Mary Harron, the filmmaker behind American Psycho, recently reflected on the film’s wild 25-year legacy — and yeah, she’s just as confused as the rest of us about how Patrick Bateman somehow became a role model for finance bros. In a new chat with Letterboxd Journal, Harron opened up about the bizarre rise of Bateman as a TikTok icon and Wall Street symbol, despite the fact that he’s, well, a literal serial killer in a suit.
“I’m always so mystified by it,” Harron said. “I don’t think that [co-writer Guinevere Turner] and I ever expected it to be embraced by Wall Street bros, at all. That was not our intention. So, did we fail? I’m not sure why [it happened], because Christian’s very clearly making fun of them… But, people read the Bible and decide that they should go and kill a lot of people. People read ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ and decide to shoot the president.”
Honestly, that quote says it all. The satire was right there, yet somewhere along the way, a chunk of the internet — particularly on TikTok — decided Bateman was the guy to emulate. You’ve got edits showing off his suits, his cold stares, his wealth and power… but like, did they miss the murder and mayhem part?
Harron’s well aware of how social media twisted the character into a weird aspirational figure. She gets why it might look that way on the surface, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
“There’s [Bateman] being handsome and wearing good suits and having money and power. But at the same time, he’s played as somebody dorky and ridiculous. When he’s in a nightclub and he’s trying to speak to somebody about hip hop — it’s so embarrassing when he’s trying to be cool.”
It’s wild, because American Psycho was never meant to celebrate Bateman. If anything, it was meant to rip apart the exact kind of performative masculinity that’s now putting him on a pedestal. Harron even called the whole thing “a gay man’s satire on masculinity” — and that’s a massive context clue so many people just seem to miss.
“[Ellis] being gay allowed him to see the homoerotic rituals among these alpha males, which is also true in sports, and it’s true in Wall Street, and all these things where men are prizing their extreme competition and their ‘elevating their prowess’ kind of thing,” the director said. “There’s something very, very gay about the way they’re fetishizing looks and the gym.”
Exactly. It was always meant to be absurd — men obsessing over skincare routines and business cards, flexing their egos and muscles in locker rooms and boardrooms. It wasn’t praise; it was parody. And now? We’ve got people idolizing the exact thing the film was mocking.
But Harron didn’t stop there. She made it clear that American Psycho was a reflection of something much bigger — and scarier — than one man with an axe.
The film, she said, is “about a predatory society,” one that has only gotten worse since Bateman’s fictional killing spree. “The rich are much richer, the poor are poorer. I would never have imagined that there would be a celebration of racism and white supremacy, which is basically what we have in the White House. I would never have imagined that we would live through that.”
It’s unsettling to hear, but it’s also deeply real. Harron’s words hit harder when you realize how much American Psycho feels like a mirror to today’s world — a twisted, blood-spattered mirror reflecting power, privilege, and unchecked ego.
And just when you thought the Bateman saga might finally be put to rest, here comes another one. Yep, a brand-new take on Bret Easton Ellis’ novel is officially in development, this time from Challengers director Luca Guadagnino. The script’s been penned by Scott Z. Burns, and word on the street is that Austin Butler might be next in line to play the infamous killer — though nothing’s confirmed yet.
Patrick Bateman might be getting a new face soon, but whether the satire finally lands this time? That’s anyone’s guess.