Lady, Stay Dead

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Lady Stay Dead. Before we get into it, here are my ratings:

Story - 1.25 Direction - 1.00 Pace - 1.25 Acting - 1.00 Enjoyment - 1.25

TOTAL - 5.75 out of 10

Tell me truthfully, when you read the title, how many of you are thinking, A Weekend At Bernie's? I know I was. I expected a corpse that wouldn't stay dead. But the name is misleading. The lady he kills stays dead, and the other he's chasing, he doesn't want to hurt - well, not just yet.

What the writer and director of this Dark Thriller give us is the story of an accidental killer. Who regretfully slaughters the object of his lustfulness. The subsequent series of unfortunate events leads him on a killing spree. What makes this such a captivating film is the main character. Gordon Mason is written possessing a child-like innocence. That leads him into some slightly off-kilter conversations and beliefs. His sexual preferences verge on the rough and voyeuristic, and he believes everybody feels the same way. He cannot accept Marie's hate and disdain after forcing himself on her. Mason believes they both had a great time. And it's this behaviour that adds the chills that run down your spine. I wish he had written the remaining personalities as deliciously, but they are your stereotypical cop and damsel in distress.

Luckily, Terry Bourke is as good behind the camera as he is at pushing a pen. Though the movie is shot in an average manner and the pace is a steady trot, it works with the story. My attention stayed on the screen and kept my interest. It helped that he kept everything illuminated, so you didn't miss anything.

The cast, on the whole, is okay, though I was happy to see the back of Marie. Deborah Coulls was too wooden and shouty. I found it hard to understand that Mason had a crush on her as she treated him like dirt. But, hey, that's why it's called fantasy isn't it(?) However, Chard Hayward keeps your attention as he remains calm and constantly creepy throughout as Mason.

I would prescribe Lady Stay Dead to lovers of the slasher genre, especially on a dark night, in front of a fire, and next to your beloved. Gordon Mason may chill your soul a little. Worth one watch.

Please feel free to visit my Killer Thriller Chillers list to see where I ranked Lady Stay Dead.

Take Care & Stay Well.

'Lady Stay Dead' is an early 80's Australian exploitation slasher flick with a simplistic plot that starts out with a sleazy rape/murder thriller with plenty of nudity before turning into a home invasion horror flick which is where the slasher elements kicks in and while combining these 2 genres was an interesting idea, neither of which were fully successful thanks to the dull pacing and the lack of any sort of suspense throughout its runtime.

The plot begins with singer/actress Marie Coleby (Deborah Coulls) who lives alone in a beach side mansion in Sydney whose unaware that her deranged handyman/gardener Gordon Mason (Chard Hayward) is obsessed with her, then one day she berates him and he ends up raping and murdering her. But Gordon is unaware that her sister Jenny (Louise Howitt) is coming to visit, will Gordon allow her to escape with her life?

There's a reason why some movies fall under the radar and fall into obscurity, because a lot of the time they just aren't that good and while there have been gems out there waiting to be rediscovered, this flick really falls more into the former category. Okay this movie isn't a total loss as it does have some charming elements to it such as the strong acting performances from the 3 main cast, especially Chard Hayward who delivers a delightful over the top performance as the maniac and for a low budget film the movie is shot well with some interesting camera movements and some nice production values. But other elements in this movie simply falls flat with not enough excitement and too many dull moments that can't quite sustain momentum and could have done with some tighter editing. The finale is also rather weak and ends on a rather limp note.

Overall 'Lady Stay Dead' is something only to seek out if you're a 80's slasher completist as it doesn't really have all that much to offer.

Pretty singer/actress Marie Coleby has a charmed,affluent life in Sydney.She lives alone in a beach-side mansion with her dog and doting neighbour,old Billy Shepherd helps her out from time to time.The bearded Gordon Mason is her gardener.He is a psycho,who enjoys lying in bed with a mannequin and dreaming about torturing women on the beach.His obsession with Marie leads to rape and murder.A new resident enters the house of murder.Marie's older sister Jenny Nolan is looking for her..."Lady Stay Dead" is a sleazy psycho slasher comparable to "Maniac","Don't Go in the House","Never Pick Up a Stranger" or "American Nightmatre".There is plenty of sleaze and full-frontal nudity as well as some brutal violence.Chard Hayward is perfect as a appropriately perverted and crazed murderer.8 out of 10.I enjoyed this low-budget slice of sleaze.

"Lady Stay Dead" may be the most inept horror movie I've ever seen.

It's the kind of movie where you stop paying attention to whatever's supposed to be happening on screen and start tallying off every mistake the director made.

Like when the lady discovers her neighbour's body hanging in his shed - why did the killer move it to such a prominent position? Could it be that the plot wasn't going to continue moving unless she realised he'd been killed?

Or what about the scene where the killer and the lady are playing tug of war with a garden tool through a hole in the front door? Cuts from the killer to the lady show they are obviously holding opposite ends of something completely different. The director doesn't even bother to make this appear convincing.

The killer, bearded and bespectacled, is the least threatening example of such a man I've ever seen in a movie. He's more like Forrest Gump than Jack the Ripper; indeed, in a scene where he is supposed to be strangling somebody, you can clearly see he only has the gentlest possible grip around her neck.

The police that arrive to help her are also among the most useless I've ever seen in a film. At one point a motorcycle mounted policeman rides his bike straight at the killer with no regard to his own safety. Of course he goes flying, but on second thought this may have been the safest option for him: these police are so pathetic with guns I was waiting for the moment when one missed so badly they shot themselves in the face instead. They arrive in pairs with weaponry, and are almost immediately in the same position as the poor young girl, at the killer's total mercy, and you're thinking: don't they have training or something for situations like these? How can a killer this moronic immediately bring two policemen to their knees?

Every scene of violence is so badly done you have to guess at what you're supposed to be seeing. There's a rape scene, for example, that looks more like the perpetrator is trying to push a couch into place. He drowns the victim, but at one point she obviously moves inside the bag she's been placed inside. Is this why the movie is called "Lady Stay Dead"? Well, no matter, she does "stay dead". The movie forgets about the fact that she is apparently still alive and does nothing with it; she's a corpse in all future scenes.

It defies belief that this was made by the same guy who did "Night of Fear" and, especially "Inn of the Damned". It also defies belief that it was made by someone who had ever directed a movie before.

Lady Stay Dead is a mostly unexciting Aussie thriller where a perverted gardener graduates from raping women to killing them as he sets his sights on a pop star he does lawn work for. When she turns down his creepy advances, he kills her in a fit of rage, but doesn't expect that her sister is coming into town for a visit and will be staying at the scene of the crime

The film starts off slowly and in a very sleazy fashion, but if you can make it through the first 30 minutes, you'll be rewarded with a good amount of suspense during the 2nd half of the film as the murdered woman's sister has many close calls with the murderous gardener.

Things do fall apart a bit at the end where it seemed like they were just making up stuff to beef up the runtime, but there are a few moments of decent tension that make it worth one watch.