While it's true that Patrick is experiencing delusions and hallucinations, it doesn't mean that the murders are in his head. Turner blames the muddiness of the ending on the dichotomy between the fantasy world that Bateman is currently living in and the reality of the murderous situation at hand.
The bottom line: while it's clear some things that happen in the film are in Bateman's head (like the Feed Me a Stray Cat scene), the murders actually happened. I personally prefer that interpretation because I feel like making the entire movie a figment of Bateman's imagination lets him off the hook.
Patrick Bateman's crimes were not a dream, at least not all of them, instead, the real message that both Herron and Eston Ellis wanted to convey was that a man of such social status could literally get away with murder.
Throughout the film, Patrick Batemen's deranged thoughts and actions only get weirder and weirder until eventually reaching a true breaking point. But one theory believes that the mass murderer only killed one person, leaving his body count nothing more than a hallucination.
Yes, he does. As confirmed by the director Mary Harron: “It's ambiguous in the novel whether or not it's real, or how much of it is real, and we decided, right off the bat, first conversation about the book, that we hate movies, books, stories that ended and 'it was all a dream' or 'it was all in his head"'.
This, combined with sex, violence, drugs, and other desires of the id, is how Bateman enacts his sociopathic violence in a superficial world. Bateman's episodes of schizophrenia also shows clear signs on how he copes with being an affluent person living in a superficial world, fashioned on consumerism.
This is partly because, for all of Willem Dafoe's scenes as Detective Kimball, director Mary Harron had him act three different ways. He's unaware that Patrick killed Paul. He's suspicious of Patrick and wants to know more.
He admits to taping a lot of his crimes, eating some of his victims' brains, and even trying to cook them. Specifically, he cops to killing Paul Allen (Jared Leto) with an ax to the face, sobbing to Harold that his body is currently dissolving in a bathtub in Hell's Kitchen.
TL;DR: Patrick Bateman has a mental disorder caused by lifelong conflict-of-interests with his father. He doesn't actually kill anyone in the film; all the murders take place in his sleep, but they're vivid enough dreams that he can't separate them from reality.
Side 1 is how Patrick sees himself and believes how the rest of the world sees him. He thinks he's the greatest person to ever grace the planet and is capable of anything he wants from a wild threesome (or 2) to being able to write a book about popular music.
American Psycho explores the inherent violence of corporate greed, using Patrick Bateman's sadistic acts as a metaphor for the callousness of Wall Street. The film's ambiguous ending signifies Bateman's moral awakening, as he tries to hold himself accountable for his actions while those around him remain indifferent.
American Psycho ends with Patrick staring into the camera, with his voiceover confessing, “There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed.
Whose head is in Patrick Bateman's fridge? The woman who he picked up in the previous scene at the club with Bryce, where he did the cocaine in the back room.
In American Psycho (2000) Willem Dafoe (Detective Kimball) acted each meeting with Bateman 3 ways in 3 different takes: 1. He knew Bateman was the killer, 2. He only suspected Bateman was the killer, 3. He did not suspect Bateman.
'Feed Me A Stray Cat' Scene | American Psycho - YouTube. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) attempts to murder a cat after following the instructions of an ATM, which leads to more killings.
What happened to all the bodies in American Psycho?
In the final scene of American Psycho, serial killer Patrick Bateman returns to Paul Allen's apartment, the location of some of his worst crimes, and finds it to be clean and free of bodies.
In Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is apparently simply a psychopath. However, Bateman can be diagnosed with other mental illnesses such as Asperger's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder.
Patrick Bateman does not exist physically but rather is the narrative occupying the minds of all the characters we see and this is alluded to numerous times. The opening dialog itself states "I simply am not there" which was timed so it's said when he peels off the mask.
Although Manhattan is a real place, American Psycho is a work of fiction and imaginary locations in the city are part of the story. An imaginary space is a space that is figurative, like a city in a book. To say that a space is imaginary is not to deny its relation to reality.
Patrick Bateman: Both, because 90% of his deeds are in his head due to cocaine-induced psychosis, but he is very racist and misogynistic (probably due to his father) Walter White: Broken, he's riddled with cancer and wanted to help his family but it all fell apart due to his cruelty.
It's made clear there is no "top" to Bateman. There is only becoming more successful than the previous day. Therefore, Bateman would be a Sigma in that regard. In American Psycho's first act, Bateman makes it known to his fiancée that he wishes to conform to society as best he can, unlike his other roles.
He displays a high functioning form of Asperger's syndrome, yet there are still symptoms present in Bateman of which even the highest functioning people with Asperger's syndrome cannot rid themselves. One of the key symptoms in Asperger's syndrome is the need for strict routine.
For instance, in the Huey Lewis monologue, he says he likes "Hip to be Square" because it's about "the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends." It's pretty apparent throughout the movie that Patrick is all about conformity, like when he tells Evelyn he keeps working at Pierce & Pierce because he wants to ...
Christie's body at the bottom of the stairs. Patrick chases her through the apartment with a chainsaw, and, as she runs downstairs, Patrick drops the chainsaw down the stairwell, which lands perfectly on top of her as she reaches the bottom of the stairs.
American Psycho 2000 served as a sort of "e-sequel" to the original novel. The e-mails take place in 2000, a little over a decade since the novel. Bateman is in psychotherapy with Dr M. He is also married to Jean, his former secretary.
