We Are the Dying World

In the book American Psycho, Patrick Bateman is a 1980's Wall Street serial killer who eventually wishes to confess. However he has no unique identity within his peer group. This anonymity creates unplanned alibis.

In the movie American Psycho, the director believes that if she had only one scene to depict the entire work it would be the scene where Patrick Bateman removes a mud mask to reveal his own face of which she says yet another mask.

My favorite scene would be a toss up between the scene where Bateman chooses not to murder his secretary with a framing gun and the scene where he murders his rival while reviewing the career of Huey Lewis and the News.

In the scene with the secretary, Bateman doesn't kill her because the telephone rings. It is a reality jolt that takes Bateman out of his frenzy.

In this youtube clip, the director claims that the blood splattering only on one side of the actor's face was not originally intended. It is an unintentional cosmetic effect. If you pay attention you'll notice that the victim doesn't remember Bateman's name. If you notice that, then you may also notice that Bateman answers with the wrong name. But in Bateman's case of misidentification, it seems that he is playing a little joke because seconds later he uses his victim's correct name, Paul, to draw Paul's attention to the fact that he is about to be hacked to death. Bateman may be coming to a realization about the vagueness of his existence at this point but he hasn't completely collapsed and come out the other side just yet.

warning: this scene from AP contains blood, strong language and the song "Hip to Be Square."