In 1991, American Psycho, the third novel by controversial writer Bret Easton Ellis, provoked heated discussions among critics and readers alike; an extraordinarily disturbing book that transported its readers into the mind of Patrick Bateman, a cynical mergers and acquisitions executive obsessed with brands, inconsequential details, pop culture and brutal murder.
Writing
Ellis's own unflinching self-analysis saves this from puff piece territory.
Production
Archival footage of 1991 moral panic hits deliciously different now.
Director
Jean-Christophe Klotz
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Original publisher Simon & Schuster dropped American Psycho last-minute; Vintage picked it up with Ellis's $300K advance already spent. The 'scandal' essentially funded itself.
Gloria Steinem's objection wasn't the violence — it was that Ellis dedicated the book to his father, a man she knew as a Reagan-era tax attorney. The personal was political, brutally so.
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