American Psycho is a 2000 film directed by Mary Harron and directly inspired by the novel of the same name written by Bret Easton Ellis. The film takes place in New York City in the late 1980s, which is utilized for the film’s critique on 80s yuppie culture. Throughout the movie, the main character, Patrick Bateman, commits numerous heinous criminal acts and offenses as a result of his mundane life as an office worker and his yearn to escape conformity. This yearn causes Bateman to descend further and further into madness, to the point where it’s unknown to the audience if the crimes he committed are even real or simply all in his head. The people around Bateman turn a blind eye to his clear mental disorders, such as his fiancee, Evelyn Williams, his receptionist, Jean, and his numerous work colleagues. Even the detective, Donald Kimpball, seems to not investigate Bateman on the murder of his colleague, Paul Allen, any further after only two questionings, demonstrating how truly isolated Bateman is in his own twisted mind. Through these violent crimes, the film explores themes of toxic masculinity, consumerism, and moral decay in society.
A majority of Bateman’s crimes are extremely violent, his most common offense being murder. Although many may assume that a serial murderer such as he would have a common motive, his incentive varies quite often. For instance, the murder of Paul Allen is rooted in deep jealousy, originating simply from the other man having a better business card than Bateman. Bateman also murders a homeless man and his dog quite early in the film out of pure disgust for the impoverished and murders multiple sex workers as an assertion of dominance and his obvious misogyny. Although all these motives are different, there is a shared underlying theme present in all of them, which is Bateman’s sense of superiority, which will be discussed further later. It is because Bateman sees his victims as inferior he subjects them to prolonged physical and psychological harm before killing them, committing the crimes of torture and sexual assault with the usage of illegal weapons. In some cases, Bateman also dismembers his victims. In addition to these vicious murders, he also commits other crimes such as property damage, resisting arrest, and illegal drug abuse, as shown when he and his colleague wait in line to smoke cocaine in a bathroom stall. Another crime that is quite prominent throughout the entirety of the film is Bateman’s common usage of identity fraud and impersonation. From beginning to end, Bateman consistently introduces himself to people with names that are not his own, or has already assumed such names. Even at the end, it is assumed that he did not even tell his lawyer his true name, which Bateman, in his deteriorating mental state, did not even initially remember.
As explained earlier, Bateman’s crimes often link back to his sense of superiority over others, developed from his status as a wealthy, white male and narcissistic personality disorder. Bateman murders sex workers because he doesn’t truly see them as human; their status of wealth and their gender are the main contributing factors as to why he targets them specifically. The homeless man whom Bateman murders also exemplifies this wealth dichotomy, as well as racism, given the fact that the man was black. Although Bateman made no derogatory remarks about the man’s race, and only his poor status, the casting was definitely intentional on the director’s part to highlight the prevalent racial discrimination during the time period and white superiority. This perfectly aligns with Randy Blazak’s Study of White Terrorist Men, in which he argues that white male terrorists commit violent acts as a display of power and reassert their masculinity. Throughout the film, Bateman’s masculinity is constantly threatened by his peers and coworkers who he envies. He kills Paul Allen to prove to himself that he is the superior man to the latter, and kills multiple women in order to reaffirm that status. His crimes are committed as a way to reclaim power when he feels insignificant.
It’s not just Bateman’s masculinity that is threatened, however, but also his status. A prevailing theme expressed in the movie is the emphasis on materialism and consumerism in society, which is exemplified through 80s yuppie culture. Practically everyone Bateman interacts with, with Detective Kimpball as the sole exception, are obsessed with wealth, status, and consumption, with Bateman being no different himself. Adolphe Quetelet argues that a majority of crime is influenced by social conditions, often being related to factors such as age, gender, and poverty. Although some may interpret the last point as meaning that those less well-off are more likely to commit crime, the inverse also applies. The rich also commit numerous crimes due to poverty, or rather, the fear of succumbing to it. Bateman is a product of his social class; all of his co-workers, who consist of white and rich men in their late 20s or early 30s, express Bateman’s same desire to remain atop the status totem pole and achieve as much wealth and success as possible. Bateman’s heinous actions are a byproduct of his status-driven environment, and are enabled by those around him who experience the same desires as he and ignore his evidently dubious behaviour. One notable example of this being when Bateman attempts to hide a body but is caught by his co-worker, Luis, who ignores Bateman’s suspicious action in favor of inquiring where he purchased his pristine bag.
It is also this exact conformity that Bateman yearns to escape from. He is indistinguishable from the other yuppies in his work, which is blatantly displayed when Paul Allen mistakes him for someone else in the workplace. Bateman strives to achieve a unique identity and achieve social dominance, and he does so by committing violent crimes. This aligns with Merton’s strain theory, stating that crime occurs when the perpetrator cannot achieve culturally valued goals, such as the American Dream, through legitimate nor legal means. The most common example of this is wealth, but Bateman already has that; what he really wants is status and recognition. Bateman’s murders affirms his superiority and makes him feel “real.” He fits Merton’s definition of an innovator, as he accepts his society’s values of power and dominance, but achieves those through violence as an illegitimate route to self-worth. Bateman also copes with his blocked individuality through his multiple assumed identities. He uses the deviant method of impersonation by treating identity as interchangeable; if his identity is constantly denied, he will choose to be seen as someone else rather than himself. However, the strain intensifies, which causes Bateman to lose touch with reality and escalate his violence, resulting in an eventual confession. When Bateman’s lawyer essentially dismisses said confession, it invalidates this sense of individuality and control, reinforcing that Bateman is truly just like everyone else. Hence, his final line: “This confession means nothing.”
Despite the film being categorized as a satirical dark comedy–meaning many aspects of it are exaggerated–there are still various elements that are based in realism. For instance, prolific serial killer Samuel Little employed a very similar strategy to Bateman, specifically targeting vulnerable women, often ones in poor circumstances and are sex workers. Additionally, Patrick Bateman was actually directly based on Ted Bundy, as stated by Director Mary Harron and star Christian Bale (Maranzani, 2025). Similarly to the fictional murderer, Bundy would lure in his victims by utilizing his charisma and trying to appear vulnerable. And just like the film, Bateman is not unique at all; there are multiple men in the real world who commit these vile actions, and many who are driven by motives such as status or reputation. American Psycho’s depiction of the emphasis on materialism and consumerism in society is hardly even satirized at all, as many wealthy people often commit immoral acts to retain said wealth and perceive themselves as superior to those with less wealth.
Unfortunately, the themes present in the movie often fly over many viewers’ heads. News media often depicts what viewers are most interested in, and stated in Avijit Sarker Subrata’s presentation on crime and media, that includes unusual circumstances, dramatic events, and involvement of famous figures (Subarata, 2026). And despite not being a news outlet, American Psycho checks off all three boxes, meaning that those elements are what the general audience is going to be most attuned to, rather than the underlying themes and commentary on society. Many young boys upon watching this movie have actually viewed Patrick Bateman as an idol of sorts, seeing him as the peak of masculinity (which is ironic, given he’s meant to represent toxic masculinity). They pay no mind to how he’s obviously portrayed to be reprehensible, and instead focus on his idealized physique, wealth, and ego. Even though these traits are explicitly stated to not provide Bateman any joy, boys watching want to achieve these exact traits, causing them to idolize Bateman and even adopt many of his discriminatory behaviors.
This particular spike in popularity in regards to Bateman occurred in the early 2020s, when many in quarantine had nothing better to do than obsess over fictional characters that they wished they could be. Bateman’s sexuality insecurity, obsession with status, and inherent insensitivity to those around him resonated with many during the pandemic, causing them to resonate with the character (Villalba 2023). Bateman worshippers often fell into the categories of “militant misogynists” or internet trolls who thought Patrick Bateman was the ideal man and symbolized the purest form of masculinity one could achieve. Simply search up “Patrick Bateman edits” on any social media platform and it is guaranteed there will be a multitude of videos praising Bateman, calling him a “sigma male.” This is especially ironic considering that the author of the novel is a gay man and the director is a woman, both of whom would likely be despised by this very community. American Psycho is a satirization of toxic masculinity through the perspective of a gay man with the intent of mocking these exact types of men, yet this message fell flat for casual viewers. Unfortunately, this led to the movie becoming more notorious in online spaces for being associated with misogynistic and discriminatory men in online spaces rather than its insightful critique on depravity in the business world.
As discussed earlier, a key factor that contributed to Bateman’s criminal and deviant behaviors was the enablement of his peers around him and society as a whole by ignoring his suspicious acts in favor of focusing solely on money and status. Simply holding people like Bateman accountable and having greater consequences for said deviant behaviors would likely curb this issue a great amount. As stated by Jeffrey Ian Ross in Protecting Democracy, democracies should hold people in power accountable, but their political and/or economic status shield them from punishment (Ross 2017). Ross continues by expressing that installments such as institutional checks and balances, transparency mechanisms, and civil society pressures greatly increase the likelihood of corrective action and, in turn, lower the crime rate in that area. In addition, improving upon impoverished neighborhoods could also decrease this rate further. Although the crimes committed in the film are done by Bateman, a wealthy man, the socio-economic divide on its own is a leading cause of increased deviant and criminal behavior on both ends. Its presence leads many affluent people to find themself to be superior to those of lower status and even provide them more motive to commit crimes in order to get even richer. Statistics provided by the Legal Defense Fund demonstrate that more housing and neighborhood investments to improve the quality of the areas resulted in gun assaults being reduced by more than 17% in comparison to untreated areas (Moore 2025). Moreover, providing emergency housing assistance correlated with a whopping 51% reduction in violent crime rates as conducted by one study. Overall, simply ensuring equality is already enough to prevent criminal behavior akin to Bateman’s.