Director Mary Harron's American Psycho, portrays a man who appears socially, financially, and culturally successful to the outside world. But the same culture that he strives to conquer seems to lead him to horrible acts of violence. The mere idea of committing the acts of violence shows the downfalls of our current society. Some of these downfalls may be loss of respect for others, and a money driven mentality. Driven by Greed, Harron's Patrick Bateman is continually striving for improvements in his physical appearance, financial/social status, and masculinity. This continual need for improvement and desire for perfection by Patrick mirrors our American work ethic. .
American Psycho's Patrick illustrates how his economic and social stature can mask his serial killer mentality. In a scene where he discusses movie reviews with his secretary while holding a nailgun to the back of her head. She .
has no idea of the nail-gun and thinks he is a normal, sane person because of his high social status. As he lures women back to his fancy apartment, he is using his money and nice things as a tool to commit these acts of violence. This ironic twist of a man's mentality relates to how what Newitz refers to as "economic performance anxiety" could force someone to do strange things as a result of a fear of imperfection.
The interest of watching the cinema of serial murders may relate to an insanity caused by our own culture. Our capitalist society, although leads to some very financially successful people, may have deep emotional drawbacks to those that choose to participate in its workforce. The book Mythologies of Violence in Postmodern Media, edited by Christopher Sharrett discusses "a desire to consume infinitely" that is present in our current economic society's mind. This need for things, such as expensive cars, and nice houses logically leads people to jobs that produce adequate amounts of money.
