Jingle Bells! Twilight smells! Brundle-Fly laid an egg! Patrick Bateman killed his date, and Luke Lerner got away!
’Tis the season, and whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or none of the above, the Cadaver Dogs are here for this final episode of the year to talk about psychopaths. (What’d you expect? Family and togetherness?) Psychopathy is a real illness, but what does it mean when someone lacks empathy? Does this excuse the terrible behavior of the men in these movies? Or are they just expressing their fragile toxic masculinity, no different from any other misogynist?
In Mary Harron’s AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000), a brilliantly crazed Christian Bale guides us through these questions and more. We discuss serial killers, privilege, homophobia, and of course author Bret Easton Ellis, upon whose novel the film is based. But perhaps it’s BETTER WATCH OUT (2016) where we find a more realistic example of budding psychopathy, forcing us to turn to our textbooks to check if it’s even possible to diagnose a literal child. Both men impose their will upon the women in their lives, treating them (and really everyone) as mere objects to be owned. Do they even know it’s Christmas??
Up Next: SAINT MAUD (2019) / HOUR OF THE WOLF (1968)
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The Psychopathy Test (tweet us your results!!)
https://psychopathyis.org/screening/tripm/
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“Bret Easton Ellis: Women Can’t Direct” by Irin Carmon
https://jezebel.com/bret-easton-ellis-women-cant-direct-5541738
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Send us your film suggestions at:
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Cover art by Omri Kadim. Theme by Adaam James Levin Areddy. Music featured in this episode: “Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer” and “Deck the Halls” composed by Myuu.