How 'American Psycho' Became the Newest TikTok Trend

Okay, by now you’ve seen it. The new split screen TikTok trend where there's a seemingly random man walking around with a very old pair of headphones and stoic looks on his face on the top half, while a video featuring someone’s favorite songs plays on the bottom half. With this trend blowing up, you may have been wondering where the clip of the dude in the headphones comes from. We know from the actual headphones (nobody wears headphones like these anymore) that it has to be from something a little bit older, but where exactly? Are you guys ready? The mysterious clip is from (drumroll please)... the 2000 horror film American Psycho.

And the mystery man is… a young Christian Bale. As is the case with all of our TikTok trends articles, we’re going to take a look at the history of the movie, and a deeper dive into the trend so that way you can get it in the action. Let’s get into it.

Roughly a year later, the film would make its debut at the Sundance Film Festival on January 31st, 2000, making its way to a nationwide theater debut in the U.S. on April 14th. The film grossed $34 million, and has since developed a cult following along with a presence in meme culture. This leads us to our TikTok trend of the week.

If you haven’t already gotten in on the action, then make sure you do. And in the meantime, if you haven’t seen American Psycho yet, go stream it! As always, we’ll be back next week with another trend.