Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Mia'kate Russell
Starring: Tahlee Fereday, Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn, Ben O'Toole, Bailey Spalding, Alexandra Jensen, Steve Le Marquand
The digital video shelves of streaming services and VOD platforms have become crowded in recent years with cheap and cynical attempts to capture the grindhouse vibe of the exploitation thrillers that played at drive-in theatres in the '70s and on VHS in the '80s. These movies tend to put more effort into capturing the aesthetics of those eras than into genuinely nailing their scuzzy vibe, believing that all that's required to take us back to the '80s is a synth score and some neon lighting.
With her feature debut, Penny Lane is Dead, Australian writer/director Mia'kate Russell eschews such superficial trappings. Her movie is set in 1986, but it isn't trying to fool us into believing we're watching an actual product of that era. There is no synth score, rather a selection of Aussie hard rock tunes, and neon lighting is minimal. Russell's film is a parody of Ozploitation, Australia's distinctively bonkers brand of exploitation cinema, and it is very funny. But it also works as a thriller, one that keeps us on edge throughout and is shocking in how far it's willing to go (an audience member at its Fantasia screening required medical attention after fainting). It is the best movie of its kind since Coralie Fargeat's Revenge.
The movie has a classic home invasion setup, one that leads into another grindhouse staple, the rape/revenge thriller. But Russell has given this premise a distinctively female spin. A bloodbath ensues because a teenage girl is jealous of the attention given to her "perfect" cousin.
Little Miss Perfect is the titular Penny (Bailey Spalding). Having been accepted to the prestigious college of her choice, Penny throws a party at her family's remote beach house, where she is joined by her best friends Amy (Alexandra Jensen) and Toni (Tahlee Fereday, who could be mistaken for the American b-movie star Jamie Bernadette), the latter of whom has recently become Penny's secret lover. The party is spoiled by the arrival of Penny's punky cousin Kat (Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn), who has brought cupcakes, one of which is laced with drugs that instantly knock Penny out. When Toni kicks Kat out, she returns with her boyfriend Angus (Ben O'Toole), a psychotic ex-con, and his bogan buddies Merrick (Steve Le Marquand) and Rodowsky (Fletcher Humphrys). As the leering scuzzballs set their eyes on the prone Penny and are egged on by Kat, Toni is forced to step up and take them on.
Penny Lane is Dead is a small miracle of a film in how it so seamlessly blends its exploitative violence with rib-tickling comedy. If you removed the humour it would be one of the best thrillers of recent years, but rather than detracting from the tension and suspense, the comedy plays right into it. There is something of Michael Haneke's Funny Games in how Kat provides a running commentary as the violence and depravity escalates, but unlike Haneke, Russell isn't trying to shame her audience for enjoying such thrills. Haneke told us we're awful people; Russell tells us we're awful, but she's winking at us to let us know that she's a wrong 'un too. What Haneke failed to understand is that horror movies and violent thrillers satisfy our primal instincts in a way that is necessary and perhaps even healthy. Fargeat understood this with Revenge, and Russell gets it too.
It was Hitchcock who said that every thriller needs an element of comedy, and he often punctuated his film's more grisly moments with a touch of humour. Russell does likewise here. There are beats throughout Penny Lane is Dead that are shocking, disturbing and nigh on mean spirited, but after each such instance Russell will make us laugh our asses off at some wildly inappropriate comment made by Kat or Angus.
It's Wright-Mendelsohn's performance that allows Russell to pull off this tonal juggling act. The young starlet is the daughter of Ben Mendelsohn, and she has inherited his sinister screen presence, but she also has remarkable comedic chops. It is her comic timing that makes the off-colour humour land. As the de facto heroine, Fereday is a suitably spunky presence, but Russell has imbued Toni with a tangible vulnerability. Nothing kills movies like this quicker than the realisation that the heroine can easily take down lumbering male villains, a trope Russell avoids by making her antagonists especially intimidating. It is clear from the off that Toni is going to have to rely on brains rather than brawn if she wants to survive the night.
Russell's background in make-up effects comes to the fore with some gruesome practical effects. One involving feet will have you wincing and laughing in equal measure. This is a filmmaker who fully understands the appeal of vintage grindhouse cinema and isn't interested in simply piggy-backing its aesthetic. Penny Lane is Dead is the real deal, a modern Ozploitation classic. If I were Sam Raimi I would give Russell the keys to the Evil Dead franchise.
Penny Lane is Dead is on Shudder from August 28th.
