American Psycho II: All American Girl [2002]

A prime example, following Henry 2: Mask of Sanity, of a serial killer sequel that tries with dismal results to turn an unrepeatable one-off into a franchise. The nameless protagonist [Mila Kunis] explains in voice-over that she became fascinated with serial murder when, as a fourteen-year-old, her babysitter dragged her along on a date with Patrick Bateman, the original American Psycho, whereupon she escaped from bondage and deftly killed the killer. In the present day, she has assumed the name and college place of orphan student 'Rachael Newman' and is taking a course on serial murder under a distinguished professor [William Shatner] but finds she needs to commit a string of murders in order to gain a position as the professor's teaching assistant, which is a stepping stone to a place on the FBI's prestigious course at Quantico. Cheery and shallow, she finds that a school psychiatrist [Geraint Wyn Davies] is on her trail, but breezes without Bateman-like inner torment through standardised campus killings until her happy ending.

Vaguely realising that the original was as much a satire as a horror film, this does try to play as a comedy, almost like a darker version of Legally Blonde, but the Poison Ivy DTV series has already done to death the theme of the killer teen princess and Kunis isn't even as chilling as Reese Witherspoon in Election. Utterly pointless. Directed by Morgan J. Freeman.
KIM NEWMAN

First published in this form here.

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