Patrick Bateman, the titular fiend in Bret Easton Ellis' 1991 novel, "American Psycho," is still wreaking his name-brand eighties havoc well into 2000. How do I know? Well, along with 45,000 other Web voyeurs, I signed up to receive email missives from Bateman--penned by Ellis himself--in advance of the "American Psycho" movie release.

Falling somewhere on the clever meter between the "Scream 3" Internet campaign and the "Blair Witch" phenomenon, this marketing ploy actually rises to the literary level--a month's worth of Ellis-as-Bateman notes which include the shocking news that the killer now has a kid, a therapist and an ex-wife--and gives new meaning to the term viral marketing. Talk about rising above the requisite NC-17 rating and soundtrack controversies.

It's fitting that the film of Ellis' brand-name obsessed satire of the Go-Go Eighties would get noticed for its marketing campaign. And beyond the well-toned lead performance of Christian Bale, that may be about all the film is remembered for.

Reviewers have called the Mary Harron-directed tale of a Wall Street trader/"murders-and-executions" expert a "'Crash' with name-dropping," "a cheesy mid-eighties slasher film," "a character in search of a plot," "the sickest joke you ever heard--stretched out to 104 minutes," and a "cartoonishly overstated burlesque of soulless yuppies, conspicuous consumption and upscale moral bankruptcy." "You may be wondering about the story right about now," one critic writes, "but there really isn't one."

What there is, apparently, is a dark satire of an easy-to-skewer era that will appeal most to the suitably ironic dotcommanders who probably should be taking notes about the dark side of excess in between knowing guffaws.

Frank Sennett

Newcity.com affiliates take a stab at "American Psycho":

CULTURE CLUBBING
"American Psycho" author Bret Easton Ellis on guilty pleasures, illogical musical tastes and "High Fidelity"

AMERICAN SICKO
Materialism doesn't inevitably lead to murder, but Patrick Bateman is set up as the special exception that proves the rule

BORED STIFF
Controversial "American Psycho" is a lulling thriller

THE PSYCHO MALE PSYCHE
"American Psycho" works because it actually portrays how women really see men, and why men really hate themselves

URGE FOR OVERKILL
"American Psycho" overindulges in the dreadfully obvious

PSYCHO KILLER
Squeaky-clean eighties star Huey Lewis tries to keep blood off his hands by asking to be removed from the "American Psycho" soundtrack

IF IT ONLY HAD A HEART
"American Psycho" is a tastefully offensive film that lacks only heart

MORPHIN' MANIAC
Brett Easton Ellis' savage serial killer is a more detached, clinical murderer in the film adaptation of "American Psycho"

THE EXISTENTIAL EXECUTIONER
Don't malign it because it's violent; "American Psycho" is one of the year's best films

BLOOD PRESSURES
Christian Bale's killer performance heightens "American Psycho"'s dark yuppie satire

CUTTING-EDGE SATIRE
The film version of "American Psycho" is better than the novel--but what isn't?

EASY WAY OUT
It's clever at times, but "American Psycho" is not the compelling satire it wants to be

SOUNDS OF PSYCHO
John Cale discusses composing the original soundtrack for "American Psycho"

UGLY AMERICAN?
This film's beauty is more than skin deep

SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN
"American Psycho" is no more "the most disgusting film of the year" than it is the wittiest

GUTTED
Bret Easton Ellis' ice-cold and ultra-violent "American Psycho" has been joked up and toned down by Mary Harron

SUIT TO KILL
Patrick Bateman is the best-dressed serial killer you'll ever see

YOU SLAY ME
"American Psycho" the movie accomplishes what the novel doesn't

THAT'S NOT FUNNY, THAT'S SICK
Yuppie slasher satire "American Psycho" fails to amuse

ELEGANTLY WASTED
"American Psycho" proves a stylish but rather airless black comedy

HOSTILE TAKEOVER
"American Psycho"'s serial killer is the ultimate eighties man

PSYCHO'S SECOND CHANCE
Mary Harron's "American Psycho" aims to turn one of the most-maligned books of the nineties into a biting silver-screen satire

PSYCH OUT
Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner discuss the brutal making and unmaking of "American Psycho"

THEN, AGAIN
A feminist-updated "American Psycho" makes the eighties seem both far away and far too close

GREED IS (NOT) GOOD
What Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner see in the Bret Easton Ellis novel is a razor-sharp dissection of greed-is-good culture, not a slasher film in designer duds

DAY TRADER, NIGHT TRIPPER
Mary Harron directs a few killings on the market

BEYOND THE BOOK
The film version of "American Psycho" manages to improve on its source, but can't quite overcome the inherent limitations of the material

CLEANING UP THE GORE
With a focus on its self-consumed antihero, "American Psycho" is downplayed for celluloid

SLAUGHTER & LAUGHTER
Christian Bale gleams in the razor-sharp "American Psycho"