A girl’s trip goes horribly wrong when a gang of criminals shows up in Mia Kate Russell’s Ozploitation throwback PENNY LANE IS DEAD, now on Shudder.
TW: Sexual Assault
Australian film has had a mean streak a mile wide, along with an odd sense of humor and fuck you punk attitude. Known as Ozploitation (with its own documentary, Not Quite Hollywood; check it out), it’s been a driving force in how the wild and woolly continent has been presented on screen and in culture. Films like Mad Max, Wake in Fright, Razorback, Wolf Creek and others show a world on the edge, just about to fall down into depravity. Dead End Drive In and Body Melt jump into punkier, cultish outings.
Even quieter films like Picnic at Hanging Rock or things like Strictly Ballroom have a specific spark that sets them apart, emitting an offbeat (in a good way) feel that comes from the land down under. Mia Kate Russell’s Penny Lane is Dead, now on Shudder, is a pure throwback to a raucous time in cinema. It’s an 80s-laced piece of nastiness, reveling in that screw you and the wallaby you rode in on energy. Perhaps many will find it crass, taking things too far, and just altogether gross, but for me, its lip-curling, blood-soaked and tense ride worked for the most part.
Well, I could have left the sexual assault at the door. Yes, such actions were more prevalent in the earlier ages of cinema. But it is there, so you know.
Penny Lane is Dead, written and directed by Mia Kate Russel, is a home invasion flick. But unlike most of them, it’s not a random selection or to get at some hidden part of the home; it’s one fueled by a feminine jealousy coming through sociopathy and violent tendencies. In 1986 rural Australia, what should be a fun weekend getaway for a set of young women soon descends into unwanted depravity, bloodletting, and violence. Penny Lane is blonde, popular, and bubbly. Her best friend and new lover, Toni, is more grounded, with a head on her shoulders. Their burgeoning sapphic love would have been more exploited in the past; however, here it is treated more sweetly; I dig it. Amy is more childlike, with big pastel sweaters, a personal support stuffie, and nervousness. And then there’s Kat. An unhinged mean girl who thinks the whole freakin’ world is against her, although most of that is her own doing, who has had enough of the world, especially the other girls, when she crosses a line, and they call her on it and eject her.
So Kat goes and gets her sociopathic boyfriend, Angus; a bad boy in and out of jail, and his just-as-sociopathic friends: older guy Merrick and trodden loser Rodowsky. Showing up, becomes uncomfortable, not in wondering where this will go, we know; but wonder how Russell will hit those beats. There’s the thrill in a powder keg ready to explode, along with power dynamics and how they shift. Within the villain group, each has their own wants and hatred of authority, even among one another, with plenty of squabbling, fighting, and acts against one another. This keeps things interesting with how they work with the girls, and how the girls fight back. The power shift is part of the norm for this sort of film; we as the audience thrill when someone gets that little bit back: an act of freedom, violence against the perpetrator, or both. 
But being this sort of film, the violence goes both ways. Penny Lane is Dead is often vicious and cruel, quick with the violence (though some get held out). Each crunch is felt and given oomph. Russell delivers the goods in the arterial spray, and crafts several thrilling, wonderfully choreographed action and blood beats. With plenty of blood. It is familiar in the way it plays its hand; how many ways can a home invasion play out, after all? But shifting the characters and the whys, that’s how.
But Penny Lane is Dead isn’t I Spit on Your Grave or other video nasties. There’s something more to it that gives a burning energy, a special spark. One that harkens to the 80s, with a zest in the filmmaking that isn’t a mere “inflict nastiness on bodies, especially women’s”. There’s an anger in the women, in how they treat one another. Sophia Wright-Mendelson (daughter of Rogue One villain Ben) and Tahlee Fereday are ferocity on point against one another, and it’s delicious; it can be a star-maker for either. The other women, Bailey Spalding as the titular character and Alexandra Jensen’s Amy, are fine but serve the needs less than the lead’s power. The villainous men, Ben O’Toole, Steve Le Marquand, and Fletcher Humphreys, play the menace well as forces of Kat, inflicting misplaced jealousy and that steam from years of treatment or mistreatment. There’s a strong sense of character at the center, keeping Penny Lane alive to spite the empty violence of other exploitation. But Russell gives it an attitude and life to elevate past the familiar, although even as we engage in teh bloodlust of the bloodspray (by the end everyone is covered in blood), we can’t help feeling all the special energy is dispelled to “how are we going to end this as interesting” as the start.
Penny Lane is Dead is a solid slice of throwback Ozploitation, with a spark from Mia Kate Russell’s sharp writing and direction, elevating an often tired home-invasion film. She brings fantastic headbutting in her leads and drenches them all in blood from well-designed fight sequences. While it had its own trip-ups, like losing a little of the energy and having an unnecessary sexual assault in a modern film (even one tossing back to 40 years ago), it’s a sign of a new great voice in horror.