NOW ON SHUDDER! It’s a night to dismember with the ultra-vicious Australian party torture film Penny Lane Is Dead, the feature debut of writer/director Mia Kate Russell. In 1986, punk rocker Kat (Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn) is preparing homemade cupcakes for the big gathering at her relative’s beach house. Each cupcake is personalized, including the one that Kat ground up a pile of pills into the pink frosting. Kat isn’t surprised when she arrives with the cupcakes and sees that all the other girls are not happy to see her. Her cousin, Penny Lane (Bailey Spalding), is the family favorite in all the pictures hanging in the house. Penny is blonde, beautiful, and too perfect, and Kat completely hates her.
Also getting cupcakes are Amy (Alexandra Jensen), the mousy librarian friend, and Toni (Tahlee Fereday), Penny’s Lesbian lover. After eating her drugged cupcake, Penny passes out, to Kat’s glee. When the other girls show they are less than pleased with Kat’s actions, and show no interest in debasing Penny while unconscious, Kat calls up her new boyfriend, punk rocker Angus (Ben O’Toole),who just got out of prison, to come pick her up. Angus arrives with his mates, Merrick (Steve Le Marquand) and Rodowsky (Fletcher Humphrys), taking a brief detour from dropping off a shipment of speed. The new guests immediately make themselves at home by taking a shit, talking some shit, and snorting some shit. Despite the girls asking them to leave, the amphetamine logic takes over, starting a death party that will go all night.
“… Penny is blonde, beautiful, and too perfect, and Kat completely hates her …”
I lived in Australia during the 80s, just a few years after Penny Lane Is Dead is set. During that time, teens and twenty-somethings were all divided up into specific social cliques that were easily identifiable on the street. I was Gothic AF, though I hung around a lot with Swampies, who were a more colorful, paisley underground version of goth. Swampie was more All About Eve than The Sisters of Mercy, and a lot closer to what would be later branded as Alternative in the US. I also listened to a lot of punk but didn’t dip into the crowd much, as the punks in Australia were a much rougher version than the skater kids stateside, with more tattoos and fighting. They were generally perceived as criminals, but more on assumption than as a result of any truly heinous acts.
So on first blush, the whole concept of the punks as villains seems defamatory, like how American street punks were equated with muggers in 80s entertainment. However, punks have traditionally run in speed circles, so the core premise of Penny Lane Is Dead plays clean. Also, it makes sense that Kat’s character would devote herself to differentiating herself from her hated cousin by going punk. Penny’s appearance radiates what would have been the zenith of the 80s plastic aesthetic, so Kat’s anti-fashion represents a rejection of that. This is all just anal plumage, though, because despite all the stylizing, Kat comes off as a complete asshole, as does Angus. Russell does an admirable job of fleshing out backgrounds for both villains, but both are too brutal and shrill to stomach completely. After a while, you also wish they would just leave.
There is a lot to like about Penny Lane Is Dead. Russell delivers a masterful script with excellent storytelling, with a richness that is rare in exploitation. Russell’s choices as a director are intriguing, especially the way the rape scene is shot, with a unique emphasis that is truly chilling. The outstanding practical special effects by Luke Polti truly stand out as splatter, the kind of pristine blood and guts that will feed the nastiest appetites. The atrocity exhibition does become exhausting, as the endless cruelty overwhelms the uprising counterbalance. There is a delicate calculus to this kind of grindhouse formula, with the results here being unfortunately amped up too high, so the torture feels like torture. There is an awesome ending that awaits those who can make it there, turning Penny Lane Is Dead into one of the sickest Sapphic date night movies ever. Russell is a filmmaking promising talent, even if this feature debut punches the audience in the face a little too hard.
"…There is an awesome ending that awaits those that can make it there"
