American Psycho: 10 Differences Between The Book And The Movie

Christian Bale’s portrayal of banker and serial killer Patrick Bateman in the psychological horror film American Psycho is hard to forget. It is often thought of as his greatest ever performance, though Dark Knight fans will disagree. The supporting cast of the film was also made up of current A-listers, including Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto, and Willem Defoe.

American Psycho was adapted from the controversial 1991 novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis. Much of the dialogue in the book was kept the same way in the film, but there were a couple of differences between the two. While the novel drew much backlash, the movie was well-received by both audiences and critics. Here are the most notable differences.

10 Bateman’s Admission About His Sanity

After commuting a number of murders, Bateman comes to the realization that he indeed does have a mental problem. In the book, he calls an escort to his apartment and while she is leaving, he confesses to her how he thinks he is losing his mind.

In the movie, the same conversation happens, only that the escort is replaced with Bateman’s secretary Jean. For most of the movie, Jean expresses feelings of attraction towards Bateman, and he knows this, so he sees her as the perfect person to confess to. Sadly, Jean dies a short while later after getting dissected by a fallen chainsaw.

9 Homophobia

The book version of Bateman is extremely homophobic. Through his thoughts, he constantly criticizes gay people, and, on one occasion, he brutally murders an old gay man when he tries to hit on him at Central Park. As if that’s not enough, he goes head and strangles the man’s dog to death, too.

Christin Bale’s character in the movie kills senselessly, too but he doesn’t have an excessively violent attitude towards gay people. He only uses an expletive against members of the LGBTQ community once while chatting with his colleagues.

8 Obsession With Musicians

Bateman is disturbingly obsessed with musicians in the pages. In fact, the book almost threatens to be a commentary about the music industry. It dedicates three full chapters into talking about three specific popular singers at the time, namely: Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, and Huey Lewis.

By the time the movie came out, most of these singers were no longer as big as they used to be, so the movie leaves all that out. Bateman does express his love for music on a few occasions, but he doesn’t show any kind of obsession to celebrities as he does to his murder victims.

7 How Bateman Kills Bethany

In the book, Bateman meets his ex-girlfriend Bethany for lunch. The two have a very fruitful conversation as opposed to their usual arguments, so Bethany decides to accompany him back to his place. There, he kills her with a mace, stabs her repeatedly, then bites her fingers off. He then laughs uncontrollably.

The same great reunion date happens in the movie too. It is revealed that Bateman even wrote a poem for Bethany. Back at his apartment, he suffocates her with a plastic bag and shoots her repeatedly with a nail gun. He later confirms this to his lawyer.

6 The Murder Of A Young Boy

Bateman’s violence knows no limits in the novel. During a visit to the zoo, he slices a little boy’s neck. At the moment, the enjoys it, but he later voices his regret. He criticizes himself for killing the boy since children have no mistakes to pay for. After that incident, he vows to never commit such an act again.

This scene is scrapped from the movie. The movie version of Bateman makes his views about children clear during a dinner sitting. He states that he wishes adults were as uncorrupted as children. He has this view from the very beginning, as opposed to the book version who only ends up having this point of view after killing a child.

5 Bateman’s Watch

In both the movie and the book, Bateman is very sensitive about his watch. The watch is described as a Rolex Datejust 16013. Like musicians, Bateman is more obsessed with his watch in the book than in the movie. In fact, he mentions it a total of 26 times, but a problem emerged from this.

Apparently, the manufacturer of Rolex watches watch wasn’t happy about the heavy product placement in such a controversial book. The company thus barred the producers from including the watch in the movie. Consequently, a scene where Bateman tells two prostitutes “Don’t touch the Rolex!” in the novel was changed to “don’t touch the watch!” in the movie

4 Total Number Of Murders

Perhaps due to the limitations of time, the movie version of Bateman has way fewer on-screen victims than the book version. In the book, the serial killer murders more than 50 people within a short span of time before the story reaches its conclusion.

A total of 23 victims can be counted in the movie. However, a scene where Bateman’s secretary shows up as he is a reading a notebook shows more victims listed. This means that he killed way more people off-screen. The murders that are never shown happen to be the more gruesome ones from the book. This decision was definitely taken to make the film more palatable.

3 The Reasons For Bateman’s Actions

The beauty of the novel is that Bateman gives a reason for everything he has done or he is about to do. Before he murders someone, he gives a detailed explanation, ranging from the person’s habits to their beliefs. Of course, none of his explanations are justifications for murder, but the reader gets to understand why he making specific decisions.

This isn’t the case for Christian Bale’s interpretation of the character, who leaves a lot of things for audiences to figure out. Even though the plot flows smoothly, “why did he just do that?” is a question any viewer will ask a lot when watching the movie.

2 Level Of Violence

The level of violence in the novel is quite disturbing. Even singer Phil Collins, who is mentioned a lot in the book, refused to read it. The violent scenes are much more graphic, with entire pages dedicated to describing a single murder. As a result of its gruesome content, the novel was banned in several countries.

In the movie, there is nothing that hasn’t been witnessed before in other horror films. The kills are all within the realm of horror movie normalcy, and no scene stretches out more than it should. Some of the murder scenes are even thought of as creative. Movie Bateman also spares some people, while Book Bateman doesn’t.

1 Donald Kimball’s Age

In the book, Detective Donald Kimball is described as an ambitious and relentless young law enforcement officer about Bateman’s age. Bateman is 26, so that means Kimball is in his 20s, too. After Bateman kills Allen with an ax, Kimball is the first person to interrogate him about the murder.

Though his age is not stated, the Kimball portrayed in the movie is older. The character is played by Willem Defoe, who was in his mid-forties at the time the movie came out.

About The Author

Philip Etemesi
(1213 Articles Published)

Philip Etemesi is an author, journalist, screenwriter and film critic based in Nairobi. Kenya. As a child, he preferred watching movies like The Goodfellas instead of Home Alone. His girlfriend constantly has to pull him from the front of the TV but he just keeps returning. Stubborn dude! An animal lover, Philip also has a pet giraffe called Refu.

More From Philip Etemesi