10 Psychological Thrillers That Totally Messed With Your Head
4. American Psycho
As Mary Harron's 2000 adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' 1991 novel arrived in cinemas mere months after the similarly-themed Fight Club, the film wasn't met with the hugest reaction on release (global box office of $34 million, by contrast with Fight Club's $100 million).
Critics and audiences were also somewhat taken aback by how mild the film's violence was, compared to the notoriously excessive brutality which made the book both a huge controversy magnet, and a must-read bestseller.
However, Harron and leading man Christian Bale - still a relatively lesser-known actor at the time - were more interested in bringing us into the warped mind of the deranged Wall Street yuppie Patrick Bateman, exploring the psyche of someone whose drive for power and money goes hand in hand with amoral sadism.
More interested in prodding brains than spilling guts, American Psycho also messes with our perceptions of what is or is not real, with the climactic suggestion that Bateman's hideous crimes may be going on in his head alone.