American Psycho’s Craziest Theory Yet
*Spoiler Alert. In fact I encourage you to stop reading and watch the movie, otherwise you won’t know what the heck I’m on about.*
American Psycho centres around Patrick Bateman; an 80s yuppie living a second life as a gruesome serial killer.
The movie met poor reviews but turned into a cult classic after streaming on Netflix and other VoD services.
The film leaves audiences guessing whether Bateman committed any of the depicted murders or if they were figments of his deranged imagination.
The most memorable murder is Bateman’s slaughter of a man he presumed to be Paul Allen.
But here’s a truly zany theory I’d like to propose:
What if Bateman didn’t murder Allen at all?
American Psycho & Mistaken Identities
Throughout American Psycho there is a theme of “mistaken identities.”
Nobody knows who anyone else is.
Everyone dresses the same, visits the same barber, and owns marginally different business cards (more on that later).
Characters call each other the wrong name, without correction.
Bateman thinks he knows who Paul Allen is, but the Paul Allen Bateman identifies in the opening restaurant scene is not Jared Leto’s Paul Allen.
Instead this Paul Allen resembles the real life Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft.
In the boardroom, Bateman tells us Allen has mistaken him for Marcus Halberstram, who looks exactly like Bateman, but does not correct him.
So why would Jared Leto’s “Allen” correct Bateman if he is not the real Paul Allen?
Everyone seems to go with the flow in this world, welcoming any name hurled at them.
The Famous American Psycho Business Card Scene, With A Twist
When Paul Allen hands his business card to Timothy Bryce, we don’t see the name on the card.
Who knows what card Allen handed to Bryce.
And Bryce offers a confused reaction to Allen after seeing the card.
These guys exchange cards throughout the day.
What if Bryce happened to have a copy of Allen’s card on hand, but it was not the same card he just received from Leto?
Was Bateman Dining With The Real Paul Allen?
At the shabby restaurant Bateman asks Allen how he managed to get a hold of the Fisher account from Rothschild.
Allen responds with how he’d have to kill Bateman if he told him, which leads me to believe that Jared Leto’s character is actually this man Rothschild, pretending to be Paul Allen, just like Bateman is pretending to be Halberstram.
So Patrick Bateman kills this man Rothschild instead of the real Paul Allen.
But here’s another twist.
The real Paul Allen is actually dead, and this Rothschild character stole his identity, and that’s why he’d have to kill Bateman if he told him.
And if you thought that was a big twist, here’s one more possibility:
Jared Leto is the real Paul Allen and he murdered Rothschild and took over his account.
See how confusing these open ended movies can get?
The Reality of American Psycho
The movie is Patrick Bateman’s long cry for help in a world where everyone is too self-absorbed to lend him a hand.
And when he finally confesses his sins to his lawyer, who also mistakes Bateman for someone named Davis, they fall on deaf ears.
Bateman’s lawyer either actually had dinner in London with the real Paul Allen, because Bateman didn’t kill the real Paul Allen, or someone he assumed to be Paul Allen.
The movie disorients the audience.
Like Bateman, we can’t discern reality from fiction
I believe the chase sequence with the police helicopter is entirely fabricated, and a sign of Bateman’s insanity.
In fact, I think everything after Bateman’s first two on screen kills of the homeless man and “Paul Allen’’ is fictional, to show Bateman’s descent into madness.
However, this is the goal of the movie.
Confuse the audience as much as possible so we don’t know what’s real or fake, and place us in the mindset of Bateman.
At the end of the film, like Bateman, we receive no catharsis, no answers, and no help.
Even with its open ending, American Psycho is a must watch for movie fans and culture lovers, and I encourage you to watch and develop your own theories.
