The Big Picture

Dissonant soundtracks are a popular way to create tension in horror movies, and the use of unexpected music can be more effective and jarring. The use of Huey Lewis and the News’ “Hip to Be Square” in American Psycho is a standout example of a non-creepy song in a dark, violent film. American Psycho is a psychological horror film that explores the mind of a disturbing serial killer, and its unique approach makes it unsettling and dangerous to watch.

Dissonant soundtrack choices have been a relatively popular way to cause unease or tension within a film, and it’s a technique fairly common to horror movies. It’s one thing to have a moody, typically creepy score in a horror movie that fits the eerie visuals on screen; look no further than the kind of music John Carpenter often composes for his own movies, the most iconic of which is probably the score of Halloween. There’s also the unsettling passage of music from Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells that was used in The Exorcist, which has become something of an unofficial theme for The Exorcist series (it even got remixed/updated in the disappointing 2023 film The Exorcist: Believer). But the clash of music that’s not usually considered creepy with an unsettling scene is sometimes more effective, thanks to how jarring it can feel. While not necessarily a horror movie, the use of “Singin’ in the Rain” in A Clockwork Orange might well be the most infamous example of this. Yet to focus on the horror genre, the best example could well be the use of “Hip to Be Square” by Huey Lewis and the News in the darkly comedic/satirical psychological horror film that is American Psycho.

Based on the controversial novel by Bret Easton Ellis, the 2000 film adaptation of American Psycho tones down certain parts of the source material significantly, but nonetheless still packs a punch. It centers on an investment banker named Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) who lives a lavish life in New York City and appears to have it pretty easy, at least by day. However, by night, he appears to be either a dangerous serial killer or someone who believes he’s a dangerous serial killer, with his psychological state being less and less comprehensible as the film goes on, and the scenes of violence become more bizarre. It’s an effective takedown of the finance world and capitalism/consumerism gone mad, and it notably uses a memorable song by the iconic 1980s pop/rock band Huey Lewis and the News to help put forth its satirical elements. With an upbeat pop song used in such a dark, violent, and at times angry movie, it makes for quite the impact, with the legendary scene at the center of it all ultimately making it hard to think about “Hip to Be Square” without also thinking about Christian Bale killing Jared Leto with an ax.

Who Is Huey Lewis and What’s the News?

Fittingly enough, Huey Lewis was the frontman of Huey Lewis and the News, comparable to how Bruce Springsteen has The E Street Band, and Tom Petty had his Heartbreakers. The band collectively might not be super well-known nowadays but was at its peak of popularity throughout the 1980s. Given American Psycho is set during this decade – and the novel itself was published shortly after the 1980s had finished – it makes sense for the band to be brought up. If anything, the music of Huey Lewis and the News lives on most through movie soundtracks; not just limited to American Psycho, either.

There are Huey Lewis and the News songs found on the soundtrack for Back to the Future, for example, with Lewis himself also having a cameo in that comedy/science fiction classic. It’s also not too surprising to have at least one song of the band’s pop in Stranger Things, either (specifically, “Workin’ for a Livin'” is heard in the opening episode of the show’s third season), given that the show’s 1980s setting and frequent use of pop music of the time. Still, with the possible exception of Back to the Future, no other movies really come close to being as directly linked to this band’s music than American Psycho, which not only features their song “Hip to Be Square” prominently but addresses it in dialogue… and exceptionally memorable dialogue at that.

What Happens in ‘American Psycho’s “Hip to Be Square” Scene?

Though the “Hip to Be Square” scene isn’t the first point in the movie where Patrick Bateman is shown to be a violent, terrifying murderer (or imagining himself being a murderer), it still happens relatively early on. Bateman’s first victim in the film is a homeless man (played by Reg E. Cathey) whom Bateman kills seemingly out of frustration from his work life, particularly revolving around the fact that a co-worker, Paul Allen (Jared Leto) has a better business card than him. Whether or not Paul Allen really is better than Bateman, or whether the rivalry is completely ridiculous and maybe even non-existent doesn’t matter to Bateman, who eventually decides the only way to deal with Allen is to kill him. Bateman brings him back to his apartment after getting Allen very drunk, to the point where Allen seems unfazed by Bateman’s odd behavior and the amount of plastic covering the surfaces of his apartment. But before Paul gets up close and personal with Bateman’s ax, he gets to hear a rant about Huey Lewis and the News.

Patrick Bateman launches into a monologue that’s perhaps one of the most iconic parts of American Psycho, his spiel beginning with the now legendary line: “Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?” Whether he truly believes what he’s saying about the band being similar to Elvis Costello or 1987’s Fore being their most accomplished album, he’s saying it just to distract Paul while he prepares to murder him, or he’s saying it because that’s what he thinks a “normal” person would say is all a bit up in the air. That becomes clearer as the movie becomes more ambiguous, particularly regarding the outlandish scenes of either real or perceived slaughter, but it’s hard to know much of anything when it comes to Bateman. Behind the memorable outlandish moments and scenes of bloody dark comedy, this is what makes American Psycho effective as a psychological horror film.

What Makes ‘American Psycho’ So Unsettling?
Image via Lionsgate Films

American Psycho is all about exploring the mind of a tortured individual, and someone who, even if he’s not the murderer he believes, is still a frightening and possibly dangerous individual. It’s unafraid to place its viewers in the mind of this individual, rather than making him an antagonist directly pitted against another protagonist, who the story focuses on. Patrick Bateman is the focus of American Psycho, and he’s about as far from a hero as a character can get. He’s a monster, plain and simple, and doesn’t have anything sympathetic about him; no underlying cause or tragic backstory explaining his terrifying behavior. He can be seen as a reckless and rampaging murderer who somehow seems to keep slipping out of being punished for any of his crimes, or he could be viewed as another person who fits right into his Wall Street surroundings, harboring intense personal feelings while living a luxurious life and still seemingly hating it.

Even then, some people have still proven themselves able to misinterpret parts of American Psycho, but that could be a consequence of presenting such a warped view of the world from such a perspective. There aren’t a whole lot of other movies like American Psycho that tackle violent crime sprees in such a way, which helps it feel uniquely unsettling and even dangerous. There are some other not quite as well-known movies about serial killers that present things mostly from a killer’s point of view (like 1986’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and 1983’s Angst), but the approach isn’t usually as comedic as American Psycho is. Notably, the business card scene that kicks off Bateman’s jealousy of Paul Allen is very funny, and then the climax of that rivalry, the “Hip to Be Square” scene, is also darkly funny. Maybe the humor is part of what makes it so uncomfortable; it’s casual and funny, in some ways, because Bateman isn’t the kind of person who would be bothered much by murder, and it’s all seen from his warped perspective, after all.

RELATED: Killer Movies to Watch if You Love ‘American Psycho’

Why’s It Difficult To Hear “Hip to Be Square” Now?

Given it’s become one of the most iconic (and frequently memed) movies of the early 2000s, American Psycho might well be more well-known to many today than Huey Lewis and the News. Huey and his News did come first, but American Psycho immortalized one of their best-known songs with the way it was used during a distinctive scene of bloody murder. It is an upbeat and undeniably catchy song, and so to come back to the idea of effectively dissonant soundtracks, it absolutely works for the scene in that way. If anything moodier or darker had been used (picture Bateman playing and rambling about some black metal music, or an angstier 1980s band, say like Hüsker Dü), it wouldn’t have been as unusually funny or as memorably jarring/unnerving.

Then again, anyone who wants to try and distance “Hip to Be Square” from American Psycho once more might want to check out the Sesame Street parody, where it was changed to “Hip to Be a Square.” It’s a good deal more wholesome, clearly, and marks another way the song was memorably used in a piece of media. But for anyone not hip enough for classic Sesame Street, “Hip to Be Square” might well be something that’s been hijacked and intrinsically tied to American Psycho. Hearing the song while out in public, for example, could well conjure up images of ax murder, all thanks to the upbeat melody being contrasted with violence, Patrick Bateman’s rant about the band behind the song, and the fact that American Psycho as a whole is one unsettling (and unforgettable) work of psychological horror and darkly comedic satire.