The Movie: Penny Lane is Dead
The Director: Mia-kate Russell
The Cast: Sophie Wright-Mendelsohn, Tahlee Fereday, Alexandra Jensen, Bailey Spalding, Ben O’Toole, Steve Le Marquand, Fletcher Humphrys
The Story: Set in 1986, during a scorching Aussie summer, three best friends' celebration at a beach house turns into a blood-soaked fight for survival when a prank goes horribly wrong.
The Rating: 7 / 10
The Review:
Mia-kate Russell's filmmaking career has spanned several years as a makeup and special effects artist as well as directing multiple award-winning short films, and now she has firmly put her stamp on the horror genre as a feature film director with Penny Lane is Dead. This movie is a solid and entertaining effort that I enjoyed watching even as it was fairly predictable and filled with a standard roster of characters that we've seen a million times before within the genre.
What the movie lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in pure entertainment value, especially for fans of bloody, gore filled violence involving everything from machetes to cheese graters. With any horror movie, I feel like 90 minutes is the perfect run time and Penny Lane clocks in at exactly that which really helps to maintain a good vibe and pace from beginning to end. This is where Russell's prior filmmaking experience really pays off as she doesn't waste any time throwing all the characters together and then gets right into the gory fun of what we're all here to see.
The story is set in the 80's which I think is the ideal decade for these types of movies because the vibes are just cool, filled with nostalgia, and there's no way for the characters to use what we know as modern technology for easy solutions. The fashion and hairstyles are also part of the fun, especially for those of us who grew up in that era and can remember when hair bands and aerosol cans were defining facets of fashion during that time.
Prime example is Ben O'Toole, who plays Angus, the lead antagonist, who eats up every scene he's in and brings sleazy wannabe rock star vibes to a whole new level. He's also pretty fantastic as the lead in Alister Grierson's Bloody Hell which is another really fun horror movie so definitely check that one out if you've never seen or heard of it. Tahlee Fereday is also on board in the lead role as she takes on a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to all the bloody fight scenes. It's pretty cool to see her hold her own while handling various weapons in a way that seems natural to the character.
There's a lot to like with this movie, it just also feels overly familiar, but I can live with that for this type of storytelling. Especially when it comes to horror, I'm not looking for Shakespear or fine art type of storytelling, just give me a good setup and let the blood and body parts start flying. Penny Lane may be dead, but this movie still has a lot of life and turned out to be a pretty fun film to watch.
Thank you for reading this review. I know a lot of people aren't into horror movies and that's perfectly okay. We all like what we like and I love living in a world filled with creativity and diversity. Take care and we'll see you again during my next review. By the way, I've got more content coming on my YouTube channel so watch for new interviews and other fun stuff coming real soon!
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