American Psycho 2


Bad poster! I don’t recall her using a sickle to kill anyone in this!

When she was just 12-years-old, a young girl was witness to serial killer Patrick Bateman’s last kill, but miraculously manages to make it out of that situation alive. Six years later, that same girl is now a criminology student at Washington University. After excelling in school and pushing through her undesirable family life, her next goal is to become the teaching assistant of Professor Starkman, a prestigious former FBI agent. Almost all of Starkman’s former assistants went on to be highly recommended to the FBI training program in Quantico, Virginia, so getting that position is essentially a fast-track to her ultimate life goals. The only problem is she’s not the only shoe-in for the job. There are at least 3 other students vying for that position, and between the suck-up, the idiot with money, and the gal who’s sleeping with the teacher, none of them live up to her rigorous personal standards. Plus, they’re in her bloody way and that just won’t do. So she’s going to have to go to creative extremes to get rid of all the competition, while also staying one step ahead of the annoying school psychologist who just so happens to be suspicious of her and all the people around her who have suddenly gone missing.


I don’t think she cares

I wasn’t sure what to watch this month, but then I saw this pop up on my suggestion feed and figured it was a sign that it was again time to dedicate another month to getting through a couple more horror sequels. Before hitting play I only knew two things about American Psycho 2. The first is that it stars Mila Kunis, something that’s kinda hard to miss since she’s so predominantly featured on all the promotional material. And the second is that it was horribly derided upon release, to the point where even Kunis at some point apologized for it being a bad idea. I’m not sure if that apology was 100% necessary though, cause while the film may not be that great, it’s really not all that bad either. Or at least it’s not bad enough for it to be comparable to something like the ultra cringe-y Clooney/Batman catastrophe.



To be clear though, when I say the movie isn’t that bad, I mean that in a general “it’s not that bad of a slasher/horror movie” kind of way. Cause it’s really not. I’ve seen far, FAR worse attempts to make a horror movie. Where they screwed up is that they tried to connect it to an existing property. Because even without me having to read about it not initially being connected to the first film, you can tell pretty quickly that this movie was likely originally conceived as something else entirely, most likely as some sort of standard teenage slasher flick. But then American Psycho turned out to be REALLY popular, and the studio heads got their hands on this script and retooled it as a sequel. Had they left it as a standalone venture, the film would have been perfectly fine. Because if viewed like a standard slasher that’s what it is: fine. But as a sequel? It stinks. It does. I totally agree with those assessments.



I mean, honestly, I have to give kudos to the writers for their herculean efforts to link this movie to the first film, because from what I’ve read I don’t think they started that task until production was already underway, and to their credit they did at least try to mirror some of the plotlines to the original film to help connect them more. The main character’s narcissism, their contempt of everyone around them, the delusions, the meticulous planning, the dark humor, the characters almost complete disconnect from the carnage around them, it’s all there. But while many of the pieces may have been recreated and adapted to a different situation, they still… Well, they missed the point. The first film was a dark satire about consumerism and annoying yuppies from the 80s. But the “sequel” is just following one girl’s obsession with making it into a certain school and stabbing (or strangling, or bludgeoning) anyone who might get in her way. One could certainly try to make the argument that the film is a commentary on unrealistic academic expectations and the obsession with getting into the right institution. And while that is totally a movie I would be down to watch some day, at no point does this movie ever feel like it’s trying to be all that deep. It’s kind of trying to, but whatever points they were aiming at feel superficial or even accidental, at best. So instead the movie just ends up feeling like a light psychological horror film that’s trying to emulate Scream in order to appeal to the teen crowd. So they went from something that was trying to make a point, to just editing something together and trying to make it appeal to the lowest common denominator. Boo.



None of that of course is the fault of the cast or crew, who all did a commendable job with what they were given and the slew of changes I’m sure they had to make mid-production. Cause like I said, if viewed by itself the film really ain’t that bad. The movie actually had a decent budget for a direct-to-video film. And while I did think that the soundtrack was a little (or rather super) annoying in its clear attempt to be “hip” (those be some super cringe-y, dated tunes, ya’ll), the production values overall were actually fairly decent, so the movie ends up looking pretty good. It’s not nearly as violent as its predecessor, with most of the deaths being non-bloody or happening just off screen ( the budget wasn’t that decent), but it still sports an impressively high body count.


I actually liked this death…

Hell, even the acting is good. William Shatner has a part in this, and I think it may be one of the least annoying roles I think I’ve seen him in. And I think poor Mila got the brunt of the hate for this movie, but she didn’t deserve it. She actually plays a really good disassociating, manipulative, psychotic loon with a sarcastic streak. And despite killing over half a dozen people she still ends up being the most likable character in the whole story. Some of the characters can feel a little…shall we say ‘extreme’ in their trope-yness. But if you view this movie as the dark comedy/parody I think it was aiming for, I think that characterization makes a lot of sense.



I honestly feel a little bad for American Psycho 2. If the studio had just left well enough alone it would probably be remembered as a fun little time waster of a horror movie. Something with a cute lead that was a little clever, and a little funny, and really easy to put on in the background and giggle along with at the occasional silly quip after a death scene. But no. The studios had to try to link it to a movie that a lot of people are uncomfortably obsessed with and… Well, that was just never going to end well. Especially when those obsessed fans realized that their beloved Patrick Bateman was killed off in the first three minutes. I’m sure that didn’t help. But while I will admit that it is a bad sequel, I still contend that it is a decent movie. Not great mind you, but decent. At least I was amused enough by it not to understand all of the vitriol. So if you can get passed the whole “sequel” thing and just want a quick, easy teen slasher to watch, then this one ended up being better than I expected. But if you hold American Psycho up as something sacred…then don’t even bother.

American Psycho 2 is available on a variety of streaming services.

American Psycho 2 is also available on DVD and Bluray.

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