8 Most Iconic Slasher Movie Death Scenes

3. American Psycho - It's Hip To Be Square

Like Scream, American Psycho's uses slasher tropes more for the sake of parody than actual terror. Patrick Bateman's excessive violence is meant to underscore the excess of his 80's yuppie lifestyle. The decade is appropriate considering it spawned most of the vapid schlock associated with the subgenre. As such, Batman's murders aren't particularly subtle. A scene that encapsulates the film's tone is when Bateman invites a rival colleague over to his house after getting him drunk. While Bateman prepares his murder implements, he loudly plays Huey Lewis and The News' "Hip To Be Square" while dancing and rattling off facts about the song. He then puts on a raincoat and cuts him down with an immaculately clean axe. And thus a meme was born. Aside from being hilarious, the scene also is a great commentary on Bateman and his culture. Bateman is obsessed with success, but only in the vein of uniformity. He loves the song "Hip To Be Square" because it champions that's it's good to be like everyone else. He kills Paul because he out-uniformed him with his "superior" business card. Such a mundane object would be meaningless to normal people but Bateman views it as a challenge to his status as the quintessential 80's businessman. Bateman manages to combine the insane motivations of slashers and the vapid motivations of one-percenters.