Every Bret Easton Ellis Screen Adaptation to Watch After ‘The Shards’

Before his novel The Shards was published in 2023, Bret Easton Ellis released it as a serialized audiobook, introducing audiences to a new way to appreciate his signature brand of glamorously depraved storytelling. Now, the cult author’s autofiction thriller is being adapted into yet another format—this time, as a TV series for Hulu and FX, co-created by Ryan Murphy and Ellis himself.

Set in 1981 Los Angeles, The Shards follows a group of privileged teenagers as they enter their senior year at a fictional prep school. As they deal with the usual themes plaguing Ellis characters—love triangles, repressed sexuality, parental neglect, and preppy ’80s fashion—the teens also must deal with “The Trawler,” a terrifying serial killer plucking off classmates and their pets one by one in increasingly gruesome ways. A pretty-young-thing cast, which includes a mix of promising newcomers (Igby Rigney among them, in the Ellis role) and more familiar names like Kaia Gerber and Homer Gere, has helped make the show one of the summer’s buzziest.

But while The Shards may be the newest adaptation of Ellis’s fiction, it’s certainly not the first. It joins a long queue of interpretations of the author’s work, from the 1987 screen translation of his breakout debut novel, Less Than Zero, to Mary Harron’s classic 2000 film version of American Psycho starring Christian Bale as amoral finance bro Patrick Bateman.

Below, every Bret Easton Ellis adaptation to watch after The Shards:

In Ryan Murphy’s hands, The Shards is a glossy escapade of lust, paranoia, and danger. As in the book, The Shards follows a fictionalized Bret Easton Ellis during his senior year at the elite Buckley School. As the year begins, Bret (Igby Rigney) hangs out with close friends, Susan (Kaia Gerber) and Thom (Graham Campbell), whom he idolizes, and Debbie (Hayes Warner), his girlfriend and unsuspecting beard. They party at Hollywood mansions and in unmarked clubs, flirt and get into situationships, and make misguided attempts at adulthood. Meanwhile, Bret grapples with his sexuality, which he hides from those closest to him. Outside Bret’s bubble, a new serial killer is terrorizing L.A., leaving bodies in unassuming locales for some unlucky passerby to discover. Capturing the slow-boil horror of losing your friends, growing up, and coming to terms with your identity, Murphy depicts eighties radiance at every turn. From luxurious cars and homes to the affected nonchalance of the main characters, The Shards has announced itself as one to watch (and read).

Directed by Marek Kanievska with a screenplay by Harley Peyton (who went on to write and produce episodes of the original Twin Peaks), Less Than Zero stars Andrew McCarthy as Clay and Robert Downey Jr. as Julian. The adaptation uses Ellis’s debut as a loose blueprint rather than a north star, straying from the plot at critical moments. Ultimately, the film struggles to match the novel’s detached narration or capture Clay’s numbness to his friends’ debauchery and despair. As a result, Ellis reportedly denounced the film, though he’s come around to certain aspects of it in more recent years.

Watch It: Currently unavailable on U.S. streaming platforms.

Where Less Than Zero stumbles, American Psycho soars. Christian Bale masterfully portrays Patrick Bateman, the story’s anti-hero protagonist who moonlights as a serial killer when he’s not enjoying his finance bro lifestyle. The novel first hit shelves in 1991, inciting an uproar over how women were massacred in the novel. The controversy was so intense that Ellis's publisher dropped him. Talk shows expounded on American Psycho’s “anti-feminist” undertones, which Ellis has vehemently denied. With its reputation working both for and against it, director Mary Harron took on the challenge of not only interpreting the book but also making it appealing to mass audiences. Set during the eighties in New York, Patrick’s homicidal tendencies are a stark contrast to his otherwise decadent—and sterile—life. Bale embodies Patrick’s descent into madness, gushing over his music obsessions as he tests the qualities of blades and chainsaws. In many ways, the dark satire is more prescient than ever.

Two years after American Psycho hit theaters, writer-director Roger Avary adapted Ellis’s second novel, The Rules of Attraction. Set at the fictional New England liberal arts school Camden College that recurs in much of Ellis’s earlier work, the film follows the doomed love triangle between Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek)—yes, Patrick’s younger brother—Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon), and Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder). Like the novel, it skewers its protagonists' privilege while reveling in just how savage and disenchanted they are.

The Informers is based on a short story collection of the same title. Co-written by Ellis and directed by Gregor Jordan, the film weaves together the book’s disenfranchised and often desperate characters' storylines. As the AIDS epidemic hovers like a noxious cloud, characters (who are often wealthy—or striving to be) battle addiction, frayed family relationships, and uncanny threats lurking in the desert. The film didn’t receive high praise when it was released, though it stands as one of the few adaptations that directly involved Ellis. With his guidance, The Informers captures the distinct, haunting tone of the story collection and is worth a watch for B.E.E. diehards.

Written by Ellis and directed by Paul Schrader, The Canyons cast Lindsay Lohan in the leading role of Tara, who’s suffocating under the control of her partner, Christian (James Deen). In response, she becomes involved with Ryan (Nolan Gerard Funk), one of Christian’s employees. As Christian stalks, coerces, and manipulates Tara, he slips into a madness of his own making. Though generally considered a flop, the film offers camp entertainment for those looking to descend further into Ellis’s world.

Watch It: Currently available for purchase on AMC+ and YouTube.