Party Monster - The Shockumentary (1999)

The original documentary about NY club impresario Michael Alig that inspired the upcoming motion picture of the same name starring Macauley Culkin and Seth Green.

Interesting

It's very interesting to see the documentary to one of my favorite movies. I find it fasanating to hear from the people that were really there. August 14, 2008

Scary But True

A Sad Story but more like a Mockamentary. It made fun of the fact that he sliced and diced his own best dealer and stuck him in the river in a box. July 14, 2008

The Real Story

"Party Monster: The Shockumentary"

The Real Story

Amos Lassen

Most of us have heard of Michael Alig, a guy from Middle America who had the aspiration of becoming the next Andy Warhol. He became very quickly the biggest party promoter in New York and the reigning ruler of the Club Kids. As could be expected, he spiraled downward into various addictions until he ultimately murdered his roommate, Angel Melendez.
The Club Kids ran the night life in the 80's in New York City. They were young party "monsters" that were paid by various club owners to appear at their venues. They were not performers, they just appeared. They were bizarre and odd and wore outrageous costumes.
When Alig moved to New York from the Midwest in the 1980's, he met James St, James, a flamboyant guy who dressed in outrageous costumes and he introduces Alig to the club culture. While shy at first, Alig gets a job promoting parties at a club named The Limelight. After a short time there, he became a celebrity. Eventually his life went out of control as he became more and more self-absorbed which culminated in the murder of Melendez and after letting the body lay in his apartment for several days, he dismembered it and threw it into the river.
We get a complete picture of the club scene put together in a black comedy. The DVD has an hour of extras including a documentary about the East Village club scene, an audio commentary, a commercial for Club USA and a short about the mascot of the club kids, "Clara the Carefree Chicken". This is the real story, not to be confused with the film starring McCauley Culkin.
April 8, 2008

Not very revealing, or interesting.

I caught the end of "Party Monster" the movie starring Macaulay Culkin, and it sparked my curiosity to watch the documentary, or shockumentary as it is called in this case.

This doc is fairly bare bones looking, but it tells the whole story, I think. Since this film isn't covering ancient history, there are lots of living people around that can be interviewed for fleshing out the story. However, after watching the movie for 5 minutes you realize that all of these people were more than likely completely zapped on multiple drugs while the covered events were happening, so how much do they remember and how accurate is it? We'll never know. This story sounds really simple to me, too simple really. Michael Alig became very famous for promoting parties, he had access to lots of drugs, and lots of people who catered to this party all the time lifestyle.

I am going to sound like a party pooper by saying this, but I can't see any substance at all in any of the Club Kids. Was this all their lives was about? Pretty pathetic and meaningless if you ask me. Getting high and dressing up to go to get more messed up with a bunch of other idiots. This wasn't a very entertaining film to me. I guess the story is just all too familiar. Small town kid goes to the big city, gets some success, this causes a tragic spiral towards self destruction, the end. Blame it on the current state of our media if you want, but I am personally not shocked anymore by stories of drug abuse and the crimes committed by mentally unstable drug addicts.
December 12, 2007

A warning from the past

What can I say? Shame, shame on anyone who ever gave these children any money, time or attention for this nonsense! What kind of parents, what kind of adults, would look the other way as these pathetic urchins self-destructed? Is there really an art to this nasty creation? Or are we simply celebrating our own demise? Don't waste one more minute on this crass collection of what passes for drama. It's sad and pathetic, and a warning from the past.

When I think of the people who were struggling with poverty in those years for no other reason than they were trying to live a clean and sober life and raise their children safely. I guess this puts the lie to all that, eh? Obeying the law and going to work every day and paying your bills is obviously for suckers.

At least I'm still alive, and so are my children. We're not wealthy - but I guess our riches speak volumes.

Holiday Heart

Dark Days November 24, 2007

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