Lady, Stay Dead

Mind tipped Handyman, Hayward who gets treated look one of his tools, by a successful bitchy model- Coulls from The Restless Years finally snaps, raping and killing her. A lot of us guys have been there too. How the film got this title, I'm buggered if I know. Coulls's character would chafe a lot of guys. Hayward, playing the reverse of his in control and sexually alluring character norms, is almost a childlike character, here, ill treated by Coulls, not even being allowed to come into her house. When verbally striking back, telling her what it feels like to be one of her tools, she just abusing him more, as if what he said, went in one ear and out the other. Prior to Coulls getting it, when entrapped in the house I liked, as well as seeing her nude. It was great here to really see Hayward, return forth, his own brand of retribution towards her, that is funny in part too. But our disturbed Chard had developed a sexual fascination for her, an obsession, that has eventually led to her demise. He so much obsesses with her, he replaces her with a mannequin at the start. Hysterical, especially played against a mellow soundtrack I liked. Getting rid of Coulls's body is only the start of his problems. Big sister is in town for a visit, so Chard must play the part of the stable minded handyman, where other complications develop, the biggest, when the cops finally arrive on the scene where it's a standoff between them and Hayward. The sister, out of harms way at this stage, even insults the cop, as not taken psycho Hayward, as seriously as he should. This is a good situation plotted movie just like Bourke's "Brothers", with some sick violence, but it's a good watch, one reason for Coulls's over the top acting, where in contrast, this is one of Hayward's best performances.

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" 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 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.

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.