HALSTON Director Daniel Minahan’s Sick and Twisted First Movie You Must See

With the release by Netflix of HALSTON, Ryan Murphy's five-part treatment of the fashion icon and Liza Minnelli companion Halston, gay director Daniel Minahan's star only continues to rise. But before this uber-queer miniseries, though, Minahan has directed other not-so-uber-but-still-pretty-queer shows such as Game of Thrones, Ratched, American Crime Story: Versace, True Blood, The L-Word (okay, that's pretty "uber"), and one of my personal favorites, Six Feet Under. And a shit-ton more you can IMDB search.

But it's his very first movie he both wrote and directed that needs attention here because it didn't get nearly the attention it deserved, and still deserves, when it first appeared. 2001's SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS is a satire so vicious, so prescient, and so funny it took a gay dude to come up with it. Cuz we're adept at the vicious and funny, and seeing the next wave before it hits. Thanks to David Reddish over at Queerty.com for reminding me of this cult classic. I loved it when it came out 20 years ago and I had no idea its creator was a fellow gay!

The film is "an episode" of a fictional reality game show called "The Contenders" in which ordinary people are picked at random to participate in a televised life-or-death manhunt. They are given weapons, and are fitted with an explosive should they attempt to leave the game prematurely. The last one alive at the end of each season is the winner and goes on to the next season. Should they win three seasons, they are free to leave the game.

It preceded The Hunger Games books by seven years, and ups the ante of the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale by making this a "reality show." It even takes Stephen King's novellas "The Long Walk" and "The Running Man" to a nastier and funnier conclusion. Before B-list celebs were spilling their guts and entering rehab on VH-1, before beautiful doll-people were competing for hands in marriage for all to witness, and before Millennials were supplied copious amounts of alcohol by MTV produces to fuck up their lives in no small ways for our delight and disgust (but really, to our delight), SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS foresaw a world in which we would stay glued to the TV to witness the latest human horror and atrocity. And really, isn't handing our actual "reality stars" some weaponry just over the horizon? God, I hope so.

The film stars the fantastic character actress Brooke Smith, who most people know as the Senator's daughter stuck in a well by Buffalo Bill in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Her character Dawn is eight-months pregnant and the reigning champion of the game. But in this "season," her HS ex-boyfriend, the bisexual Jeffery who is dying of testicular cancer comes on as a contestant. Did I mention this was a really dark comedy? There's a particularly hilarious scene where the two former lovebirds flash back to their goth HS years, making experimental films in a cemetery with, naturally, Joy Division's "Love Will tear Us Apart" as the soundtrack. Hilarious to me, at least, because I literally was that goth kid in the eighties making experimental films in cemeteries. Other notable contestants are a nurse (will she kill a pregnant mother?) and an angry, determined teen girl among others. Spoiler: yes, Dawn does go into labor during filming!

I can't impress upon you, good reader, how biting, true, and funny this movie is. I can only imagine Minahan making this film in today's social media-obsessed environment. You'll kinda wish "The Contenders" was an actual show! Go find it, then check out HALSTON any number of Minahan's other directorial efforts. You'll be glad you did.