Continuity mistake: When Bateman goes to Paul's apartment to pack up his stuff to "send him to London" after killing him, as he is packing the bathroom light is off and then about 2 seconds later the light has come on by itself with him nowhere near the room. (00:30:50)
Continuity mistake: When the detective is in Patrick's office questioning him about Paul Allen's disappearance, there is a bottle and a glass on the table. A glass ashtray appears by the bottle and the glass then disappears between shots. (00:34:20 - 00:35:30)
Continuity mistake: In the office scene where Paul Allen walks up to Patrick Bateman and mistakes him for Marcus, Paul crosses his arms as he starts talking to Bateman. The angle changes and his arms are suddenly straight. (00:17:30)
Continuity mistake: When Bateman goes crazy and flees into his office, his hair is very messed up. However just after he sings and goes to his office, it is quite obvious his hair has been redone and gelled again.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Patrick is in his office working on a crossword puzzle before talking to Jean, he is writing with his right hand. When the shot changes to the reflection of Patrick's glasses, the reflection shown is as if he is using his left hand. The reflection isn't a mirror image as it should be. (00:57:15)
Continuity mistake: When Bryce pulls out Paul Allen's card to show it to Patrick, he holds it in different ways between shots. (00:19:44)
Continuity mistake: At the restaurant, Patrick approaches his lawyer to talk about the answer machine message he left him and the lawyer puts an unlit cigarette between his lips. The cigarette is already lit in the next shot when he mistakes Patrick for another colleague. (01:31:16)
Continuity mistake: When Patrick Bateman murders Paul Allen, the collar on his raincoat is either up or down, depending on the shot. (00:27:49)
Continuity mistake: When Bateman's lawyer does not recognize him, thinking he is a 'Davis', and brushes him off for the first time to try and go greet someone else ("Is that Edward Towers?"), a guy passes by them twice in two separate shots. (01:31:35)
Continuity mistake: When Jean goes through Patrick's belongings after his maniacal call, she gets one diary in each hand - but you may notice that they switch hands in the next shot. She grabs the P.B. one with her left hand in close-up but pulls it out with her right. (01:29:45)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the conversation where Bateman is dumping his girlfriend, she spots a friend in the crowd of the restaurant and waves at her. Notice that in the long shot ("Why, what's wrong?") a server with an orange shirt moves away from a nearby table. In the next shot, he's already way past Evelyn's friend and the bar, but a couple of shots later he is in front of her. (01:16:35)
Continuity mistake: The limo with Patrick in the back is following Christie. Patrick lures her with a bit of whistling and the usual wad of bills as bait. When she stops, her arms are folded, but in the POV from inside the limo, her arms are straight. (01:08:40)
Continuity mistake: When Patrick asks Jean out, he puts the crossword puzzle roughly on top of a book, off-centre at an angle. When the camera shows us the whole couch again, the paper is now parallel to the book and the phone, also on the couch, has moved slightly. Patrick, during this time, is off-screen a couple of times, but he's not supposed to move anything with his right arm; he is holding a pen and gesticulating towards the girl. (00:57:45 - 00:58:15)
Continuity mistake: Patrick just did cocaine in the bathroom of a club. He gets back to his friend and three women. One of the women, Karen, took the Gorbachev joke seriously, and his friend says, "He's at Tunnel." Karen's position changes completely between shots. (00:56:00)
Continuity mistake: When Patrick tells Courtney that she looks "Marvelous" to deflect having a sincere conversation with her, the blue sweater she is half-wearing disappears from her shoulders/upper arms, reappears, and disappears again. (00:53:00)
Continuity mistake: When Patrick rails Courtney, he grunts after he reaches his climax. Her head is pushed fairly noticeably into the pillows. Next shot, and while neither of them supposedly changed position, the pillows behind her have already been neatly arranged back. (00:52:05)
Continuity mistake: When Luis shows his new business card, he holds it in close-up in a different position, much more tightly close to the thumb. (00:47:40)
Continuity mistake: In the toxic masculinity Harvard Club scene following the encounter with the two sex workers, the extras' positions don't align between cuts. Most notably, a blonde woman exits the frame to the left just as the dudebros high-five, but in the next shot, she has barely moved, while a waiter seen exiting to the right (during the Ed Gein joke) is instantly repositioned behind Luis in the following cut. (00:46:30)
Continuity mistake: When Patrick fixes Christie's pose, touching her jaw while he muses about "In Too Deep", the scarf around her neck drapes behind her shoulder, but in the wider angle, it's in front of her shoulder. (00:43:20)
Continuity mistake: You can see Patrick Bateman's desk in full when the detective, during his first visit, asks him how old he is. The only personal item on it would be the sunglasses. However, when he gets up with the excuse of meeting Cliff Huxtable, you can also see in front of him a bottle of pills - at no point is there a visual hint of him taking them, and it's unlikely he'd just pop pills in front of the detective. It's most likely from a part of the scene that ended up on the cutting room floor. (00:34:00)
Answer: The situation is intentionally left vague. The homeless man being murdered wouldn't necessarily make the news in the time (there were over 4000 murders in 1989-90 when the book and movie are set). He and his friends are so alike that they continually mistake each other for others. The prostitutes would likely be loathe to call the police because they might be arrested themselves and he would likely get off with a much better lawyer.
Greg Dwyer
Very true. It is also true that both the director and the writer of the novel are adamant that they don't like at all the idea that people assume he didn't kill anyone and it's all in his mind, even if not everything may happen literally as shown (like the ATM cat-killing message).
Sammo ★