused when he sees Paul's card?

[@alexvignolo7798]

The realtor did what realtors do: maximize commission. The lawyer did what lawyers do: lie on behalf of guilty clients. The film is absolutely a statement about society. And what it does to the individuals who will lay themselves 100% at it’s feet.

[@bubblebobble9654]

My personal interpretation (and the director can disagree, idgaf though) is it was all our almost all in his head. That's exactly what's so scary about it

[@Saphkey]

The movie is a story told by Patrick Bateman. It is his his "confession". Early on in the movie, Patrick tells us that he has murderous cravings during the night. He tells us that his "nightly bloodlust has overflowed into his days". This can be interpreted as meaning that his daydreaming and nightly dreaming is blending in with the activities he does before going to bed. This means Bateman can no longer fully discern between which late activities were dreams and which were reality. He no longer knows which of his murderous dreams are real of just dreams. We can't explain away the bloody sheets as just a dream. Giving them to the cleaners happens during lunchtime, it would not be a dream. So Bateman is definitely doing murders. He is however no longer able to tell which murders are real, and which were a dream. We are given several examples that definitely were dreams. Like last one where the ATM asks for a kitty, and Bateman explodes an entire car with a pistol . Asking whether or not Bateman actually killed Paul, is something that we can't really know, because: Bateman doesn't know himself who he has and has not killed. He doesn't know which murders were a dream and which were real. His lawyer could for example either 1. be lying about having dinner with Paul in London in order to feign ignorance and subtly tell Bateman that it is a bad idea to be confessing such a crime. or 2. the lawyer actually had dinner in London with Paul, and the murder of Paul was actually one of his dreams. Regardless of which it is, Bateman does not himself *know* which of these examples are true.

[@buckyhate7695]

On the music topic; I always found it ironic, that Patrick killed Paul while listening to Huey Lewis, and pretty much reciting a glowing review of Fore (and Hip To Be Square, in particular). In a later scene, Patrick says that he doesn't like Huey Lewis' music, saying that Huey sounds "Too black" for his taste. It kinda speaks to his overall hypocrisy.

[@reesearoni4606]

22:59 lol I agree

[@thisiszohair]

thank you!

[@McWzy]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@CMStrawbridge]

Either he DID kill Paul because his lawyer surely *thought* he had dinner with Paul in London 10 days ago but didn't, OR he really didn't kill PAUL because HE made the same mistake everyone else had been making the whole movie and killed the wrong guy. The "Paul" that he actually killed didn't correct him the same reason Patrick didn't correct him about his identity earlier. That would explain why the realtor would claim no one named Paul ever lived there. This mistake not only makes him doubt reality, but shows how really not different from the rest he really is

[@marionmarino1616]

Interesting. Gotta mention how absolutely perfect Bane is in this role.

[@timmyrohan1731]

I would have like to see them film the scene from the book, where he kills a gay man with a dog and leaves his bracelet. Wonder why that wasn't in the movie

[@aether4452]

yeah

[@leviathan_is_me]

Simply, it wasn't needed. The movie has a run time and a company to please. Doing this scene, while an integral look at Batemans insanity and lack of any humanity, would simply lessen the audiences opinion of Bateman. The movie does a great job at presenting him as a killer, however by not showing his killings in any sort of detail, and not directly, it keeps most watchers..for lack of better term "on Batemans side". The killings (and sexual acts) aren't in the movie so the audience doesn't leave it. Why watch a movie about someone THAT disturbed? Not many would (we would). Sadly, it's about butts in seats and money at the end of the day.

[@rastrats]

It's because we need to show social concern, support minority rights, particularly women (and by implication, gays) and end apartheid; and be less materialistic.

[@thisiszohair]

would've been cool i guess but yes, very well said!

[@apexjailor9349]

He mentions killing a gay man with a dog in his confession on the phone

[@newhybrid101]

Hey Paul!

[@FOREVERxFORNEVER]

Now lets see Paul Allen's analysis video

[@restinpeace9928]

Can’t watch this video, I’ve got an 8:30 at Dorsia

[@Jezuzstix]

Whats a friller

[@johnmack777]

I thought everyone is actually crazy and covering for each other

[@thisiszohair]

🤐

[@Noname-oq9mk]

Love from INDIA

[@thisiszohair]

thank you!

[@shaunsamazingcontent9797]

Dude I can’t find your Instagram

[@thisiszohair]

instagram.com/thisiszohair_yt?igshid=n718r3g2oyy5

[@shaunsamazingcontent9797]

@@thisiszohair followed you right away man

[@shaunsamazingcontent9797]

I have a movie you can review “andhadhun” and “Awe!” First is hindi and second is Tamil but both are awesome

[@marissajohnston8977]

He fell in love, genius.

[@laurencemichelle6132]

There's millions of these murderous idiots in suits irl, also refered to as the (soon extinct) swamp. I do feel sad for these people driven to such madness though. It is a hard world and some people take on really difficult roles when coming here. Maybe that's why they have no empathy. They could not play the part.

[@somethingsmells5387]

No Exit

[@Daniel-nb3kk]

Did you know I'm utterly insane?

[@brendanmuller7301]

Don't forget, Patrick Bateman is literally me.

[@PabloEscobar-gt8ob]

You wasted more than five minutes explaining intro

[@mp-xs7th]

how ..how do you do that...hahahah

[@donjulio8669]

Potato pancakes 🤣🤣🤣

[@Victor-Vargas]

Not gonna lie, it should NEVER take 4 minutes for anyone to get to the topic of the video.

[@xStarblazer]

I hate these “analysis” videos. They’re all exactly the same and add nothing new or interesting into the mix that you can’t get from the other 15 analysis videos.

[@Pwov]

How does his routine sequences offer a message of femininity? I disagree.

[@thisiszohair]

Seeing as the movie is based on the novel which was released in 1991, back in those times, the skincare routine sequence would offer a message of femininity. Obviously times are different now though!

[@Pwov]

@@thisiszohair Okay that makes sense.

[@mar4oz]

All of the murders are in his imagination. But it’s cool watching play out in his head.

[@ShellShock11C]

"It represents toxic masculinity!" In a movie made before the concept....

[@joedent3323]

That was great 😊

[@playbackproductions1]

My dad directed this movie. Fun fact: Michael Jackson was considered for the part of paul allen but turned down the role because he thought he'd start getting confused for Tony curtis and start losing dancing gigs

[@cuubezzz]

Your dad is a woman? What's honestly the point of just lying for no reason on the internet.

[@derekcb123]

🤣🤣🤣

[@playbackproductions1]

@@cuubezzz yea, i guess you've never heard of the word "pseudonym" before... grow up child

[@absinthe-minded6089]

It makes sense that Bateman videos would attract lying narcissists.

[@playbackproductions1]

@@absinthe-minded6089 i know! Cuubezzz really thought she knew my dad's business! WTF???

[@RJN95jacf]

You're too politically correct bringing up that thing of "toxic masculinity" and narcissism when is actually the egotistical behavior of almost any women these days, c'mon you can do better

[@justmeeagainn]

I barely made it to 2:30. This is the most boring video I’ve ever tried to watch.

[@thisiszohair]

okay i'll try improve!

[@muffinman145]

Unbelievably boring and uninspired

[@PrinceAliTheGreatest]

How so?

[@BlueFieldGamer]

Hey Paul!

[@thisiszohair]

Hey Paul!