When a moviegoer fainted at the Fantastia premiere of Mia’Kate Russell’s Ozploitation flick Penny Lane is Dead, you just knew that kind of instant cred would put it on genre fans’ radars. Russell, whose career began in the trenches of the Australian makeup and special effects scene, makes her feature directing debut with a vicious, energetic revenge thriller and queer love story, boasting wild over-the-top performances and nasty acts of violence. The cruelty shown by women towards other women for petty grievances and simple jealousy is put on full display in a film that won’t be easy to shake.
Set in 1986, Penny Lane is Dead follows a trio of girlfriends, tough-as-nails Toni (Tahlee Fereday), childlike Amy (Alexandra Jensen), and the titular Penny Lane (Bailey Spalding), partying together at a beach house near the end of summer. Penny, a gorgeous blond who turns the heads of every guy she meets, has plans to leave town to study law, and she wants her newly-minted girlfriend, Toni, to join her. It’s a new thing, this romance they share, and they haven’t even had a chance to tell Amy yet, although one assumes she’d be cool with it.
However, their plans for a fun night together get disrupted with the arrival of Kat, played by Ben Mendelsohn’s daughter, Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn. Kat wasn’t supposed to show up. She’s kind of like their worst frenemy, and there’s a reason they haven’t hung out with her in ages. Kat has always been jealous of Penny, and now, with the girls facing a future without her, she’s decided now is the time to ruin their lives. She arrives with a welcome gift, a plateful of drugged cupcakes, and when Penny gets sick and passed out, Kat invites in her sketchy ex-con boyfriend, Angus (Ben O’Toole) and his gang of thugs.
Penny Lane is Dead is a revenge movie on two fronts. Kat is looking to get even against the girls who left her behind, and what greater indignity is there then inviting in all of these skeevy guys who probably have never heard of consent and wouldn’t care if they did. Angus is the worst of them all. This guy is so unhinged even his sidekicks are terrified of what he might do. With hair that suggests he’s a fan of Kiefer Sutherland’s David from The Lost Boys, he commits all manner of disturbing acts against the three women while Kat laughs maniacally behind him. Like most Ozploitation, which bears many of the same boundary-breaking traits as American exploitation flicks, a lot of what happens is extremely triggering and won’t be for the faint of heart. For me, it was tough to watch as Angus stalks the innocent Amy like a wild animal hunts a baby rabbit.
As terrible as Angus is, I haven’t hated a villain in a long time as much as I hated Kat. Wright-Mendelsohn takes her place as one of the great horror baddies in the role, as Kat is just utterly despicable through and through. She betrays not only her former friends, but women as a whole, catering to Angus’ every disgusting whim in hopes of gaining his approval, or just some of his attention. Russell cleverly offers the chance for us to sympathize with Kat for the abuses she endures, but then she does something so horrific that you just can’t ever forgive her, and that’s when she’ll need to get what’s coming to her.
Utilizing her background in makeup and special effects, Penny Lane is Dead deploys expert, practical displays of gore. The violence is off the chain, and when deaths do occur, they hit very hard. This is one of those movies where characters you expect to survive are shockingly shuffled off the mortal coil. The spilling of blood keeps ratcheting up, exploding every time Kat and Toni slice one another open with harsh words or sharp edges.
Penny Lane is Dead was an absolute blast. While I could quibble with it being pretty familiar to fans of the genre (which I am), and not straining to be more ambitious, I won’t do that because it’s so much damn fun. My only gripe is not being able to watch it at midnight with a packed crowd of eager, bloodthirsty fans, because that’s how this movie was meant to be seen.
Penny Lane is Dead is streaming on Shudder now.
