THE MIRROR
From Bateman’s meticulous morning face masks to his obsessive workout regime, just two things drive the character: vanity and self-importance. “What we were addressing was toxic masculinity before that had been coined as a term,” says Turner. The screenwriter says that one of the reasons the character might have endured as he has is the prevalence of Bateman-esque behaviour today — in pop culture and, depressingly, in politics.
“It makes my skin crawl,” says Turner, thinking about the film’s references to Donald Trump. “Back then he was a punchline; this was before he was ruining the world. But there was something prescient about Patrick’s admiration for him that’s strange to watch now.”
Harron is also unnerved by the parallels between Bateman and the man who once said he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” without consequences (which, spoiler alert, is pretty much the plot of American Psycho). “Bateman is an extremely insecure pathological narcissist. You can see that touchiness and insecurity in Trump. Bateman, like Trump, has an obsession with how he’s perceived by others. And that creates an inner turmoil. Bateman, though, is an archetype. Trump is human. Well, supposedly.”
On-screen villains like Bateman help us understand toxic masculinity in the real world, says Harron, creating a window into society’s own narcissism, violence and dark urges. “It’s interesting for viewers to see if they see anything of themselves in Patrick, or anything of Patrick in them.” One day society may not need Bateman to hold a mirror up to its own excesses and terrible impulses. Until then: this is not an exit.