Lady, Stay Dead is a 1981 Australian horror thriller film written, produced and directed by Terry Bourke and starring Chard Hayward, Deborah Coulls and Roger Ward.
Our review:
Despite being an English-language horror film released at the height of the video boom, Lady, Stay Dead received only a brief VHS release in the USA and has never – to our knowledge – appeared officially in any territory on DVD.
Bourke had already directed two films in the horror genre, both, it has to be said, poorly received; Inn of the Damned (1975) and 1972’s Night of Fear, considered by some to be the first Australian horror film. His third attempt is by far the most successful and despite its meagre budget of around A$600,000 and more than resembling stalking maniac films already released in very recent memory (Don’t Answer the Phone!, 1980) it’s hugely entertaining trash and deserves to be far more widely known.
In the Australian suburbs, wealthy, care-free pop singer/model-type, Marie Colby (Deborah Coulls, perhaps inevitably an alumna of the popular TV series, Prisoner: Cell Block H) lives a life of luxury, pausing only from her lounging around and aerobics to fling insults at those around her.
Among the unlucky riff-raff is her spectacularly-bearded and bottle-topped spectacles-wearing gardener, Gordon Mason (Chard Hayward, also to be seen in several television shows, including The Thorn Birds, Babylon 5 and Lost) who is initially willing to accept her anti-social behaviour in return for the sexual kicks her gets spying on her, most disturbingly with the assistance of a rubber doll.
This unusual arrangement doesn’t last as during one of her particularly ungrateful rants he takes exception, molesting her before thrusting her face-first into a large fish tank.
A nosey neighbour is duly dispatched, as is her dog – presumably Australian dogs blab to the cops in the same way TV kangaroos do.
Unfortunately for Mason, Colby’s sister, Jenny (Louise Howitt) comes to visit and it isn’t long before the whiskery horticulturist recognises the threat she poses but not before local cop, Clyde Collings (Roger Ward, almost omnipresent in Australian films from Mad Max to Turkey Shoot to the 2008 remake of Long Weekend) is on the case.
With a strange matter-of-factness (possibly driven by the high quota of television actors involved) that elevates it from traditional slasher territory to far sleazier fare (the aforementioned Don’t Answer the Phone! and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), with the cat and mouse action between Mason and Jenny particularly gripping and satisfying. Hayward is terrifically scuzzy as the psychopathic deviant gardener, and a warning against beards if ever there was one.
The subject matter may be voyeuristic, sleazy and misogynistic but with a low body count, the tension is ramped up with carefully plotted threats rather than a catalogue of bloody murders.
Overlooked enough at the time, Lady, Stay Dead is a fascinating glimpse at the influence of American horror on Australian filmmakers and their particularly rural interpretation of it.
Daz Lawrence, MOVIES & MANIA
Other reviews:
“It’s cheesy and not a little ridiculous, but it ends up being pretty tense by the end.” B&S About Movies
“Those who are more interested in the horror/thriller aspects of the movie will probably prefer the final half of the movie, where the gardener lays siege to the sister. However, those hoping for a credible, believable movie will come up short-handed. One problem I have is that the gardener never becomes a consistent character…” Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
“Although a low-budget production, Lady, Stay Dead has some nice touches courtesy of cinematographer Ray Henman. The New South Wales beach scenery is beautiful […] and there are some interesting shots such as looking up through a telephone as Jenny’s dialling it in a panic, or following a rolling Molotov cocktail before it explodes in a hapless victim’s face. Bob Young’s persistent, plonking piano score actually suits the proceedings with its mournful droning.” Girls, Guns and Ghouls
” …it’s not badly made by any means, and the film has decent production values, but really is too muddled to have any lasting impact. The title doesn’t really live up to much, either. There’s one brief scene when Mason hallucinates that Marie is fighting her way out of the bin bags he’s wrapped her in, but once that’s happened there’s no more reference to it.” Hysteria Lives!
“This lean Aussie suspense vehicle is pretty successful, thanks to its simplistic ‘trapped in the house’ approach and a believable performance by lead Howitt. Maniac Hayward too does a nice job of easing into Gordon’s killer psychoses and by the end helps to ratchet up the tension significantly. Worth seeking out.” The Terror Trap
“The problem is that there is no suspense whatsoever. The attack scenes are filmed in a matter-of-fact manner, which doesn’t do anything to heighten the sense of potential danger. Things just sort of happen in this movie, and when they do, it’s not scary or suspenseful.” The Video Vacuum
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