10 Most Unreliable Movie Narrators Of All Time

There are several valid readings regarding the mental state of one Patrick Bateman (spoiler: it’s not tip-top, the movie is called American Psycho). Mary Harron’s film portrays Bateman as a sadistic and unfeeling killer, and seems to imply that all of his killings are true events that literally occur within the story. On the other hand, Brett Easton Ellis’s novel is more ambiguous, and heavily implies that the killings may have been delusions.

Dig a little deeper into the film, and Easton Ellis’s vision starts to ring true. Despite having murdered his co-worker Paul with an axe earlier on in the movie, Patrick is later surprised to learn that another colleague had lunched with Paul in London a few days ago.

This calls into question Bateman’s version of events – did he ever actually kill anyone, or was it all just a delusion brought on by his growing narcissism and un-quenched thirst for violent catharsis? As he says at the very end of the film: “this confession has meant nothing.” Perhaps it only meant nothing, because none of it was true.