Fantasia 2026 Review: PENNY LANE IS DEAD Is Not For The Weak Of Heart

A celebratory girls’ night at the family beach house devolves into a night of unrelenting, brutal terror in Penny Lane is Dead, the debut feature from Australian filmmaker Mia’Kate Russell. A blood-soaked throwback to the wild days of ‘80s Ozploitation, this Adelaide set revenge thriller pulls no punches in delivering one of the meanest, grimiest, most nihilistic entries in the rape-revenge canon in recent years. Prepare yourselves for this one, it’s not for the weak of heart.

Penny Lane (Bailey Spalding) just got into university and she has convinced her mother to let her and her friends, the Joan Jett-coded rough and tumble, Toni (Tahlee Fereday) and big softie Amy (Alexandra Jensen), use the family cottage for an evening of low-key fun. Unfortunately, they won’t be the only ones there as Penny’s black sheep cousin Kat (Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn) has invited herself, and she’s one hundred pounds of trouble.

Kat’s appearance immediately spoils the good vibes, playing not-very-funny prank on Penny – who she sees as a spoiled little brat – Toni and Amy kick her out, but she doesn’t stay gone for long. While the friends take to caring for Penny, who has been incapacitated by Kat’s mean stunt, the black sheep returns with a trio of hooligans with the explicit goal of making everyone’s night a living hell. Buckle up, folks, it’s going to be a rough one.

Taking cues from notoriously dour films like Wes Craven’s original The Last House on the Left and iconic Ozploitation roughies like Terry Bourke’s Lady Stay Dead, Penny Lane is Dead is the kind of film that doesn’t care if the viewer is having a good time. A series of increasingly brutal attacks; physical, emotional, and indeed, sexual; do an effective job of put the audience on edge, and once the violence begins, it feels as though it’s never going to stop. There is no bridge too far to cross for Mia’Kate Russell, whose history in special makeup effects is put to good use here with a number of truly appalling kills that are bound to have even the most hardened gorehound cringing.

The entire cast here puts in serious work with very little down time, the core trio of friends gets just enough bonding time at the beginning of the film to give the audience a sense of their close bonds before the shit hits the fan. The interloping hoodlums who return with Kat, led by the meth-fueled mania of an entitled Angus (Ben O’Toole), along with his henchmen, Rodowsky (Fletcher Humphrys), and the grizzled elder, Merrick (Steve Le Marquand) all bring something nasty to the party as well.

Penny Lane is Dead is loaded for bear with violent and surprising twists and turns that leave no one safe on either side. Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn’s characterization of the devious and envious Kat propels the film’s violent anarchy to dizzying heights, it’s doubtful that there will be a more hateable character at this year’s Fantasia, and she knows it.  

Your experience with Penny Lane is Dead will definitely be colored by whatever you bring to the film. There’s a real sense of danger throughout the film that can feel oppressive; it’s a mean, dirty, ugly experience, but that’s the point. Russell wanted to pay tribute to Australia’s legacy of genre film extremism, and this film definitely earns its place in that canon. This reviewer came away from Penny Lane is Dead with an appreciation for the craft of the filmmaking and storytelling, even though it was, at times, an endurance trial of cruelty; that won’t be everyone’s takeaway.