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In this episode of The Rotten Horror Picture Show, we’re back on track with another movie from the Rotten Tomatoes 200 Best Horror Movies of All Time list, number 197, 2000’s American Psycho. Directed by Mary Harron and written by Harron and Guinevere Turner, this adaption of the Brett Easton Ellis novel of the same name brings up some interesting questions about reality, conformity, murder, music, and style. It’s full to the brim with iconic scenes, and features an all-timer performance by Christian Bale, foreshadowing the success and acclaim he’d start receiving only a few years later.
In New York City in 1987, a handsome, young urban professional, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), lives a second life as a gruesome serial killer by night. The cast is filled out by the detective (Willem Dafoe), the fiance (Reese Witherspoon), the mistress (Samantha Mathis), the coworker (Jared Leto), and the secretary (Chloë Sevigny). This is a biting, wry comedy examining the elements that make a man a monster.
Join Clay, and Amanda as they get in to the ins and outs of business card rage, returning video tapes, feeding stray cats to things, staring at it vs. eating it, aggressive music critique, the humor of attempted nail gun murder, quoting inappropriate lines to your mother, the catharsis of confessing to murder, and how Clay is a huge scary guy that not even his own friends want walking near them at night.
American Psycho is definitely a classic, but does it really belong on this list? Is it even a horror movie, or is it something else? Should Starry Eyes take its spot? All of these things and the finer points of Huey Lewis and the News are covered this week, so get your favorite isolation cocktail, stay six feet away from the nearest person, and enjoy this episode of The Rotten Horror Picture Show!