These days, when we think of Christian Bale, it’s usually his role as Batman that springs to mind, or his myriad award-winning roles in prestige films. Also The Prestige. But before any of those, Bale became iconic for a far less savory character. Namely, killer ’80s Wall Street brat Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. Now, one YouTuber named ParkinArt has made a short video showing how American Psycho would look like if adapted into an anime. And we must say, we now wish this was a whole dang movie. You can watch the brief video right here:
The video shows off Bale’s character, Patrick Bateman, in one of his most iconic getups from the film. One from a harrowing scene where he’s wearing a raincoat to protect himself from blood spatter right before a grisly ax murder. (Where do you think Dexter got the idea?) It also has a Chibi version of Bateman, only this time in his three-piece suit from his day job. Of course, a sped-up version of Huey Lewis and the News’ “Hip to be Square” plays over the trailer. Yet another nod to one of American Psycho’s most iconic and ironic uses of music.
Before taking on the part of Bateman in the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ cult novel, Christian Bale was most famous as a child actor in films like Empire of the Sun. But American Psycho saw everyone look at Bale in a whole new light. It’s likely that without the recognition he got from playing a deranged killer, he might not have been cast as Bruce Wayne. But this anime short kind of makes us wish he’d return to the role one more time, in animated form. Only, for the full movie, don’t play a sped-up version of the Huey Lewis song. Just leave the original one in, thank you.
