Penny Lane is Dead is directed by Mia-Kate Russell and the cast includes Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn, Tahlee Fereday. Alexandra Jensen, Bailey Spalding, Steve Le Marquand, Fletcher Humphrys and Ben O'Toole.

TL;DR: Penny Lane Is Dead is a nasty, funny and sometmes uncomfortable Australian horror movie with excellent practical effects and a strong cast, although some of the nastiness made it a difficult film to enjoy in the conventional sense.

Plot

A quiet Australian beach house celebration turns into a nightmare when an uninvited cousin and three violent intruders take over the secluded property.

Penny Lane Is Dead Has A Really Nasty Streak

I liked Penny Lane Is Dead pretty quickly, simply because it has an attitude, and while I understand this won't be for a lot of people, I loved how wonderfully grubby this movie is, with a sort of personality that makes a horror movie feel like it came from actual people rather than a spreadsheet containing the words "teenagers," "blood," and "surprise."

It's directed by Mia'Kate Russell, who is making her feature directorial debut here, and she clearly has a fondness for the rougher side of horror, and Russell has also worked extensively in special-effects makeup, which makes a lot of sense once the movie starts getting properly violent, because there is a real physicality to the film at times.

People get hurt, things get smashed, bodies take punishment, and the movie seems perfectly happy to let you hear and see all the unpleasant bits, where the injuries to look like they actually hurt.

The 1980s Setting Actually Has A Point

I have watched plenty of movies set in the 1980s where the decade seems to have been included because somebody really likes old cars and cassette players, but Penny Lane Is Dead does more with it.

It all takes places in 1986, and the period setting helps shape the whole atmosphere rather than simply providing an excuse for retro clothing, with a feeling that these characters are cut off from the outside world in a way that would be almost impossible now - nobody can casually reach for a smartphone and start recording everything, nobody can immediately message five friends, and nobody can sit there scrolling through Google while waiting for somebody to come and rescue them.

The music helps enormously too, featuring a strong Australian punk and rock influence running through the movie, which gives the film a very specific identity, and the use of The Angels' "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again" is particularly appropriate because, frankly, there are moments here when seeing somebody else's face would probably be the least of anyone's problems.

But it's Russell's special-effects background that is probably the easiest thing to explain about Penny Lane Is Dead, because the practical effects are bloody good, pun intended, featuring wonderfully horrible injuries here, and the movie understands that a practical effect can sometimes make something much more unpleasant than a digital effect ever could.

A computer-generated wound can look impressive, but there's something about seeing a physical object interacting with a physical body that makes my brain immediately go, "Nope, absolutely not."

It also has a slightly old-fashioned affection for making the audience squirm, where it doesn't seem embarrassed by the fact that blood and makeup effects are part of the fun, with no attempt to make everything look clinically realistic, either - sometimes it wants the violence to be horrible, sometimes it wants it to be outrageous, and sometimes it manages both at once.

There is also some particularly unpleasant stuff involving feet, and I would like to formally request that horror filmmakers stop doing things to feet.

The Movie Is Funny In Some Very Wrong Places

While this movie obviously isn't a comedy, but there are moments where the movie's sheer nastiness becomes so ridiculous that a laugh is almost unavoidable, which I think is a difficult line to walk - if the humor had been pushed too far, the violence would have started feeling like a joke, but if the film had taken itself completely seriously, some of the more excessive moments could have become miserable rather than entertaining.

I found myself laughing at moments where I probably shouldn't have been laughing, which is generally a good sign for this kind of horror, as there is an irreverence to the film that keeps it from becoming relentlessly grim, especially when some of the subject matters become, shall we say, more difficult to watch at times - there is sexual violence in Penny Lane Is Dead, and this is where my reaction to the movie became much more complicated.

I don't think the film is using this material simply to shock the audience. as Russell has discussed the influence of growing up in Australia and seeing certain attitudes toward violence against women, and that context is useful when looking at what the movie is trying to do.

Still, understanding why something is there doesn't automatically make it easier to watch, and I admit, there were moments when I felt the film was pushing my patience with its cruelty.

I don't think that's necessarily a flaw either, as horror doesn't always need to make me comfortable, but I did find myself wanting the movie to move on during some of its harsher stretches because the unpleasantness occasionally became more important than the characters.

Mia'Kate Russell Has Made A Strong Debut

Considering this is Russell's first feature as a director, Penny Lane Is Dead is a decent introduction, but I think it will only appeal to a certain kind of horror fan, and I think some viewers are going to find the sexual violence particularly difficult.

The film also occasionally feels like it is trying to prove just how far it is willing to go, when it probably didn't need to prove anything, but I'd probably rather have those problems than a horror movie with no personality, and Russell clearly understands practical effects, understands the appeal of exploitation horror, and has enough confidence to make something that feels distinctly hers, with an unusual combination of ugliness and warmth.