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1. The Representation
of the Dominant
Male in American
Psycho
By Rebecca Osborne

2. American Psycho
A wealthy bank investor hides his alternate psychopathic ego
from his co-workers and his friends as he escalates deeper into
his illogical fanatics, in the end we find out that all his psychotic
killings are all in his head and he has just imagined his and made
doodles of his killings in a book.
Patrick Bateman is seen as a dominate powerful male, that is
obsessed with self-image and this could be seen as appealing to
women, but he goes crazy with having so much power and uses
women to undermine them and make himself feel dominate in
all aspects of his life his job and personal life. He’s seen as the
perfect man at the beginning of the film, the perfect body, mind
and lifestyle and this is challenged by the psychopathic character
he turns out to be, which could be suggests that with such
power over every aspect of his life and being so in control leads
to mental break down from such a powerful person.

3. Patrick Bateman –
The dominant male.
In this screen shot we can see the main character looking
dominate and brave and being in complete control. Here
we see a lot of examples of Mise en Scene being used, one
being the costume he is wearing which is a suit. Suits are
normally related to power which is befitting of this
character, in thrillers we mostly see the characters with the
most power being the one destroying others’ lives and this
is evident in this film. The use of the weapon being an axe
instead of a simplistic weapon such as a gun or knife shows
his power of wanting to destroy that person’s life in the
most brutal way possible, to show that he has that sort of
power and likes to see the suffering of others. This is typical
of a psychopath in thriller films they are seen to have such
power and self-apparent self-control that they mentally
destroy themselves and want to bring down others with
them. We also his stern facial expression as he stares at the
weapon and this shows he is not fazed by what he Is about
to do, as if he needs to do this to prove his dominance, it is
typical to see men being comfortable with weapons within
thrillers and this is evidently seen here. Overall we see the
typical stereotype of the male being seen here through the
use of Mise en Scene, through the stern facial expression,
the use of a violent prop and the costume. All this
contributes to the stereotypical psychopathic dominant
male that is seen in the thriller genre.

4. Patrick Bateman –
The dominant male.
In this screen shot we see a low shot being used to
convey the characters dominance and showing
how powerful he is. Low shots are effective in
thrillers as they give the audience a good idea of
the dominance in characters and show them the
powerful character and just how powerful they
are. This scene could have been very different if a
high shot was used as it could convey that he
himself had been injured as is screaming for help.
As a low shot has been used it shows the complete
opposite that he has the blood of the people he
has killed on him and his facial expression of him
screaming with the thrill of doing It, therefore this
shows the effect of the positioning of the camera
and how it can change the audience perception of
a character. Thrillers use these shots mainly on the
main character as seen here and create the effect
that even the audience may feel dominated and
scared by this stereotypical dominant male.
Altogether the use of the low shots creates the
stereotypical dominant psychotic male that has
been overtaken by power and is no longer in
control.