American Psycho Copycat?
Violent movies can serve as models for violent behavior. This is a well-known fact, a subtheme of my book The Copycat Effect , and decades of research attest to popular culture inspired-murders, suicides, terror, and more. But the reality of breaking news events certainly makes it more than academic. The continuing saga of synchromystic cannibals now enters the overlapping world of films, culture, and killings. At the end of the week, evidence mounted that Luka Rocco Magnotta, accused media-labeled "Montreal Cannibal" of 33-year-old Lin Jun, patterned segments of what he allegedly did via cinema inspirations. The primary film he used was American Psycho . This is not the first time this specific story has been used as the model for murder. In Canada, the novel on which the movie is based, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991, was highlighted during the trial of serial killer Paul Bernardo. It was discovered that Bernardo owned a copy of the book