American Psycho 2 - What not to do with our thriller opening

I absolutely loved the psychological thriller American Psycho. It was a creepy yet often funny satirical look at the power of money and Christian Bale shined as the disturbed, self obsessed Patrick Bateman - one of my personal favourite characters from any movie ever. However what not many people know is that American Psycho in fact spawned a cheap direct to video sequel, American Psycho 2: All American Girl. Often it is important to observe something bad, if only for the sake of remembering what makes something good. So in the name of our Thriller opening I decided to watch this movie to let me get an idea of what not to do with ours.

"TRY GETTING A RESERVATION AT DORSIA NOW YOU FU**KING STUPID B**STARD!"

The main area this movie flops in is originality. It is just from the start way too conventional and completely lacks all the things that made the first American Psycho so fantastic. The murders lead little to the imagination and the movie resembles more of a slasher than a psychological horror. The music is cringey, the shots are often boring and the acting is your bog standard horror rubbish. I always enjoy a bit of William Shatner though, no matter how serious he tries to act he will always remain hilarious in my eyes.

However, the movie isn't absolutely terrible. At most it is tolerable which is more than you can say for some of the tripe we are often exposed to in the world of cinema; it just lacks anything startlingly memorable. If there is something to take away from this movie and apply to our opening it is that we should try to be different. Being different will make our opening stand out from the crowd, and to a bored examiner who has to watch dozens of these will hopefully make it that extra bit interesting for them. Of course being different has its limitations, it often takes longer to create something that is not particularly typical, not to mention if it becomes too different it could just end up being weird and difficult to watch. But a little bit of originality often goes a long way.

James