Editorials
‘American Psycho 2’ – Reclaiming the Overhated Sequel as a Campy Slasher Comedy
Slapdash, direct-to-video horror sequels cropped up like weeds in the 2000s, but no title from this particular era continues to receive as much flak as American Psycho 2 (sometimes subtitled All American Girl). As people probably know by now, this began as an original movie called The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die before someone at Lionsgate had the bright idea to make it into a sequel to American Psycho. To say critics and audiences back then hated the decision would be an understatement. Yet in this time of constant reevaluation of overhated cinema, maybe Morgan J. Freeman‘s American Psycho 2 isn’t a complete misfire. Beyond the panning and massive studio meddling sits a dark and sometimes fun comedy that was never given a fair chance.
“Angrier, deadlier, sexier” says the tagline for American Psycho 2, but this lambasted sequel is far less lurid than its poster suggests. Before the present-day plot begins, the protagonist’s younger self is first seen in the past; Rachel Newman is brought along on her babysitter’s date with the homicidal Patrick Bateman (obviously not played by Christian Bale). As her babysitter bleeds out, Rachel takes an icepick to the unsuspecting Bateman. She then leaves the crime scene, never telling anyone where she was or what she did that day.
Later in college, Rachel (Mila Kunis) is put on the fast track to working for the FBI. All that stands in Rachel’s way are three other students in her behavioral studies program. But if Rachel can become her FBI-agent-turned-professor’s new TA, she’s practically guaranteed an acceptance to Quantico. Therein lies the main character’s problem; believing she can do good in the future, Rachel does bad things right now to achieve her dream. Her plan to win involves not only a murder spree all across campus, but also mind games that trap both Professor Starkman (William Shatner) and a distrustful campus counselor (Geraint Wyn Davies).
Image: Lionsgate
American Psycho was an aggressive and innovative satire about avarice and capitalism in the ‘80s. It blends cutting and insightful humor with shocking violence. Director Mary Harron punched up as well as reclaimed the scandalous source material, making sure her adaptation had its own identity. Once a misunderstood movie, critics have, by and large, come around to see American Psycho in a new light. Meanwhile, American Psycho 2 doesn’t concern grander themes about the state of society. This is no time capsule of a specific social or economic period, either. No, the sequel is straightforward and devoid of profound commentary.
Realizing American Psycho 2 was screwed over by studio tampering should afford it some mercy. After all, the studio ruined the movie’s chance for individuality by forcing a connection to something well-regarded and far more unique. There was no way this once unrelated story could measure up, even with retrofitting; the choice to sequelize was sprung on the cast and crew during production. With the initial shock out of the way, though, perhaps everyone can finally reassess the sequel. That tall order requires mentally excising the Bateman bits sprinkled throughout, and finding the remains of The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die.
Rachel is no Patrick Bateman. Christian Bale delivered an intense and full-bodied performance that many people still consider a career best for the actor. Bale had plain inspiration and drive for the role, whereas Mila Kunis was stuck in an unfortunate situation out of her control. The movie she signed up for had been twisted into something else, so her tepid performance could be a reflection of the behind-the-scenes changes. Regardless, Kunis has her moments here and there; she charms her way through an imperfect script, and, at times, even genuinely comes across as creepy.
Image: Lionsgate
American Psycho 2 doesn’t possess a novel story; it plays somewhat like a younger version of Cindy Sherman’s black-as-coal comedy and workplace slasher, Office Killer. What the sequel lacks in originality, though, it makes up for in occasional wry humor and visual gags. From Rachel strangling Robin Dunne’s entitled character with a condom — topped off with the oft quoted “ribbed for her pleasure” one-liner — to the amusing mental face-offs between the villain and her older male adversaries, the script is quite funny when it wants to be. Of course it has nothing on Bateman’s notorious, ax-wielding monologue about Huey Lewis, but few things in life are as effective.
American Psycho 2 isn’t exempt from the usual problems associated with DTV sequels. It feels and looks cheap, the acting is mostly unremarkable, there’s no distinct visual style to speak of, and the music soundtrack is too on the nose. The movie was shot in twenty days, so these shortcomings aren’t all that surprising. Would everything have turned out differently if the creatives had been allowed to make The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die? Maybe, but unless a Bateman-free director’s cut surfaces, no one will ever know.
As a continuation, American Psycho 2 fails to live up to its beloved predecessor; that was inevitable as soon as some higher-up made a foolish decision. But as a campy and quirky “good for her” comedy with a slasher element? That is something this disparaged sequel has going for itself.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
Image: Lionsgate
Due to a complex series of anthropological mishaps, the Wayans Brothers are a huge deal in Brazil. Around these parts, White Chicks is considered a national treasure by a lot of people, so it stands to reason that Brazilian audiences would continue to accompany the Wayans’ comedic output long after North America had stopped taking them seriously as comedic titans.
This is the only reason why I originally watched Michael Tiddes and Marlon Wayans’ 2013 horror spoof A Haunted House – appropriately known as “Paranormal Inactivity” in South America – despite having abandoned this kind of movie shortly after the excellent Scary Movie 3. However, to my complete and utter amazement, I found myself mostly enjoying this unhinged parody of Found Footage films almost as much as the iconic spoofs that spear-headed the genre during the 2000s. And with Paramount having recently announced a reboot of the Scary Movie franchise, I think this is the perfect time to revisit the divisive humor of A Haunted House and maybe figure out why this kind of film hasn’t been popular in a long time.
Before we had memes and internet personalities to make fun of movie tropes for free on the internet, parody movies had been entertaining audiences with meta-humor since the very dawn of cinema. And since the genre attracted large audiences without the need for a serious budget, it made sense for studios to encourage parodies of their own productions – which is precisely what happened with Miramax when they commissioned a parody of the Scream franchise, the original Scary Movie.
The unprecedented success of the spoof (especially overseas) led to a series of sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs that came along throughout the 2000s. While some of these were still quite funny (I have a soft spot for 2008’s Superhero Movie), they ended up flooding the market much like the Guitar Hero games that plagued video game stores during that same timeframe.
You could really confuse someone by editing this scene into Paranormal Activity.
Of course, that didn’t stop Tiddes and Marlon Wayans from wanting to make another spoof meant to lampoon a sub-genre that had been mostly overlooked by the Scary Movie series – namely the second wave of Found Footage films inspired by Paranormal Activity. Wayans actually had an easier time than usual funding the picture due to the project’s Found Footage presentation, with the format allowing for a lower budget without compromising box office appeal.
In the finished film, we’re presented with supposedly real footage recovered from the home of Malcom Johnson (Wayans). The recordings themselves depict a series of unexplainable events that begin to plague his home when Kisha Davis (Essence Atkins) decides to move in, with the couple slowly realizing that the difficulties of a shared life are no match for demonic shenanigans.
In practice, this means that viewers are subjected to a series of familiar scares subverted by wacky hijinks, with the flick featuring everything from a humorous recreation of the iconic fan-camera from Paranormal Activity 3 to bizarre dance numbers replacing Katy’s late-night trances from Oren Peli’s original movie.
Your enjoyment of these antics will obviously depend on how accepting you are of Wayans’ patented brand of crass comedy. From advanced potty humor to some exaggerated racial commentary – including a clever moment where Malcom actually attempts to move out of the titular haunted house because he’s not white enough to deal with the haunting – it’s not all that surprising that the flick wound up with a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite making a killing at the box office.
However, while this isn’t my preferred kind of humor, I think the inherent limitations of Found Footage ended up curtailing the usual excesses present in this kind of parody, with the filmmakers being forced to focus on character-based comedy and a smaller scale story. This is why I mostly appreciate the love-hate rapport between Kisha and Malcom even if it wouldn’t translate to a healthy relationship in real life.
Of course, the jokes themselves can also be pretty entertaining on their own, with cartoony gags like the ghost getting high with the protagonists (complete with smoke-filled invisible lungs) and a series of silly The Exorcist homages towards the end of the movie. The major issue here is that these legitimately funny and genre-specific jokes are often accompanied by repetitive attempts at low-brow humor that you could find in any other cheap comedy.
Not a good idea.
Not only are some of these painfully drawn out “jokes” incredibly unfunny, but they can also be remarkably offensive in some cases. There are some pretty insensitive allusions to sexual assault here, as well as a collection of secondary characters defined by negative racial stereotypes (even though I chuckled heartily when the Latina maid was revealed to have been faking her poor English the entire time).
Cinephiles often claim that increasingly sloppy writing led to audiences giving up on spoof movies, but the fact is that many of the more beloved examples of the genre contain some of the same issues as later films like A Haunted House – it’s just that we as an audience have (mostly) grown up and are now demanding more from our comedy. However, this isn’t the case everywhere, as – much like the Elves from Lord of the Rings – spoof movies never really died, they simply diminished.
A Haunted House made so much money that they immediately started working on a second one that released the following year (to even worse reviews), and the same team would later collaborate once again on yet another spoof, 50 Shades of Black. This kind of film clearly still exists and still makes a lot of money (especially here in Brazil), they just don’t have the same cultural impact that they used to in a pre-social-media-humor world.
At the end of the day, A Haunted House is no comedic masterpiece, failing to live up to the laugh-out-loud thrills of films like Scary Movie 3, but it’s also not the trainwreck that most critics made it out to be back in 2013. Comedy is extremely subjective, and while the raunchy humor behind this flick definitely isn’t for everyone, I still think that this satirical romp is mostly harmless fun that might entertain Found Footage fans that don’t take themselves too seriously.
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