Understanding The Movie 'American Psycho'

Decent Essays
In order to understand the movie American Psycho you have to remember the details of the sequence leading up to it and it all begins with a rather innocuous act, Patrick Bateman taking a trip to the ATM. Like just about everyone else in the film, Harold begins by confusing Bateman for somebody else, and is fully convinced that the message he was left was just a prank - with the punch line being the idea of a dork like Patrick Bateman being a serial killer. Running around without direction, he enters an office building, and while it’s not Pierce & Pierce, the security guard on duty still calls out to him with recognition referring to Bateman as "Mr. The lead character doesn’t have much of a problem with this idea, and there just so happens to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    When analysing Hitchcock’s Psycho, it is clear why it has been labelled as a horror. Although Norman Bates is not a monster in the physical form, his monster-like nature is within his human psyche. There are many reasons for this film to be regarded as a “horror”, the imagery of the old dark house is typical of “horror”, being set in an isolated place, off the beaten track presents a clearly gothic setting where as little as the appearance of a single woman unleashes forces of sexual assault, murder and incest. The feeling of being alone and isolated during a horrific situation creates tension as well as suspense within its audience, in Psycho the isolated setting brings a sense of fear mainly through the idea of the unknown. Isolated settings…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Psychotic Tendencies Allie McConnell Brenau University Psychotic Tendencies Antisocial personality disorder, otherwise known as psychopathy, is a personality disorder in which a person has a lack of conscience for wrongdoing (Myers 2014). They tend to be aggressive and ruthless (Myers 2014).…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    What’s got Billy so Spooked? Kurt Vonnegut. American World War Two survivor and famous author published Slaughterhouse-Five in 1969, 24 years after his experiences in World War Two. More specifically, his time as a prisoner of war (POW) and his survival of the Dresden bombing. The protagonist of this sci-fi anti-war novel, Billy Pilgrim, went through similar events as his auth0r however dealt with them much differently.…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    People often ponder if there is an unconscious drive behind their actions. The psychoanalytical theory explores the causes of Norman Bates’ crime within what makes him up. It suggests that his misconduct is the result of disturbances in his emotional development from his early childhood. The traumatic upbringing he suffered may have led him to developing antisocial tendencies that encouraged his long-term psychological troubles. The psychoanalytical theory claims that he represses many of his feelings and desires that prompt his actions driven by his unconscious mind.…

    • 2579 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Clarence Darrow once stated that “there is no such crime as a crime of thought; there are only crimes of action.” As it is, crime is inevitable for a living person in the long run. Suppose, one drove into the red light at the traffic intersection or a student lit cigarette inside the school zone, both are accountable for crimes with the consequences. Crime is a crime for the action a person has committed, and the only difference is consequences depending on how big the crimes are. During the research, my purpose of the paper is to discuss on how Alfred Hitchcock presented his movie overlooking the known historical person for his crimes, Ed Gein.…

    • 1847 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Psycho English Assignment 1:) The opening moments of Psycho suggest a documentary, with exact time and place indicated. What might be a viewer’s expectations after such an opening? 1.) Answer:…

    • 1397 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    “By studying culture as something created and lived through objects, we can better understand both social structures and larger systemic dimensions such as human action, emotion and meaning,” (Woodward, 4). The truth of the American horror film. To better understand western culture and the connection between the object and the human. This connection is linked between western ideologies. These films draw on western cultures deepest fears and vulnerabilities.…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While the heart acts as batteries, which keeps the body moving. It is the conscious human mind that makes individuals what they are. It is the human mind, which establishes an individual from one another. When the conscious human mind is distorted, it is referred to as a mental illness. Mental illnesses affects the conscious minds mood, thinking and behavior.…

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Psycho (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock thrills the audience with its suspense, and creeps the audience with the mind of Norman Bates. Often times in the film, what makes a scene scary is not with what is shown, but what is implied. The viewers often know more than the characters themselves, full of suspense and anticipation to the fate of each characters. Psycho, being a psychological thriller, ends up having much of the characters having something to hide from other characters, as well as the viewers.…

    • 1850 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The movie “Girl, Interrupted” is based on patients admitted into a mental institution, all for various amounts of time and is set in the 1960’s. The first person who will be discussed is the patient Susanna Kaysen and her eighteen-month stay. The second main character that will be discussed in this paper is Lisa Rowe. This paper will also pertain to various other patients who the author of this paper deemed important to the abnormal psychology class and its lessons.…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the film industry, Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho has revolutionized the horror genre with his ways of merging the obvious with the mysterious. Alfred Hitchcock, ‘Master of Suspense,’ is known for his filming techniques which made his film stand out compared to other horror films during his period. Hitchcock used these techniques throughout the film Psycho to allow the viewers to get an insight of what is happening in the film. One of the most important scenes, where Hitchcock used several of techniques to reveal the film, is the parlor scene. The shot-by-shot analysis of the parlor scene is characterized by dialogue, lighting, symbols, and the four-quadrant rule.…

    • 1373 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Alfred Hitchcock was a film director from England who moved the United States in 1939. He was famously known as the “Master of Suspense”. Hitchcock’s golden years of his cinema career were from the 1950’s to the 1960’s. During this time, he made various famous films, such as Vertigo, North by the Northwest, and Psycho. When we compare these films it’s hard to find something they might have in common.…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Callum Watt 000873235-3 Soundtrack Analysis - Psycho In the clip that we are provided (known as “The Murder) we are given a very famous and influential scene from one of Alfred Hitchcock's most critically acclaimed films. Bernard Herrmann, the composer for the movie did a sensational soundtrack with a low budget, and even went against Hitchcock’s wishes of the score to be jazz based. With the low budget instead of using an entire orchestra Herrmann only used strings to create an arguably more tense and dark feel to the movie, Fred Steiner, in an analysis of the score to Psycho, points out that “string instruments gave Herrmann access to a wider range in tone, dynamics, and instrumental special effects than any other single instrumental group…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As I sat and watched this movie for the second time in my life, I could view it a little differently than I had before. The first time I watched this, I was with my roommate who absolutely loves this movie. She talked about how amazing it was and finally I gave in and I said, “Let’s watch it.” I watched it like I would watch any new movie, paying attention to the story, not knowing there was a real science behind it. This time when I watched it, I could see the story from a whole different angle.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Primal Fear Movie Analysis

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Study on Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear The movie Primal Fear explores the journey of defense attorney, Martin Vail, as he defends his client, Aaron Stampler. Aaron is charged with murdering the Archbishop of the Catholic Church in Chicago and appears to be just a young altar boy with a speech impediment.…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays