A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies. American Psycho is directed by Mary Harron and stars Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, and Chloë Sevigny.

I’m not sure if everyone will agree with the idea of American Psycho being considered a horror movie or at least a horror adjacent, but the moment I found out that American Psycho was considered by some to be a slight horror movie and that I could include it in for Spooktober this year I couldn’t wait. And after seeing American Psycho I do believe that it should be rightfully considered a horror movie. If you have ever seen American Psycho, you have seen the violence and the inhumanity depicted in the film. How could anyone not see this as horror? It’s obviously a thriller and is promoted as one, but the horror comes from the violence shown on screen. The violence being done by a terrifically played Christian Bale, American Psycho is sometimes scarier than anything I have ever seen in a horror movie before, and as you probably already know I have seen a dozen or more horror movies. Yet, American Psycho’s violence rises above from all the rest.

I won’t lie some of the violence in American Psycho made me feel ill, but that’s not the fault of the movie more so how the violence hit close to home. The direction by Mary Harron kept me from being totally sickened by the violence especially taking into account that most of the movie’s violence is being done to women by a man. Having a woman behind the scenes reassured me if that makes any sense. Something else that reassure me was that American Psycho is also pretty funny. That was unexpected to me, but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless. The infamous morning routine scene, the moonwalking during a murder, and the unbothered narration all admittedly got me to laugh several times during the course of the movie. You would think this would clash terribly with the violence in the movie, but I believed it was the opposite actually. I thought the humor only added to the movie and stopped it from feeling one-note. The humor combined with the violence made American Psycho distinctive and unlike any movie, I have ever seen before. It’s a twisted movie, and I loved every moment of it.

American Psycho could have gone either way with me. I could have hated the explicit violence depicted in the movie, but I didn’t because it had a reason for all of it. The underlying themes of conformity in American Psycho make what the film does with violence all the more fascinating to me. Which culminates in a bizarre, but thought-provoking ending. I don’t know what to believe by the end of American Psycho, but I guess that’s kinda the point of the film. It’s so open-ended you’re left thinking about all the possibilities the film leaves you with. I love movies that can entertain me but also leave me with thought-provoking thoughts by the end of it. All in all, American Psycho is an unabashedly weird, sadistic, and funny thriller (and horror) that I absolutely adored and left me wanting to know more. If you’re fine with brutal violence, check this one out if you haven’t already.

Have you American Psycho? If so, what did you think of it? Tell me in the comments down below.