Best of 2016

Published December 31, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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As usual, this year, I missed stuff. …and I don’t mean my mother or that look that guy might have given me in the vegan department of my grocery store. No. I’m talking about films. So, admittedly, I haven’t seen Ouija: Origin of Evil or Blair Witch or even, damn it, Boo! A Madea Halloween! But I feel I have witnessed enough terror strewn celluloid excellence to do a (mini) year end best of list – my first ever! Nicely, what I was taken with, when I was re-examining these artistic statements, was how I truly connect to works of horror on an emotional level. They inform my feelings on the world and reflect what is going on with me, on a day-to-day basis. It’s a beautiful thing and revealing of the importance of a genre that is so often maligned by people who are disturbed by its images and neglect its underlying values. So, here, from bottom to top – and I won’t make a joke about that, but you can – are my most loved works of scare and intrigue from 2016.

Hush. It’s a concept that has enlivened many horror flicks – the handicapped woman fighting against the odds. In Mike Flanigan’s well crafted piece about a deaf writer outwitting an aggressive and cunning killer, the heroine is such a nicely defined, strategic defense player that viewers were treated to one of the strongest femmes in horror of this year – and possibly the decades to come. As Maddie, the lead, co-writer Kate Siegel strikes notes of anguished terror and flinty determination – emotions that many of us have felt in overwhelming waves as the terrors imagined by this year’s presidential election have become a nightmarish reality.

Fender Bender. Writer-director Mark Pavia gives us Hilary, a strong Latina heroine, here whose fateful stop sign encounter with a serial killer changes her world forever. A primer on what the slasher genre should become, the downbeat ending, influenced by the lead character’s heritage, is filled with a haunting poeticism. Props are also due to the inclusion of a strong gay supporting character in the form of one of Hilary’s best friends, Erik, played with assurance by Kelsey Leos Montoya. Overall, Pavia’s project is imbued with the knowledge that, unlike reel life, in real life things don’t always work out in a should-be victor’s favor, especially among minorities and women.

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House. A mood piece about a young caretaker who finds much more than she bargained for when moving in with a dying writer, this feature by Oz Perkins, is long on quiet emotions and the terrors of the mind. With strong ties to the work of Shirley Jackson, which is reason enough to recommend this, this peon to loneliness and mysterious connections is highlighted by a quick appearance of Perkin’s father, Anthony, and the return to the screen of Paula Prentiss (The Stepford Wives, Saturday, the 14^th). Even though the notion of the neurotic female is an old (and, perhaps, outdated) one in the world of scare cinema, Perkins’ concentration on friendship among women, even of the ghostly variety, and the curiosities and strange strengths of the feminine nature make this a subtle and beautiful mediation on life and death, overall.

The Neon Demon. Nicholas Winding Refn’s gorgeous look at how the entertainment industry can swallow souls and how badly women treat each other could have been as exploitative as the subject it addresses. With a bevy of beautiful models in undress and a predatory lesbian on the prowl, it is almost understandable how many could doubt the intent of this film. Yet, it’s full sense of weirdness, witchery and almost giallo style artistry eventually override these concerns. Refn and his excellent cast, including Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote and Abbey Lee, even make you feel sympathy at times for their self-possessed, desperate characters, a haunting note in a truly unusual, modern fairy tale.

The Handmaiden. With the twists and turns of prime Hitchcock, Chan-wook Park’s latest is a gorgeous exercise in female strength and independence. Featuring elements of Saw-like horror, this tale of a young thief sent to free a housebound heiress from her perverted uncle while simultaneously setting her up as prey for a con man is an unusual yet deep and loving look at the ingenuity of women in times of trial. Granted, the explicit lesbian sex scenes seem to be more for the benefit of the male gaze than any story necessity, but Park ties even these disadvantages together with a visual and sonic completeness. That sense of artistry, along with moments of cruel yet stinging humor and the stunningly powerful acting of all involved, make this my favorite movie of the year.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE…and onward to 2017, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Review: Party Night

Published December 29, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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From torrential rainfall to broken hearts to pyrotechnic teens, prom nights have always had the potential for disaster. Unfortunately for them (and lucky for us), the soon to be graduating friends in writer-director Troy Escamilla’s fun throwback Party Night find that this particular rite of passage can be very deadly, as well.

Here, sensitive Amy and crew head to her boyfriend’s uncle’s remote house for an intimate celebration after their prom. Of course, girls have been disappearing at an alarming rate, nearby, and the six young adults soon find that they have landed right in the killer’s lair. Amid drunken relationship trauma and the angry rhythms of growing pains, members of the group are soon separated from each other and meet their fates at a stealthy killer’s savage hands…and his various knives and assorted kitchen pottery, as well. Soon the ever reliable final girl is fighting for her life as gallons of red stuff spews and lives are irreparably damaged forever.

With loving reverence, Escamilla plays with the familiar tropes of these films…an important event, a secluded location and lots of bloodshed. We get the expected characters, as well, with the intelligent, slightly awkward heroine, her sensitive boyfriend and a variety of sexually adventurous and hard partying companions. But as a writer, Escamilla adds nice shades of angst and normalcy to his stock personas, giving all of the major characters a nice sense of depth.

The actors also accomplish much in making this an effective exercise. Nicely, they are a diverse lot, culturally, and despite a bit of awkwardness here and there, they deliver solid performances. Laurel Toupal is, perhaps, the most natural and endearing as Amy, with her final moments ringing with true emotion. Tommie Vegas, meanwhile, brings a nice sense of effective sass to Molly while Ryan Poole and Drew Shotwell each perform with a natural grace and a definite color of urgency when the stakes of their characters’ lives are thrown into savage turmoil. Nicely, as an antidote to the expected female nudity, it is Poole who spends the final third of the film shirtless while Toupal’s Amy fights for her life in a formal gown.

The film’s true highlights, though, just may be Mark D’Errico’s gloomy and prescient score and Heather Benson’s special effects work. Benson’s wounds are simple yet effective, but she definitely luxuriates in the red stuff, making Party Night one of the bloodiest slasher films ever made, a fine achievement for a film made from a very obvious love for the genre, but very little cash.

https://www.facebook.com/partynightmovie

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Barbi Benton

Published December 26, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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There are many ways that people get from Point A to Point B, but for those who wonder how Susan Jeremy wound up being threatened at that nefarious, under-populated medical institution in X-Ray (AKA Hospital Massacre), Brass Buttons, the number 5 song by that beleaguered horror heroine’s portrayer Barbi Benton, certainly won’t provide any clues.

Of course, this little country ditty, written by Bobby Borchera and Mack Vickery, does seem to take its inspiration from Benton’s physique and her years as a Playboy model. But why, oh, why didn’t the two ever write about her adventures filming Deathstalker or her days flirting with David Doyle’s Bosley on Charlie’s Angels? Now, that would really be a song!

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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To All a Goodnight

Published December 25, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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Years before the catty, ultra privileged collegiates of Fox’s Scream Queens faced down a red devil or two, the well-to-do sorority sisters of the 1980 winter slasher epic To All a Goodnight encountered a nearly unbeatable crimson killer of their own.

With shadings of everything from Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, perhaps the highest regarded holiday horror outing, to Friday the 13^th, with the character of Leia, played here with arched theatricality by Judith Bridges, resembling Laura Bartram’s Brenda from Sean Cunningham’s much more imitated piece, To All a Goodnight definitely has a horror pedigree of its own. The solo full length directing credit of David Hess, best known to terror scholars from his twisted performances in Last House on the Left and others, this piece was also written by The Incredible Melting Man’s Alex Rebar and features a winsome and sensitive final girl in actress Jennifer Runyon, who would go on to appear in the mega-popular Ghostbusters and the Roger Corman produced cult classic Carnosaur. taagn-1

Here Rebar and Hess begin things in familiar territory. The film opens as a young woman, being chased by a bevy of cackling classmates, takes a fatal tumble off a balcony. The action then flash forwards to a handful of coeds who are staying in their rooms at the Calvin Finishing School for Girls over the Christmas holidays, two years later. Of course, most of the girls are up to no good and they soon drug their caretaker in order to welcome a bevy of boys, who have, unusually, arrived on a nearby field via a private airplane. Over the next two days, amid games of romantic roulette, most of the laughing partiers are done away with by a revenge fueled figure in a Santa costume. The ending, which prefigures Wes Craven’s Scream, reveals the possibility of more than one culprit and a very, very distraught, but still very, very alive heroine.

As much as it embraces the expected tropes, though, the film is done in a bit by its pacing. Many scenes feature the cast sitting around, chatting, or wandering, tentatively, throughout the house or across the property. There are some talented, but less than magnetic performers, many of whom would never work again, on display here, as well. But some of this oddness works in the piece’s favor and one can even grow affectionate over seemingly random incidents like the visit of an antagonistic neighborhood woman, who disappears after her first scene and has no relevance to the plot whatsoever. Those who love the idea of festive figures in compromising positions will find much to enjoy here, as well, as the Santa(s) eradicate with stealth, if not originality.

Meanwhile, the pairing of the adorable Runyon and Forrest Swanson, as her nerdy yet protective beau, is sweet, with the duo’s energy being almost identically echoed, a few years later, by Kelli Maroney and Tony O’Dell in Chopping Mall. Still, it is Runyon, as a solo entity, who commands most of the attention and focus here. Even in her first major role, her star power is obvious and, after all these years, she is still the main reason to watch this enjoyable if flawed excursion into tinselly fright.

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Until the next time – Happiest of HorrorDaze and SWEET love and pink GRUE , Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Alexis Smith

Published December 18, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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Not many can say that they were romanced by Humphrey Bogart and killed by Jodie Foster, but the classically beautiful, smoky voiced Alexis Smith can wear both of those cinematic crowns with pride. As the proud Cecily Latham in The Two Mrs. Carrolls and the even prouder Mrs. Hallett in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, she truly helped create celluloid magic.

And while her death by cellar door in the twisted and macabre Little Girl is certainly memorable, fans of a certain set will surely find her take on Stephen Sondheim’s Could I Leave You from Follies much more compelling by far.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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In Fond Remembrance Of: Joseph Mascolo

Published December 17, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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He arose from the dead more times than Jason, Michael and Freddy combined. But the bittersweet reality of fictional characters is that they are played by real people and Joseph Mascolo, the beloved portrayer of Days of Our Lives’ most popular Gothic zombie Stefano DiMera, unfortunately, proved that sad truth with his passing on December 7^th, 2017 at the age of 87.

With his smooth (and often winking) delivery, Mascolo made DiMera one of daytime drama’s most popular villains. The bit of acting genius has been rewarded, over the years, by the fact that whether DiMera was kidnapping and cloning his rivals or leaving Marlena, the soap’s eternal heroine, open for satanic possession or even rising from the ashes of a watery grave – his character earned the nickname “The Phoenix” for his seeming ability to regenerate from willpower alone, Mascolo was always embraced, heartily, by the show’s fans. joseph-jaws-2

Horror fans who don’t need a little love in the afternoon and are totally unaware of DiMera’s supernatural villainy, have reason to mourn Mascolo, as well. Notable among his many credits, he brought a nice sense of bravado to businessman Len Peterson in Jaws 2 and he was very popular among fans of that movie, even taking part in the book Jaws 2: The Making of the Hollywood Sequel, in the decades since its premiere.

So let’s wish this legend a fond journey into the unknown. May he ascend, forever, in our hearts.

…and until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Jackson Headlines Musical Horror Story

Published December 15, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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There is nothing that a gay dude loves more than a diva. Well, maybe there’s…but s-h-h-h…I can’t talk about that here. Anyhow, in my book, if anyone could take on Jessica Lange in the Chicago theater community, it’s the divinely eclectic Caitlin Jackson. Nicely, she seems to be doing just that with her role of Reverend Mother in The Cowardly Scarecrow Theatre Company’s Ryan Murphy send-up Musical Horror Story Exorcism.

From all glimpses, this production promises to offer a bit of blood, a lot of humor and, well, Ms. Jackson (pictured, right, in the photo)! There are only 3 performances left – Thursday, Friday and Saturday, December 15-17^th, at the Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton, in Chicago. So throw all of your bad habits onto the CTA (or however you get about in this unholy city) and head on over!

More information is available at: https://www.facebook.com/CSTCINC.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Nightmare, Tough Broads and Terror: A Talk with Mark Patton

Published December 15, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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One of the significant things that occurred after people watched NEVER SLEEP AGAIN, the 2010 documentary about the A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series, was the reexamination of the series second entry, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE. Since that time, the film’s lead, MARK PATTON, has not only taken to the convention circuit, providing a very visible presence for what many have labeled the gayest horror film ever made, but he has returned to the world of film in such projects as Tommy Faircloth’s FAMILY POSSESSIONS and SCREAM, QUEEN, his much anticipated documentary about how portraying Jesse Walsh has changed his life. In anticipation of his upcoming appearance at the TERROR IN THE AISLES CHRISTMAS, at the Vic Theatre in Chicago on Sunday, December 18th (see link below), I’ve revised a conversation that I had with PATTON a number of years ago. Here, he talked with me about his memories of his NIGHTMARE castmates and the platform that he has created for himself as an activist and humanitarian.

You made A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST 2 over twenty-five years ago and the series is still thriving today. What has been the best part about the NIGHTMARE legacy for you?

MARK PATTON: To be a part of one of the biggest horror franchises in the world is a gift. I am famous but not. I have used my A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST 2 fame for many purposes of which I am proud…HIV awareness, The Trevor Project, issues of bullying. When I put on the glove, people give me a few minutes to speak. I also love the character, Jesse Walsh. I am very proud of him. He and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST 2 have aged well. I have to admit after NEVER SLEEP AGAIN when I started appearing at conventions and film festivals, I felt a bit like Sally Field in SOAP DISH. A day or two of being a movie star is great. I am not sure I would like it as a full time profession.

Can you talk a bit about the family dynamic in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST 2? Clu Gulager and Hope Lange, whom played Jesse’s parents, were very experienced stage and screen performers. You had some stage and screen work under your belt, but Christie Clark, who played your younger sister, was just starting out. How did you find that you worked together as a quartet?

PATTON: I simply adored Hope Lange. Do you know that the year she shot A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST 2, she also played in BLUE VELVET? She was, at one time, a world class movie star, yet she had no ego. She was lovely, liked a drink when having her hair done – but she was always a pro. Clu is nuts in a really fantastic and interesting way…just like me. As I age, I think I look more and more like him. Isn’t that odd? Christie was a doll and, of course, turned into one of the most famous soap actresses of all time. As did Martha Byrne, my darling little sister in ANNA TO THE INFINITE POWER! She went to work on her soap (AS THE WORLD TURNS) weeks after we finished ANNA and stayed for 25 years! If you have me for an older brother in a film, you are lucky!

The gorgeous Maud Adams also played your mother on episode HOTEL.

PATTON: And she is…for those who don’t know?

OCTOPUSSY!

PATTON: A Bond girl! I had the best moms in the world: Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, Sandy Dennis and Dina Merrill. They were all beautiful blondes, so I was thrilled. mark-on-hotel

Is there something that stands out about these women to you? Was there one quality that they all had in common?

PATTON: They were all survivors. To be a beautiful woman in California and to work past the age of 25 is miraculous. So you have to be a pretty strong broad to do that. I had hot best friends, too. Robert Rusler, George Clooney…

You could pick ‘em!

PATTON: I could!

Speaking of that…The casting director of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST 2 created a great visual picture with the film’s young leads. Your lightness was a great contrast to Robert Rusler’s swarthiness while Kim Myers balanced you both out with a brighter quality. Do you recall anyone else being considered for the roles of Lisa (Meyers) and Ron (Rusler)?

nightmare2promo07 PATTON: I have known Robert Rusler since he was a kid. He was the first one hired for A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST 2. I was next and, together, we choose Kim Myers. I do not remember the names of the other two girls for Lisa. We had a blond, a dark headed girl and Kim. There was never any question that it would be Kimmy. She was delightful, perfect really. We all love her a lot!

You, also, appeared in ANNA TO THE INFINITE POWER which has science fiction connotations. Can you talk a bit about that project?

PATTON: Actually, ANNA TO THE INFINITE POWER is my favorite film -.just for me. My nieces and great nieces know every word. It is a lovely movie that even adults enjoy and it is a way to introduce younger people to information about science and the Holocaust. Actually, someone should remake this movie. It is just great!

Horror lovers often feel outside the norm. Therefore, they often relate to their final girls (and guys) as characters who survive against devastating oppression. As a gay man whom has spoken out about bullying and the discrimination you discovered in your early days in Hollywood, is that something that you can relate to, as well?

PATTON: (Laughs) How much time to you have? I am a great believer in destiny and God having a plan for each one of us. We just do not know what it is. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2 was called the gayest horror movie ever made. Still is…I screamed like a girl. Why is it such a huge insult to be compared to a girl? We talk a lot about that in my panels. It destroyed my confidence that I could be perceived as ‘normal’ and thus ended, I thought, my career. But it became a classic and cult favorite. They now call me the first male Scream Queen. I love it! I now get to speak to a group of people who may not get to hear positive stories about GLBT people and HIV, because they think it does not apply to them as Hard Rockin’ Hetro Dudes. I get to represent Gay Horror and GLBT horror fans and I hope I am doing them proud. I used to ask, God why me? I was a very good actor, I could have been something special and the answer came back loud and clear one day. Mark, you are special and I have given you everything that you need to be a good witness of something most gay men did not live though. I gave you a film or two. I gave you a safe place to be ill from HIV AIDS. I gave you a comeback via NEVER SLEEP AGAIN and I gave you a rock to stand on to speak truth to power. When you put that glove on people listen…for a minute! A minute is all you need to save someone the agony of AIDS. I gave you all of this, now use it! I do and trust me I have just begun. You have not seen the last of me. So, whatever you do, don’t go to sleep or you will miss my fabulous 2nd Act!

Come meet Mark at TERROR IN THE AISLES CHRISTMAS – https://www.facebook.com/events/1334753026558622/. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2 will be screened along with two John Carpenter features, THEY LIVE and THE THING. In the spirit of the holiday, donations of food and clothing will be accepted for the homeless and there will be a number of amazing raffles to benefit Vital Bridges, an AIDS organization.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Hopelessly Devoted to: Athena Massey

Published December 10, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

Maria Ford, Jillian McWhirter, Sherrie Rose, Charlie Spradling, Melissa Moore, Joan Severance…These are names that fans of legendary producer Roger Corman’s ‘90s output should be familiar with. The glorious Athena Massey though, was perhaps the most exotically mysterious of these women – and, without a doubt, the most Stanislavski-an in her approach to her roles. Whether playing a blood starved alien, an undercover police officer or a bad-ass covert agent, this beauty gave it her all.

Star Portal, perhaps the most ridiculously fun entry here, finds Massey imbuing her role of Quad Rena/Sarah with both a solemnity and a childish curiosity. Yet another reworking of Corman’s Not of This Earth, this production also benefits from subtle traces of The Terminator and, nicely, places Massey in the alien role usually embodied by a male. Massey’s otherworldly goddess is bloodthirsty – a slaughtered victim or two is hung upside down to be drained of their fluids – but she supplies enough childlike confusion and regret to make this deadly femme qualify as the piece’s heroine. Choppily processed and obvious filmed on the cheap…the love interest, played by Steven Bauer, is almost invisible to the plot…this still provides enough zaniness to qualify as a solid example of the product that was churned out to meet the demands of the burgeoning cable market in a, regrettably, bygone era.

Shadow of a Scream (AKA The Unspeakable), meanwhile, truly contains some of Massey’s finest work. The plot, again, is a reworking of everything from Stripped to Kill to (the notoriously protested, Al Pacino fronted) Cruising. But as Alice Redmond, a cop who goes undercover to trap a suspected serial killer, Massey shows a wide range of emotions. Even as her character predictably begins to be drawn into the sadomasochistic lifestyle of the man she is tracking, as an actress she colors in all the dots of her character’s personality, showing both vulnerability and strength. Despite co-stars from two major television shows, 30 Something’s Timothy Busfield and Baywatch’s David Chokachi, this is definitely her show. It’s too bad, therefore, that the ending comes off so abruptly, almost leaving the audience confused as to who the killer is. The answer may be far too predictable for some, but Massey’s skill here is never in doubt and, as previously mentioned, this serves as an amazing showcase for all of her many talents.

Nice believability is also supplied with Terminaton Man, another low budget epic about a commando squad trying to stop a Serbian terrorist from unleashing a deadly nerve gas. As Delilah Shane – great name, no? – Massey provides kick-ass bravado here and truly makes you trust in her character’s flintiness and skill. Impressively, Massey also makes you believe that the gratuitous nudity that her character is subjected to is all part of her take no shit attitude and not just an exploitive script requirement – true evidence of her compelling acting skills, if there ever was one.

Be sure to become hopelessly devoted to Athena Massey, yourselves, by following her at any (or all) of the following:

www.imdb.me/athenamassey
www.facebook.com/athenamassey
www.twitter.com/msathenamassey
www.instagram.com/athenamasseyofficial
www.youtube.com/@AthenaMasseyOfficial

…and until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Amanda Lear

Published December 5, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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A mysterious background and an exotic appeal have been the mainstays of the eclectic Amanda Lear’s career. She is also one of the few female artists to produce a concept album that rivals such fare as Alice Cooper’s From the Inside and the self-titled debut album from A Flock of Seagulls.

Lear’s second album, Sweet Revenge, detailed the adventures of a beauty who sells her soul to the devil for glitter and gold, but who eventually sacrifices all she has gained for love.

Done disco-style, the recording’s hit single, Follow Me, has become Lear’s signature number and details how the lord of darkness tempts the heroine of the piece into a life of sophisticated debauchery.

Still recording and performing, Lear can be followed at https://www.facebook.com/reinelear and www.amandalear.com.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!