Throughout the novel, he kills men, women, animals, and, in one instance, a child. Bateman murders women mostly for sadistic sexual pleasure, often during or just after sex. He kills men because they upset or annoy him or make him feel inferior.
With no transition, Bateman then begins to describe himself attacking a horrified Elizabeth with a butcher knife, citing this moment as his orgasm in the sexual encounter. He slices her body and throat before returning to “Christie”, whose nipples have been hooked up with jumper cables to a spare car battery.
The ambiguous ending of American Psycho is intentional, with director Mary Harron and writer Guinevere Turner confirming that Bateman is indeed a serial killer, but many viewers misunderstand it as an "it was all a dream" trope.
It's safe to assume that Bateman's conscience was finally aware of the atrocities he was committing and wanted him to confess so that he wouldn't have to deal with the guilt on his conscience any longer.
Bateman even pretended to be Allen to use as an alibi after killing some prostitues. So, with this in mind, it's not far from the truth to assume that Bateman mistook someone as Allen, got them to his apartment, and killed him.
'A Meaningful Relationship with Someone Special' Scene | American Psycho
What did Patrick Bateman do bad?
Throughout the novel, he kills men, women, animals, and, in one instance, a child. Bateman murders women mostly for sadistic sexual pleasure, often during or just after sex. He kills men because they upset or annoy him or make him feel inferior.
'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.
One is that everything in the movie did happen. Bateman did murder all of these people. There is a reason why everyone in the movie looks the same, and why everyone mixes each other up throughout.
The only person in his life he has anything approaching feelings for is his secretary, Jean, who he knows is in love with him and who he passively accepts that he will probably marry one day. Even then, however, it is made clear that he sees her not as a person, but more as a beautiful object not to be destroyed.
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.
What mental illness does Patrick Bateman suffer from?
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.
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.
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.
He's crying because he's finally having a fully psychotic breakdown — all of the things that he imagined that he did were very real to him, and he's coming to the realization that they actually didn't happen, and he's really just a normal person with a rich fantasy world — something in complete opposition to his ...
His transgressive third novel, 'American Psycho', was the one that truly propelled him into the spotlight. Upon its release, it was widely condemned as being too graphically violent, outright misogynistic and got him labelled as a sadist.
She values objects and money over real, intimate love and connection. Eventually, Bateman dumps her (after tricking her into eating a chocolate-covered, used urinal cake).
As journalist Shaurya Singh wrote in the newsletter The Digital Native, Bateman's main characteristics – his sexual insecurity, insensitivity, shallowness and obsession with money – connected with some of the obsessions of Generation Z (and plenty of other generations) during the pandemic.
Why does Patrick Bateman always return videotapes?
Originally Answered: Why does Patrick Bateman return video tapes? As he is so unsure of the real world and what is around him that by saying he is returning videotapes he sees it as a just and valid reason or excuse. He thinks it is a good phrase to escape the situation he is in.
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.
In entertainment, the disorder has been misrepresented in characters like Monica from Friends and Adrian from Monk. Patrick Bateman's psychopathy also shows up with his OCD as his thoughts directly impact his behavior, which he seems to not be in control of either despite his consciousness in murdering people.
What are the disturbing parts of the American Psycho book?
What might be the book's single most disturbing passage involves the sexual torture of one of Bateman's former girlfriends. In the scene, Bateman nails her hands to the floor, cuts out her tongue and then forces her to perform an act of oral sex, before killing her.
This is a crucial moment to retrospectively understand everything in the film up until then. This scene highlights the expulsion and foreclosure of the real in 'Bateman's' psychotic symbolism, since it turns out that not only did 'Bateman' not kill Paul Allen, but 'Bateman's' real name is Davis!
Conclusion: “American Psycho” is a thought-provoking film that delves into complex themes of toxic masculinity, societal decay, and the impact of media.
