It’s been 25 years since Patrick Bateman first lathered himself in exfoliant, recited Huey Lewis lyrics like gospel, and dragged a blood-soaked ax across the Manhattan skyline of 1980s excess. And yet somehow, somewhere along the way, a segment of the population missed the memo that American Psycho was not a masterclass in alpha male swagger—it was a send-up of it. A very gay one, at that.
“I’m always so mystified by it,” director Mary Harron told Letterboxd Journal (https://letterboxd.com/journal/mary-harron-american-psycho-anniversary-interview/) in a recent retrospective. “I don’t think that [co-writer Guinevere Turner] and I ever expected it to be embraced by Wall Street bros, at all. That was not our intention.”
Yet here we are. Patrick Bateman—serial killer, skincare enthusiast, business card snob—is now a patron saint of TikTok hustle culture. He’s been meme-ified into a symbol of capitalist grindset masculinity, often stripped of the nuance (and blood) that made him horrifying and hilarious. It’s the queerest case of cinematic misinterpretation since folks thought Fight Club was a recruitment video for CrossFit.
And it’s not just Christian Bale’s chiseled jawline doing the damage. As Harron points out, the movie’s aesthetic—sharp suits, finer dining, and protein-forward vanity—lends itself too easily to glamorization. “There’s [Bateman] being handsome and wearing good suits and having money and power. But at the same time, he’s played as somebody dorky and ridiculous,” she said. “When he’s in a nightclub and he’s trying to speak to somebody about hip hop—it’s so embarrassing when he’s trying to be cool.”
Exactly. The punchline is the suit. The joke is the man. And the joke was never meant to be aspirational.
To Harron—and to many queer viewers from the jump—the satire has always been clear: American Psycho is “a gay man’s satire on masculinity.” The source novel’s author, Bret Easton Ellis, wrote from the vantage point of someone who understood the homoerotic pageantry of power and performance. As Harron put it: “[Ellis] being gay allowed him to see the homoerotic rituals among these alpha males, which is also true in sports, and it’s true in Wall Street, and all these things where men are prizing their extreme competition and their ‘elevating their prowess’ kind of thing.”
Translation: You are not immune to shirtless locker room vibes. You are not above checking out the biceps of your broker bro. You, sir, are in the closet with a Platinum AmEx.
There’s something gorgeously subversive in watching a film that lets you enjoy a perfectly choreographed skincare routine while also showing the utter horror of a society that prizes looks over empathy, power over humanity. Harron said it plainly: the film is “about a predatory society,” one she believes is “actually much worse today.”
“The rich are much richer, the poor are poorer,” she said. “I would never have imagined that there would be a celebration of racism and white supremacy, which is basically what we have in the White House. I would never have imagined that we would live through that.”
In that way, American Psycho might be more relevant than ever. And if the rumors are true, we’re about to get another blood-slicked chapter. Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, Challengers) is developing a new adaptation of the novel, with Scott Z. Burns writing and Austin Butler rumored to don the business card holder this time around.
RELATED: Luca Guadagnino Revives American Psycho with a Bold Modern Take
We can only hope the new version leans into the queerness, the satire, the delicious absurdity of men who lift, flex, and murder to feel something. Anything.
So, to the TikTok bros in Bateman cosplay: babes, this one was never for you. This wasn’t a how-to guide—it was a mirror. And if you’re flexing in front of it while quoting “I have to return some videotapes,” just know: the gays have been laughing at you this whole time.
And we do think you should moisturize. But maybe leave the chainsaw at home.
Source: Variety