8 Ridiculous Film Theories That Completely Miss The Point

5. It Was All In Patrick Bateman's Head

Towards the end of Mary Harron's American Psycho, Patrick Bateman has a total breakdown and a lot of really weird stuff starts to happen (like an ATM asking Bateman to feed it a cat). There are bunch of widely circulated theories out there that suggest the whole thing was completely imagined by Bateman, and that he didn't actually kill anyone. According to theorists, this breakdown scene is proof that none of it is actually real. Aside from the fact that the one thing that would lead to a mental breakdown is torturing and murdering a bunch of people, this theory disregards the entire societal criticism that the film hinges on. The whole reason that Bateman gets away with so many murders is because of how narcissistic and internalised Bateman's society is, and how interchangeable its characters are. This is also the reason why nobody listens to Bateman when he tries to confess €“ nobody gives a crap about anybody but themselves. It's got nothing to do with Bateman never killing anybody and everything to do with the entire theme of the film: criticising yuppie culture. Without the murders, there is no criticism, just a film about a mentally unstable businessman.