By DEIRDRE CRIMMINS
Starring Tahlee Fereday, Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn and Ben O’Toole
Written and directed by Mia’kate Russell
Shudder
Home-invasion films generally can go one of two ways. Either the occupant and the intruder get to play a good old-fashioned round of cat and mouse, or there is no hunt and we have an equally classic hostage-and-torture routine. PENNY LANE IS DEAD manages to blend these two at different points in the plot, with varying results.
Not to be accused of having an abstract or metaphorical title, PENNY LANE IS DEAD (coming to Shudder August 28 following its international premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival) begins with Penny Lane (Bailey Spalding) having just been accepted to law school. She also happens to be a seemingly perfect blonde who is on the cusp of starting her perfect life. To mark the occasion, she has invited friends Toni (Tahlee Fereday) and Amy (Alexandra Jensen) to her grandparents’ vacation home for a night of fun away from adult supervision and gross boys. An unexpected interruption arrives when Penny’s unwelcome cousin Kat (Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn) shows up to spoil the party with a vengeance.
When Kat’s plan to have a little fun at Penny’s expense goes awry, Kat calls her older scumbag boyfriend Angus (Ben O’Toole), who arrives with two mates to spice up their night to a dangerous level. From here, PENNY LANE IS DEAD devolves into part home invasion, part rape-revenge, and part cat-and-mouse game. Even though the new arrivals to the party were technically invited, they are anything but welcome.
The film teeters on the edge of satire without ever fully embracing its potential to create that critical commentary on its well-established tropes. The photos on the wall of the vacation home dip into the sillier, extreme side by showing picture-perfect Penny posing for glamour shots in a variety of outfits but the exact same smile. It is clear that Kat is reacting, or overreacting, to this bleached and saccharine caricature of her cousin, rather than the one we meet on screen. Penny comes across as a fairly normal, pretty and smart, teenage girl. She is not cruel or infallible. She is confident, but shows no overt signs of ego or looking down on others. There may have been a space to address this gulf between “Penny” as Kat sees her and Penny as we do, but that conversation never happens within the film. It just comes across as inconsistent.
Another element that PENNY LANE IS DEAD never quite nails is the gore. Films of this nature traditionally deliver good kills, especially when plot and characterization are skimped on. But here, with two notable exceptions, the film does not seem concerned about delivering this satisfaction to the audience. One death even happens wholly offscreen, denying any potential satisfaction of the viewer’s blood thirst. Though the pair of aforementioned gags are pretty successful (you will know them when you see them) they are quick shots, and frankly only add to the feeling of edging the audience without any bloody payoff.
One thing that buoys PENNY LANE IS DEAD above its scripting and visual inconsistencies is the quality of the performances. Everyone here is pulling their weight to make the most of what they have, and going big when they cannot go home. In particular, Fereday and Wright-Mendelsohn steal scenes for being fast-thinking and absolutely unhinged, respectively.
PENNY LANE IS DEAD is very far from a bad film; at times it can be pretty darn fun, and it contains a couple of good, rousingly nasty moments. But the positives are too few and far between, and the movie ultimately fails to deliver on its promises.
