The movie Mila Kunis wants to delete from history: “Please, somebody stop this”
It’s not often that a Hollywood movie ends up becoming distinctly different from what it was in its initial stages, but Mila Kunis is one of the few who understands the turmoil of such poor choices.
When the actor first signed on to do a movie called The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die, she had no idea it would become one of her biggest career regrets, much less something that became entirely dismissed by the film world, including the author of its source text. The movie wasn’t intentionally bad, nor was it supposed to disrespect something that people already loved, but if Kunis had her way, it would be wiped from the face of the earth.
The screenplay had no associations with Mary Harron’s American Psycho at first, nor did it have any connections to the original novel by Bret Easton Ellis. The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die was its own independent slasher film at first, and only became a sequel, renamed American Psycho II, after being altered during production.
Something that was meant to be a breakthrough ended up being unfortunate timing for Kunis, who was still an up-and-coming star at the time, with the movie slated to be her major push into the Hollywood spotlight. However, its sloppy editing, poorly executed slasher tropes and lacklustre plot devices meant that American Psycho II wasn’t anything above a satisfactory follow-up to Harron’s 2000 original, nor was it in any way a respectable homage to Ellis’ novel. At most, it seemed a half-arsed, unconvincing attempt at a sequel that really had little connection to the story to begin with.
What’s worse is that Ellis denounced the entire project about a year before it was released, but also explained that it didn’t really matter to him either way, because he sees books and films as separate, despite selling the rights to American Psycho. “I’ve sold the rights, but I really don’t know how they ended up with all of these rights,” said Ellis, per the New York Post.
“Basically, the book really kind of survives,” he continued. “I’m the kind of writer that sees books and movies as two totally different animals. So far, none of these movies has blotted out the book for the reader.” He added, “I’ve even heard that they were thinking about doing American Psycho in LA, American Psycho in Las Vegas and making a whole franchise out of it.”
Upon hearing rumblings of a possible third instalment, Kunis didn’t shy away from expressing her true feelings on the project, making it clear that she hadn’t entirely known what she was signing up for when she took on what was then The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die. “Please, somebody stop this,” she said. “Write a petition. When I did the second one, I didn’t know it would be American Psycho II. It was supposed to be a different project, and it was re-edited, but, ooh, I don’t know. Bad.”
As is often the case with films that accrue a reputation for being bad, not everybody thought American Psycho II was a complete blow. In fact, some noted that it tackled its themes well, reflecting many of those included in Ellis’ original story and Harron’s beloved adaptation. Mainly, some thought that the film should’ve been given more credit for its portrayal of American ambition under the hues of sociopathic psychoanalysis.
Mostly, however, people thought its trashy execution was enough to override any potential redeeming features. And with Kunis backing the idea that this particular project isn’t worthy in any shape or form of anybody’s time or attention, that’s good enough for anybody to come to the conclusion that it’s potentially the worst non-sequel in film history.
