source: Lady, Stay Dead

'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.

Someone noted (elsewhere) that the theme song is a bit of a stinker within the realm o'guilty pleasure-genre'. I agree, but especially the fact that it keeps coming back over and over and again, does not help in any way, shape or form. Back to LSD (Lady Stay Dead, that is): the 'protagonizing' psycho is not half bad: nice, cooperative, clean, and of course a total whack job when the (fragile female) situation calls for it. The 'story' spirals down rather quickly (and, in a way, surprisingly), and the tension is built up pretty nicely from time to time, as well, even if tempo is lacking just as much. And, unfortunately, really good exploitation scenes are sparse, but what the hey - decent exploitation scenes are good enough. Other than that, some decent acting (nothing to write home about), but the nice settings and the fine camera-work make up a lot. O, and some tasteful tasteless nudity is in here, as well. At least a good 6 out of 10 from yours truly.

This semi-obscure Aussie psycho thriller would probably be better known if it hadn't been overlooked by the Director of Public Prosecutions when compiling the UK Section 1 list of 'video nasties; it could easily have bumped the DPP39 up to a round 40, due to a harrowing scene in which the film's antagonist, gardener Gordon (Chard Hayward), rapes and kills pop star Marie (Deborah Coulls). No doubt Marie would have thought twice about upsetting Gordon if she had known how unbalanced he was: obsessed with his pretty boss, Gordon's hobbies include rolling around on his bed with a life size doll of the songstress. and spying on her at the beach whilst she exercises. After doing away with Marie, Gordon proceeds to bump off her elderly neighbour Billy (who catches the gardener trying to dispose of the singer's body), and then terrorises Marie's sister Jenny (Louise Howitt), who had arranged to house-sit while Marie was on a location shoot. However, Jenny proves much tougher to kill, the woman fighting back a la Kevin McCallister. Directed by Terry Bourke, the man responsible for kicking off the '70s Ozploitation craze with Night of Fear (1973), Lady Stay Dead is a tense, well acted slice of sleazy horror, with a suitably demented psycho (prior to killing, Gordon had been content with seducing and abusing local bored housewives), a likeable protagonist in Jenny (who is nothing like her obnoxious sibling), plenty of mean-spirited violence (a man is burnt alive and even a dog is killed), and a well-handled, action-packed finale, as brave security officer Clyde Collings (Roger Ward, who played Fifi in Mad Max) comes to Jenny's aid. The final act does stretch plausibility just a tad, Collings stupidly (and fatally) turning his back on Gordon after a fight in a swimming pool, and the gardener being catapulted through a car wind-screen when hit by a motorcyclist, but on the whole this is a very effective chiller that might be held in higher regard by horror fans had it benefited from the same notoriety as numerous far less worthy titles.

Night of Fear and Inn of the Damned are two of Australia's first horror films. Their director, Terry Bourke, would go on to create this film, a quasi-slasher stalker film that's packed with plenty of weirdness. Gordon Mason is a handyman that's obsessed with Marie Coleby, a young singer who treats everyone around her with snarling contempt. The film starts with what seems like him taking care of her needs, but he really just has a blow up doll that he pretends is her. She treats everyone around her like garbage, but Mason demands an apology from her, unlike everyone else. Later, he spies on her being tied up by a boyfriend. Later that day, he breaks into her apartment, continually plays one of her songs and rapes her, thinking that it's what she wants from what he watched before. Oh yeah - this dude also spends much of the film wandering around in mirrored shades, wearing a speedo and showing off one hell of a * mustache. After all that, she ends up biting Mason, so he holds her upside down and drowns her in a fish tank. Welcome to Australian film! Mason gets caught by a neighbor, so he kills the man and his dog, too. But the killer had no idea that Marie's sister, Jenny, is coming to visit. She instantly finds Marie's jewels in the fish tank and the neighbor's dead dog. Soon, Mason has transferred his stalkerly affection to her and only two policemen (the younger one being Roger Ward from Mad Max and Turkey Shoot) can save her. What follows are the kind of antics that set Australian films apart: cops being set on fire, dead bodies being hidden in sheds, people being shot over and over, cops trying to drown their suspects and so much more. This film didn't come out in the US until 1986 and has never been released on DVD or Blu-Ray in this country. Is it worth a release? There have certainly been worse films put out. It's cheesy and not a little ridiculous, but it ends up being pretty tense by the end.

It's a bit slow at first, but it gets going. What a camp film. I noticed Roger Ward wearing what could only be a hair piece which looked like a doormat missing the welcome sign. When they put the woman in the fish tank to drown her, she didn't fight very hard and was rather unrealistic, but I guess that adds to its camp disposition! It's not the best film I have ever seen Roger Ward in - his performance in Mad Max will always be my favored. I would suggest you try and get a copy of LSD. It's one of those films you will have a soft spot for... in a peculiar kind of way. Typical of how 1970's films were shot in Australia

"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.

I was warned from beforehand that the first half hour of "Lady Stay Dead" would be quite dull and derivative, but I can't say I fully agree with that. True, the concept of misogynistic violence was quite popular around that time, but this film definitely does bath in a strangely uncomfortable and sinister ambiance right from the beginning. There's a creepy guy, with beard and glasses, fondling a life-size mannequin doll to the tunes of a song by his favorite singer/actress Sheena. That's slightly disturbing, to say the least, especially if you know that this same freak is employed by Sheena (who's real name is Marie Coleby) as her gardener and handyman around the house. He – Gordon the pervert, as I'll refer to him as from now – secretly peeps at Marie when she's working out on the beach. He actually digs little holes in the sand to … you know … *! Yeah, Gordon the pervert is quite the sicko! But then Marie yells at him quite mean and Gordon the pervert snaps. He viciously rapes her and barbarically drowns the poor girl by holding her upside down in the fish tank. All this stuff occurs during the first half hour, so how can you even think for one second that "Lady Stay Dead" is a boring film? After his little moment of temporary insanity, Gordon the pervert has to get rid of Marie's body – as well as those of the noisy neighbor and his dog – on the exact same day that her sister Jenny planned to pay an unannounced visit. Only around this time slot, there's a slight dip of boredom in "Lady Stay Dead", as it takes a little too long before Jenny realizes something isn't right around the house, but the pacing automatically repairs itself for a virulent and exciting finale. Jenny eventually locks herself inside the house with Gordon the psycho pervert trying to get in by using all of his gardening tools. "Lady Stay Dead" is a raw and mean-spirited early 80's Aussie shocker with a similar set-up like the American exploitation hits "Maniac" and "Don't Answer the Phone". Basically, these are all very sick thrillers with misogynist killers that are introduced straight from the beginning and containing explicit footage of violence against women. The body count in this film is relatively low, but Gordon the pervert insists on exhibiting the bodies of his victims in various macabre positions. That's quite disturbed enough already, I'd say. Interesting trivia detail for horror buffs: "Lady Stay Dead" comes from writer/director Terry Bourke, almost ten years after he made what is generally considered to be the very first Australian horror movie "Night of Fear".

They just don't make em like this anymore- Like I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, HOUSE BY THE LAKE, MANIAC, THE FAN (81) etc this film delves right into a psychopaths fantasies and allows the actor to fully rip roar and indulge in the character without restraint. The plot pretty much revolves around a rich mean spirited high class diva who talks to everyone like scum, including her mentally deficit gardener who just happens to also be a obsessed psychopath who , when not being berated by her, spends his time jerking off in the sand thinking of tortured women and making love to a mannequin dressed like her as her music plays in the background. Eventually he acts upon his sick delusions and when her boyfriend is forced to leave their villa for a weekend the gardener enters her house then rapes and kills her. The rape scene and dialogue are pretty disturbing.(ie " never mind those limp yuppie guys- if you ever want it rough and hard, ask me and I'll give it to you whenever you want..") Then her concerned sister comes to the house to see how she is, unaware of the rape-happy madman still hiding there, What follows is a intriguing cat and mouse. The violence in this film is great and I did not find it boring at all. This is easily one of the best of the Australian horror/exploitation that came out that era. Unfairly ignored and loathed it stands up today as a gross horrifying and sometimes unintentionally funny home invasion film thats as good as anything else. track this down. If you like bleak films and twisted psychos you'll get a great fix from this.

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.