The satirical horror film led by Christian Bale,American Psycho, received a long-forgotten sequel starring Mila Kunis just two years after its release, entitledAmerican Psycho 2. The stand-alone sequel toAmerican Psycho, also known asAmerican Psycho II: All American Girlon some promotional materials, was directed by then-up-and-coming indie film director Morgan J. Freeman. However, despite this pedigree, the project was a commercial failure.
Kunis portrayed criminology student and serial killer Rachael Newman seeking to join the FBI under the tutelage of Professor Starkman (William Shatner), a former FBI agent whom Rachael is obsessed with. It is revealed that Kunis’ Rachael was an impostor who killed the real Rachael and assumed her identity. Despite the film’s title and supposed attachment to Mary Harron’s 2000 film,American Psycho 2has virtually nothing to do with the originalAmerican Psychonor its star-studded cast. However, thanks to its associative title, the film’s failure has arguably helped tarnish the legacy of the original.
American Psycho Explained: What It Really Means
American Psycho is often cited as a complex and confusing film, but it’s too often misinterpreted due to its ending - here’s what the movie means.
American Pyscho 2 Wasn’t Originally Conceived As A Sequel
Lionsgate Capitalized Off Of American Psycho’s Success
Penned by Alex Sanger and Karen Craig, the slasher film was originally conceived asThe Girl Who Wouldn’t Die(viaThe Guardian).It had no association withAmerican Psychountil after production began, when the screenplay was altered to connect the film to the original. Although it is unclear exactly how much of the screenplay was altered, the primary — and perhaps, only — connection toAmerican Psychooccurs during the sequel’s opening scene.
Six years prior to the film’s main events, in 1993, 12-year-old Rachael (Jenna Perry) accompanies her babysitter on a date with Patrick Bateman. AfterBateman kills and dissects the babysitter, the child exacts brutal revenge, killing Bateman with an ice pick. Despite his character’s inclusion inAmerican Psycho 2, Christian Bale does not reprise his role as the titular serial killer. Instead, Patrick is played by Michael Kremko, wearing a face mask.
According to Ellis,The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die’s transformation into anAmerican Psychosequel stemmed from a disagreement between the author and Lionsgate(the studio that produced bothAmerican Psychofilms). Supposedly, during the production ofThe Rules of Attraction— a film adaptation of Ellis’ novel of the same name, directed by Roger Avary, in which Patrick’s brother Sean is the protagonist—Lionsgate, wanting to capitalize on the success ofAmerican Psycho, requested that a serial killer be included in the film’s plot (viaIGN). Ellis and Avary rejected the suggestion, leading the studio to shift their attention toThe Girl Who Wouldn’t Die.
In an interview with theNew York Post,prior toAmerican Psycho 2’s release, Ellis claimed to be unaware of the sequel, as well as Lionsgate’s intentions with the rights to the story. He also expressed confusion at the film’s billing as a sequel to Harron’s 2000 film adaptation. However, in the same interview, Ellis also said:
“I’ve even heard that they were thinking about doingAmerican Psycho in L.A.,American Psycho in Las Vegasand making a whole franchise out of it.” (viaIGN)
Why American Psycho’s Reviews Are So Bad
The Film Was Always Going To Fail
Despite Lionsgate’s intention to capitalize off the success of the original film,American Psycho 2was widely panned by critics upon its release. Whereas the original debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and garnered itself a cult following, the sequel received an 11% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, leading the studio to pull the film from its theatrical release. It was, instead, released direct-to-video on VHS and DVD.
Whereas the original film was a satirization of 1980s yuppie culture and consumerism, and ego-driven male behavior as seen through the female perspective, the sequel, by contrast, provided no further insight into American culture.
Many critics pointed toAmerican Psycho 2’s over-reliance on slasher techniques, lack of social commentary, and disconnection from the Bale-led filmas the reasons for the film’s failure. Whereas the original film was a satirization of 1980s yuppie culture and consumerism, and ego-driven male behavior as seen through the female perspective, the sequel, by contrast, provided no further insight into American culture. The film steered away from the realm of intelligent satire in favor of highlighting the more gruesome aspects of the original. Bale’s absence from AmericanPsycho 2is another reason for the sequel’s failure.
$7 million
$34.3 million
68%
$10 million
N/A
11%
This, however, does not mean that anAmerican Psychosequel with Bale at the forefront would have been a success. In fact, it may have been just as much of a failure, especially sinceAmerican Psycho’s ambiguous endingand uncertainty around Patrick Bateman’s crimes were intentional. Even if fans were hungry for more Patrick Bateman, that information was available.
As promotional material forAmerican Psycho,fans could register to receive emails “from” Patrick, in which he provided life updates a decade after the events of the film, such as his marriage and impending divorce from Jean (Chloë Sevigny), with whom he had a son, Patrick Jr. The emails were written by an unnamed writer attached to the film and approved by Ellis. They served as an “e-sequel” to the original novel rather than the film, but arguably made a sequel even more redundant.
Mila Kunis Regrets Doing American Psycho 2
The Franchise Will Not Continue
In 2005, Kunis — who, at the time, was primarily known for her role as Jackie Burkhart onThat ‘70s Show— expressed embarrassment over the film. She also rejected the idea ofAmerican Psycho 3despite not being connected to the project. In an interview with MTV, Kunis stated aboutAmerican Psycho 2,
“When I did the second one, I didn’t know it would beAmerican Psycho II. It was supposed to be a different project, and it was re-edited, but, ooh … I don’t know. Bad." (viaMTV)
Due toAmerican Psycho 2’s failure, any plans for a third installment in theAmerican Psychofranchise were canceled, although nothing definitive has been said on the subject. In 2013, FX and Lionsgate developed anAmerican Psychotelevision series that would serve as a direct sequel to the 2000 film in which a middle-aged Patrick Batemen would groom an apprentice in his image. This project, too, was canceled, and it seems as thougha further re-imagining of Ellis' novelis unlikely.
