Summary
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of murder, violence, and sexual assault.
Bret Easton Ellis’American Psychois widely regarded as one of the most graphic, disturbing, and violent books ever written, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that many details were either left out or completely ignored in the cinematic adaptation.Starring Christian Baleas slick investment banker and cold-blooded sociopath Patrick Bateman, the movie received generally positive reviews – with particular praise devoted to Bale’s performance. However, for all its strengths,American Psychocouldn’t include everything featured in the novel.
Despite some necessary changes,both theAmerican Psychobook and moviefollow broadly similar stories. The plot follows Bateman as he navigates the materialistic, superficial, consumerist world of yuppie culture in the mid-to-late 1980s. While the protagonist maintains a veneer of respectability and social conformity, he constantly struggles against inner demons that compel him to commit horrific and violent acts. Many of the movie’s scenes are disturbing in their own right. However, despite pushing some boundaries, there is a clear divide between the Mary Harron film and its source material.
10The American Psycho Movie Changes Bateman’s First Murder
It’s Much More Upsetting In The Book
Exactly when Patrick Bateman’s killing spree begins is unclear. Although there is a canonical first murder in both the movie and novel,it’s strongly implied that this isn’t Bateman’s first act of violence(hinted at in the film through Bateman’s inability to clean bloody bedsheets). However, while both versions of the story feature a pivotal and fatal encounter with a homeless man named Al at the start of the violence, the two interpretations are very different.
American Psychois available to rent on Apple TV+.
In the movie, Patrick Bateman taunts Al before stabbing him to death and killing his dog for good measure. The random callousness of the violence is deeply distressing. However,it pales in comparison to the graphic description provided in the novel, which lingers over both Al and his dog’s deaths and includes stomach-churning descriptions of eye-gouging and leg-breaking. The fact that these details are absent from the movie establishes early that some of the novel’s most lurid flourishes are simply unfilmable.
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9Paul Owen Becomes A New Character In The American Psycho Movie
The Name Change Is Significant
A seemingly innocuous but surprisingly important difference between theAmerican Psychobook and movie concerns Patrick Bateman’s murdered arch-nemesis.In the novel, he’s known as Paul Owen– a rival investment banker who seems to out-do Bateman at every turn. Thecharacter in theAmerican Psychomovieis very similar, except his name is changed to Paul Allen: a minor detail that nonetheless carries some crucial weight.
By subtly tweaking Paul Owen’s name, the movie makes a sly nod to this theme from the book, creating uncertainty in the mind of anyone familiar with the novel, in much the same way that other characters' identities constantly shift.
In both the book and film, mistaken identity and the interchangeability of certain characters is a key theme –highlighting the bland, conformist nature of capitalist culture. Patrick Bateman himself is constantly mistaken by Allen/Owen for another banker: Marcus Halberstram. By subtly tweaking Paul Owen’s name, the movie makes a sly nod to this theme from the book, creating uncertainty in the mind of anyone familiar with the novel, in much the same way that other characters' identities constantly shift.
8The Full Extent Of Bateman’s Darkness Isn’t Revealed In The Movie
The Movie Is Almost A Parody
TheAmerican Psychofilm shows Bateman getting up to some seriously disturbing antics and revealing a rotten core to his character. However, while there’s no doubt that the cinematic Bateman is truly vile and reprehensible,this take on the character dilutes some of the more heinous aspects of the original.
For example, the movie massively tones down Bateman’s violent homophobia from the novel, replacing it with a kind of adolescent insecurity. While the movie’s Bateman is by no means an ally, he is not as egregious in his bigotry,with the film instead choosing to focus more on his narcissism and murderousness. There are multiple other examples where, despite being a clear villain, the film Bateman becomes much more likable than the character seen in the novel – whether through black humor or watered-down psychopathy.
7The American Psycho Movie Leaves Out The Book’s Most Notorious Scene
It’s Far Too Graphic For Cinema
There are many scenes in theAmerican Psychonovel that, had they been committed to screen, would almost certainly have resulted in the movie being banned. This is demonstrated by the fact thatthe book itself was either banned or restricted in multiple countries, establishing a clear precedent. However, in all the slew of scandalously violent scenes, one novel moment stands out.
In theAmerican Psychobook, as in the film, Bateman’s crimes become increasingly graphic as the plot progresses, with the violence reaching almost comically gratuitous levels. One particularly infamous scene involves a woman’s corpse, acid, her genitalia, and a rat Bateman has found in his toilet.Any attempt to film such a scene would have pushed theAmerican Psychomovie into completely different territoryand beyond what is typically considered acceptable in mainstream cinema.
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6Many Of Patrick Bateman’s Worst Crimes Are Ignored In The Film
The Movie Is Quite Restrained By Comparison
Although theAmerican Psychofilm features multiple on-screen murders and a gradual ratcheting up of the violence, there’s no doubt that it censors many of the novel’s most disturbing excesses. On-screen,most of Bateman’s victims are adults (with the exception of Al’s dog), while his crimes are largely restricted to murder– albeit in often bizarre and disturbing ways. However, it’s a very different story in the book.
While Bateman commits many murders in the novel (in fact, several more than is seen in the movie),he also perpetrates numerous other strange and discomforting crimes. These range from sexual assault to necrophilia, cannibalism, and even child murder. While Bateman’s cannibalism and sexual violence are hinted at in the movie, the book is much more oblique about revealing the sordid details to the reader.
5Bateman’s Hallucinations Are Absent From The American Psycho Movie
It’s A Key Aspect Of His Characterization
A major motif throughout bothAmerican Psychostories is the push and pull between what’s real and what’s imaginary. According to some interpretations, for instance,Bateman doesn’t kill anyone in the story, with the sickening violence happening entirely within his head. However, while this unreliability runs through both the movie and novel,one detail that the movie ignores is Bateman’s explicit hallucinations from the book.
At several key moments in the novel, Bateman appears on the verge of an almost total psychological breakdown. This is typified by vivid hallucinations, such as an attack by an anthropomorphic park bench, that call into question whether anything that’s happening is real.This pushes the novel into much more surreal territory than the film, which by comparison is much more straightforward.
4The American Psycho Movie Leaves Out Key Product Placement
It Undermines A Major Theme From The Novel
Bateman’s obsession with brands as a means of signifying prestige runs through both movie and novel. In the film, this is mostly restricted to fictional restaurants, such as Dorsia, which becomesymbolic of hollow wealth and social cache. The novel, however, blends fictional locations with real brands, creating cultural reference points that every reader understands.
The most notable example concerns Rolex. Bateman obsesses over the luxury watchmaker, to the point where he mentions Rolex explicitly on several dozen occasions. This particular reference, however, is absent from the film (supposedly because Rolex itself did not wish to be associated with such a nefarious character).This change arguably makes the movie less effective as a cultural reference point, since it is devoid of many of these instantly recognizable details.
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3American Psycho’s Pop Culture Monologs Are Very Different In The Novel
They’re One Of The Movie’s Most Notorious Details
A characteristic feature ofAmerican Psychois the way in which author Bret Easton Ellis breaks off from the main story to explore tangents about 80s pop culture – particularly music. Often, the action will abruptly stop to indulge a Bateman treatise on a particular singer or band,such as Huey Lewis and the News or Whitney Houston. In the book, such diversions are entirely internal, with Bateman directly relaying his thoughts to the reader. The movie, on the other hand, takes a very different approach.
Instead of presenting an internal monolog, as is used at other moments inAmerican Psycho,the film has Bateman present his pop-culture musings as pseudo-lectures to other characters. Most famously, he delivers a well-argued hypothesis about Huey Lewis and the News just before murdering Paul Allen with an ax. While this is an effective device, it also creates a clear disconnect between the novel and movie.
2Tom Cruise Isn’t In The American Psycho Movie
He Appears As A Character
The connection between Tom Cruise andAmerican Psychohas long been a topic of discussion among analysts. The issue was brought firmly into the limelight by Patrick Bateman actor Bale, who directly explained how aCruise interview with David Letterman inspired his serial killer performance. However, while the similarities between the pair are debatable, what’s undeniable is thatCruise is directly connected to theAmerican Psychonovelin a way that he isn’t to the film.
The fact that Cruise himself is absent from the film is unsurprising, yet adds a poetic symmetry to Bale’s purported inspiration for his performance.
Instead of being a possible external influence, Cruise actually features as a character in Easton Ellis’American Psycho. Not only does he have an apartment in Bateman’s building,but he even interacts with Bateman in an elevator, where Bateman embarrassingly fails to remember the name of his 1988 movie,Cocktail. The fact that Cruise himself is absent from the film is unsurprising, yet adds a poetic symmetry to Bale’s purported inspiration for his performance.
1The American Psycho Novel Is Part Of An Extended Universe
The Movie Occurs In Isolation
Although a critically deridedAmerican Psychosequel was released in 2002,Mary Harron’s original film clearly stands on its own, with no ties to a wider franchise. WhileAmerican Psycho’s success has inspired a spinoff stage musical and other expansions, Harron’s film makes no attempt to ground itself as part of a wider continuum. Perhaps surprisingly, this is very different from Easton Ellis' novel.
Although there is no explicitAmerican PsychoUniverse, multiple characters from the novel (including Patrick Bateman himself) feature in other Easton Ellis works.The Rules of Attraction, for instance (itself made into a film in 2002), centers on Sean Bateman – Patrick’s younger brother.American Psychoalso features characters, such as Alison Pooley, who appear in other authors' works – creating a complex interconnected canon that roots the novel as part of a broader series of stories.
