Psycho Killer, Christian Bale

With the release of his 1991 novel, the darkly comical and ground-breaking American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis confirmed his place as a star in the world of contemporary literature, telling the tale of Patrick Bateman, a 1980s Wall Street investment banker, stuck somewhere between local celebrity and being lost in the shuffle, who serially and unmercifully murders both his peers and the lowlifes of New York City while teetering on the brink of sanity and skirting the law. The sheer brutality of it all, told with frightening detail, made the novel somewhat controversial upon its release. But it also made it a hit, and when the book was adapted for the silver screen in 2000, its notoriety only grew. Starring a pre-Batman Begins Christian Bale (in a role not all that different from the swanky playboy Bruce Wayne sometimes must become), the film is slightly less gory than the book, almost certainly due to MPAA ratings concerns. Still, it’s as close to a must-watch as there is in the serial murder black comedy genre. And it’s back on the big screen playing at midnight Friday and Saturday at the Inwood Theatre, 5458 W. Lovers Lane. Call 214-764-9106.

May 17, midnight, 2008