Alpha Genesis Targeted in New PETA Video From ‘American Psycho’ Director Mary Harron
For Immediate Release:
May 21, 2025
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
In a new, hair-raising PETA video, horror director Mary Harron exposes other violent predators—experimenters who mutilate and kill monkeys in cruel laboratory tests—in time for the 25th anniversary of her cult classic American Psycho.
The terrifying TV spot debuts today in Savannah and Charleston, targeting local monkey-breeding and testing facility Alpha Genesis, Inc., and will run on Adult Swim, MTV, and TV Land through May 27.
The video shows a human strapped to a chair in a barred prison cell. A circular metal device has been screwed into the victim’s head, immobilizing it. A man in a lab coat and surgical mask enters. Pupils dilate. A needle plunges. Screams ring out as a power drill bores into the skull, and there’s a sudden cut to an image of a real monkey in a real laboratory enduring the same kind of invasive torment..
A screen capture from Mary Harron’s new PETA video.
“I’m working with PETA to call for an end to the use of monkeys and other animals in laboratories, and I hope this video shines a light on the immense pain that experimenters inflict on tens of millions of animals every year,” Harron says.
Alpha Genesis supplies monkeys to laboratories across the country and has repeatedly failed to meet even the most basic animal welfare standards. In December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited the facility for a critical violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act after 22 long-tailed macaques suffocated to death due to carbon monoxide poisoning after a diesel heater malfunctioned. The incident followed the high-profile escape of 43 monkeys from the facility in November, which left the animals exposed to freezing temperatures, without shelter, and forced to scavenge for food in an unfamiliar environment.
Monkeys at Alpha Genesis have suffocated and frozen to death, been fed moldy food or no food at all, and had tails, tongues, and fingers severed. PETA filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health, which contracts with Alpha Genesis to house, supply, and test on monkeys.
In nature, monkeys form deep emotional bonds with their family members. Those born in laboratories are often torn from their anguished mothers, sometimes within just days of birth, and confined to barren steel cages.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
