Written and directed by Mia’Kate Russell, during a scorching Aussie summer in 1986, three best friends’ celebration at a beach house turns into a blood-soaked fight for survival when a prank goes horribly wrong. Starring: Bailey Spalding, Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn, Ben O’Toole, Tahlee Fereday, Fletcher Humphrys, Steve Le Marquand, Alexandra Jensen and Matthew O’Sullivan.
Cutting straight to the point because with a lot of slasher or B-movie styled horror, the main thing most people want to know is: is it worth watching? Well, the answer for Penny Lane is Dead is an emphatic yes. It may not be perfect, but this is a solid slasher outing and is absolutely worth your time as a horror fan. Especially if you happen to also be a woman or queer, or both, because having that representation here, and how the story plays out, is a very nice experience, something you certainly wouldn’t have gotten in the actual 1980s, or at least not without a huge dose of exploitation.
Having that era setting clearly had a huge influence on Mia’Kate Russell’s choices for Penny Lane is Dead, there’s a purposeful, personal connection at work, and you can easily feel that. Particularly in how parts of the film give off Heathers vibes, there’s a little bit of goth-chic which is nice to see, there’s a lot of touches that portray the filmmakers reminiscing on the era. The key throwback being the psychotic jealousy of Kat (Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn) and her unbridled insecurities running amok, her whole persona feels pulled straight out of the 80s.
Although how her character plays out is fairly hit and miss, you can see the intention, and Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn’s performance is fantastic and unhinged, but they make her seem too weak to then pull of the later moments of Penny Lane is Dead in a truly satisfying fashion. Admittedly, the writing can in general ignore realism when it feels like it, but then again, that’s basically a time-honoured tradition of horror. Russell can also occasionally sit a scene too long, editor Dan Lee could have potentially cut those off sooner to keep the momentum going, as it can occasionally find itself stalling, but its otherwise edited well.
There’s a solid tension which runs all throughout Penny Lane is Dead and Russell manages to find that slasher balance of being intense but also not becoming serious, holding onto an edge of darkly playful. The cinematography from Liam Gilmour is great work, it’s colourful with a slightly grungy edge which captures that 80s vibe. The violence is good, but it lacks originality, it’s somewhat disappointing that it wasn’t more creative, it’s all either simple or familiar. That’s one of the key ways that a horror like this can standout, and it missed that opportunity. The story is also a touch predictable for anyone who’s spent a decent amount of time with the genre.
One of the standouts of Penny Lane is Dead is Tahlee Fereday, she’s everything you want out of a female lead trying to survive their way through a horror flick. She’s relentless, brave, loyal, sarcastic and strong. Ben O’Toole makes for a superb villain, all style and no substance in the best way possible, high and mighty (in more ways than one) and underestimating the challenge that awaits him. Steve Le Marquand is a more unusual addition with his character having a surprising number of layers, pride and honour for a man running drugs for the mafia. Bailey Spalding and Alexandra Jensen are also both great additions, they don’t get to be quite as involved but hit the right notes when they are.
If you’re a lesbian woman, born in the 1970s, who’s also a fan of slasher cinema, then Penny Lane is Dead was quite literally made for you, and you’ll probably fall in love with its bloody, teen, Aussie charm, but there’s also plenty to enjoy even if you don’t fit in that category. That’s because it’s a great effort and it ticks so many of the right boxes for a piece of entertaining, charismatic, messy horror. It has a few flaws here and there and it would have been great to see it build a more individual personality, it is borrowing from a lot of other sources, but to her credit Mia’Kate Russell does that well. It never feels generic or repetitive, the homage to that era and the horror which has come before it comes through strongly. It’s shot well, it moves well, it’s got a great cast and it’s a good time.
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