The cult hit "American Psycho" and its unsuccessful sequel

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

One of the most sensational books of the last century, "American Psycho", released in 1991, immediately caught the attention of filmmakers, but no one dared to take on its film adaptation. Bret Easton Ellis' novel about a Wall Street maniac was a scathing satirical opus, a story about the moral and emotional bankruptcy of yuppies who considered themselves masters of the world, cooler than other show business stars. Only in 2000 did the premiere of the thriller American Psycho ("American Psychosis"), better known under a different name - "American Psycho".

Bold movie

Directed by Mary Harron, she, like in her debut "I Shot Andy Warhol", preferred a leisurely style of narration, blowing up the course of events with bloody episodes of murders in which the "white collar" turned into a demon of death. In her interpretation, the picture turned out to be a natural bloody odyssey, oversaturated with an abundance of brutal murders, insomething funny, and most importantly, frightening, but bewitching.

The film "American Psychosis", like the literary original, expresses undisguised cynicism towards the trends of the 80s, sometimes looks like a surreal horror movie. “American Psycho” is now perceived exactly as it was in 2000. It's a brave movie at the crossroads of satire, psychological thriller and horror, and Bale is beautiful, scary and hilarious as an upper class killer.

Cult hit

The picture was included in the program of the Sundance festival and presented to the public in January 2000. The show caused an unprecedented stir and polar assessments of critics. Some admiringly called the tape a new classic of comic horror, others noticed that the lack of positive characters had a negative impact, making the film boring. At the same time, film experts in reviews of American Psychosis were unanimous in assessing the talent of the lead actor Christian Bale. They claimed that the actor brilliantly coped with his task, perfectly revealed the multifaceted and complex image of his character.

The film was only released in April 2000, and with a production budget of $7,000,000, the film grossed $34,266,564, which is not a bad result for such a specific project. In the future, "American Psychosis" became very famous, gained the status of a cult hit. Now the rating of the picture (according to IMDb) is 7.60.

An impressive list of stars

Most reviewers cited the reasonsuccess of "American Psychosis" participation in the production of a whole constellation of famous actors. The main star of the picture was considered the already famous Willem Dafoe. The Oscar nominee for Platoon played a detective investigating Bateman's crimes. The future star of romantic comedies and Oscar winner, young Reese Witherspoon was inimitable in the image of the bride of the protagonist. Chloe Sevigny, who received an Oscar nomination for Boys Don't Cry, convincingly portrayed the secretary of a yuppie maniac. The killer's colleague and victim was played by Jared Leto, the current Joker.

Compared to such masters, almost debutant Christian Bale looks on the same level. The actor spent several months in the gym and spas to look like a "living god", the result exceeded all expectations. Although Bale would become famous in the future as a performer of heroic roles, such as Batman, financier Patrick Bateman from American Psycho was the first character to earn the actor sincere respect and approval from critics and audiences.

Coming back is a bad omen

When Mary Harron's film about metrosexual financier Patrick Bateman, who thought about the beauty of his body during the day and turned into a brutal killer at night, acquired cult status, Lionsgate studio hastened to offer the intrigued public a sequel. This is how the film "American Psycho 2: 100% American" was born. The sequel was based on the script "The Girl Who Didn't Die", which initially had nothing to do with Bateman. But after making the recommendedthe producer of the corrections turned out that the nanny of the main character Rachel was killed by Patrick. This prompted the girl herself to become a serial killer.

The picture was shot in 20 days and received derogatory reviews from critics. Her IMDb rating is 3.90. Lead actress Mila Kunis later apologized for starring in the Morgan J. Freeman project. According to the actress, during production, the tape was not associated with American Psychosis, it was rethought and changed already during the editing period. In fact, the films have nothing in common.