A Morality Tale Immorally Told
The Directors of "Party Monster" on the Real Michael Alig and the New York Club Scene That Collapsed Around Him When He Killed Angel Melendez By Lawrence Ferber

In the late '80s and early '90s, New York City's nightlife scene was bubbling with excitement and energy. Creativity, chaos and a young Indiana-born clubgoer by the name of Michael Alig reigned. Alig's weekly "Disco 2000" event at the Limelight became the hottest event in Manhattan, teeming with outrageous nouveau clowns, the drug-steeped "club kids." Then, in a stroke of irony, the life of the party turned into its death.

In 1996, Alig murdered drug dealer Angel Melendez, chopped him into pieces, and threw his remains into the Hudson River. He was eventually tried, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter. As a result of Alig's horrendous behavior and incarceration, the scene he erected collapsed in a cloud of drug busts, club raids and closures, and sensational headlines.

Filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato knew Alig during those club-kid glory days (in fact, they first met him in the mid-'80s) because they were a part of the scene, as musical act the Fantastic Pop Tarts. The duo initially had an idea for a documentary about the club scene, but were unable to raise funds for it. It was only after Alig made headlines as an alleged murderer that they managed to drum up money for what became the "Party Monster" documentary, which partially inspired the new fictionalized film. "It's a morality tale immorally told," says Barbato of the new feature, which debuted at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival in January. "And that's why we wanted to make this. It's not a cookie-cutter movie."

" It's a film that contains extreme characters that aren't the usual crop you'd find in a Hollywood film or even an indie film necessarily," Bailey adds. "Extreme, highly unusual characters who don't go along the usual railroad tracks of morality. They're not particularly pious about their relationships or sanctimonious about society, which is not to say they don't have morality. This is a film that is profoundly moral at its core. It's just not [the] same old, same old."

In the film, Alig (played by Macaulay Culkin) is an enterprising youth who moves to New York with hopes of achieving fame and fortune. He manages to charm an established, albeit reluctant, nightlife fixture, James St. James (Seth Green), to act as mentor, and Limelight club owner Peter Gatien (Dylan McDermott) as surrogate father. After a number of dismal attempts at creating parties, Alig eventually succeeds, gathering a klatch of like-minded souls including Gitsie (Chloë Sevigny), Brooke (Natasha Lyonne) and Melendez (Wilson Cruz).

His visibility rises thanks to talk-show appearances--in which even his mother, Elke (Diana Scarwid) takes part--a magazine named Project X and appearances at clubs around the country. Although his popularity was on the rise, so was his erratic behavior--urinating into people's drinks, embarrassing close friends, and ingesting copious amounts of drugs. Alig's drug addiction eventually scares off his boyfriend, DJ Keoki (Wilmer Valderrama of TV's "That '70s Show"), and leads to a horrible act of violence--the murder of Melendez.

" Personally, I'm sad about how [the club scene] ended," Barbato admits, "and how it never got the recognition I think it deserved. I certainly can relate far more to the club-kid scene than I can to the circuit-party scene. I would love for the club-kid scene to come back. Before it got dark it was incredibly invigorating and creative, and that's part of what we tried to [show] in the movie. The murder is horrific. It's also very sad. More than one person was killed. It's a metaphorical death for Michael and the scene."

Bailey, who is from Portsmouth, England, and Barbato, an American from New Jersey, first met in 1982. Both openly gay, they have been responsible for many brilliant, very queer cable series and documentaries since 1991, including HBO's "Shock Video," VH1's "The RuPaul Show," "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" and "101 Rent Boys." "Party Monster," however, is their first dramatic feature. "Fenton and I went to film school; we didn't study documentaries, we studied narrative drama," Barbato notes. "So for us it was another gig. With any project we do, the most important thing is the subject of the story and then putting together a team of incredibly talented people. That's what we did with this film."

Bailey and Barbato also based the new feature partially on St. James' 1999 book "Disco Bloodbath," about the murder and his relationship with Alig, and originally planned to retain the tome's title. "But the financiers wanted 'Party Monster,' and we were quite happy to change the title to get the money!" Barbato says with a laugh.

After the documentary was completed, a dramatic feature adaptation was next on the plate. Christine Vachon's Killer Films signed on to produce, and Bailey and Barbato drafted many versions of the script. Meanwhile, the pair also worked on casting the film the way they wanted. Culkin was always their choice for Alig. Sickened by childhood stardom, however, Culkin had retired from acting during his teens. He resurfaced, however, in a 1998 Sonic Youth music video and went on to appear in the play "Madame Melville" in London and on Broadway. Yet "Party Monster" is Culkin's first "adult" film role. His attachment was a dream come true, the filmmakers say. And considering his once innocent image, at least a tad surreal. "It was this contrast between the pre-image you have of Macaulay, which is a sort of embodiment of innocence, with this very jaded but sophisticated, cynical, clever person," Bailey notes. "The embodiment of those contrasts was always what we wanted."

One of the first tasks was ensuring that Culkin, who is engaged to Mila Kunis (also of "That '70s Show"), and the rest of the cast were up to the challenge of going all out as the club denizens, whose outfits were risqué, to say the least. "We said to Mac up front many, many times, 'Are you sure you're up for this?' " Bailey says. "There was this feeling that once we were under way there could be, 'I don't know about this.' But he said, 'Nope, I have no problem with anything.' He did anything we asked him to do." Which included wearing a surgical mask as makeshift jockstrap, lederhosen, and numerous body stockings with strategically placed holes.

Culkin, however, had no qualms, and the filmmakers say he was aware that such aspects of his performance would be a source of fun for gay viewers. "Macaulay is a smart guy and he loves the straights and he loves the fags," Barbato says. "We were shooting the condo scene, and he has this little cutout leotard outfit, and I kept saying, 'Mac, we need to see the nips, the nipples.' He knows [the gays love it]. And I feel like we struck the balance of not letting that overshadow the performance, but we got some in there for the boys."

During preproduction, Bailey and Barbato took Culkin to visit Alig in prison. Prior to their arrival, Alig had been trumpeting his intentions to teach Culkin the art of making out (as reported in the New York Post), but proved shy and withdrawn upon meeting him face-to-face. "Michael was awed to be meeting him," Bailey recalls. "None of that bravado was present in the meeting itself."
As with most films based on actual events and people, numerous facts and characters were rearranged, amalgamated and manipulated for dramatic effect or narrative convenience. For example, Christine, a twisted drag queen wordlessly portrayed by Marilyn Manson in the film, was in reality a far more horrific, verbal creature (as evidenced in "Disco Bloodbath"). But the most quizzical omission and narrative choice made by the filmmakers is a rather glaring lack of on-screen same-sex intimacy.

In his book, St. James reels off details about Alig's queer sex life, much of which involved teenage boys. Daniel, a 16-year-old boyfriend of Alig's seen in the "Party Monster" documentary, was one of numerous suburban kids who were drawn to Alig in search of fabulousness, affection and experience. According to St. James, Alig regarded each of these boys as "the one," subsequently "ruined" them, and then tossed them back into the club-kid sea. As St. James wrote: "I loved all of Michael's boys; silently and with self-loathing ... So I sat on the sidelines and refused to take part in their snuggle-bunny games. They smoked crack and jerked off for hours on end ... Michael would emerge periodically, huffing and puffing and red in the face and blue in the penis. Little boys. He ate them alive."

In the film, the only act of explicit sexual activity of which Alig partakes on-screen is a kiss with Gitsie, whereas a romantic moment with Keoki quickly fades to black (and shots of fireworks exploding) before their lips touch. "Even if you read the original script, it was always designed the way it was [seen] in the movie," Barbato explains. "They do smooch and we filmed them smooching, but the lights were always off. The sound effects are real."

" It seemed kind of funny and cheesy and encapsulated Michael's own highly romantic vision. That's what you're supposed to be getting," Bailey adds.

Nevertheless, some are taking issue with the directors' decisions regarding what we see (and more importantly, don't) of Alig's sexual life, and why the big makeout scene between Keoki and Michael never materialized. The directors stand by their decision, and say it was not done out of fear of alienating a mainstream audience. Nor do they believe the film is necessarily about a gay character in a gay milieu. "Michael as a gay person kissing a girl, it's a rebellious act within being gay," Bailey says. "It's not like, 'We'll have this kiss to appeal to the straight audience.' It's more like Michael [in real life] is an iconoclast in every classification. That's what's interesting about Michael; every box he was put in, he managed to twist and re-present. ... Every time he's [described as] 'just a gay kid‚' he confounded that by having this bizarre relationship [with Gitsie]. [They] would cuddle and hold hands and sleep together. The actual amount of fucking or insertion, I'm not sure. But the sheer number of drugs was slightly de-sexualizing."

" It wasn't the gay milieu, like, for example, the circuit parties," Barbato adds. "Sex was a part of [the club scene], and that's part of the reason I was attracted and found that scene interesting, but it wasn't the reason for it."

As for Alig, he hasn't seen the film (he is in the Southport Correctional Facility in New York and will not be eligible for parole until 2006). But Bailey surmises that "he's probably concerned about how he's portrayed in it. His mum has never really liked the title 'Party Monster,' and she doesn't want her son portrayed as a party monster."

The filmmakers, however, feel that Alig is portrayed accurately. They also believe the film accomplishes one other important goal: making sure the audience feels implicated in the events that transpire on-screen. Alig, after all, achieved his popularity thanks to masses who cheered on his naughty behavior--and later felt betrayed when he went too far. "The film is very much designed to lure the audience in, cheering on the naughty antics," Barbato says. "Michael was naughty and people cheered it on and loved it, and then he went too far. And people didn't like it. So audiences feel implicated when it turns and gets horrible, and I think some people get angry. They feel like they've been tricked."

" The film does implicate the audience," Bailey adds. "Without an audience, Michael Alig couldn't have happened. It's all very well to say he's an unsympathetic character not worthy of making a film about, but the fact remains, Michael was a highly successful New York club promoter, the most successful person in New York nightlife ... not an inconsiderable achievement. He only could have done that with everybody else's complicity, and that's what we replicate. Michael's [charm] is his naughtiness."