Penny Lane is Dead pairs gory horror with a queer love story
Australian filmmaker Mia'Kate Russell discusses her new horror film, 'Penny Lane is Dead,' which blends gore with a queer love story. The film follows a group of friends whose celebration is interrupted by a deranged cousin and her criminal associates.
Why it matters
The film represents a growing trend in Australian 'Ozploitation' cinema that combines genre horror with contemporary social themes.
Kat (Sophia Wright-Mendelson) is the cousin from hell in Penny Lane is Dead. ( Supplied: Umbrella Entertainment )
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Before Australian filmmaker Mia'Kate Russell had even put pen to paper for her first feature film, she was already known as The Blood Queen. The writer and director of new Ozploitation horror Penny Lane Is Dead has spent decades in the often overlooked Australian special effects and make-up scene.
"Coming into horror, I don't know what came first: me loving gore or doing special effects, or did I start special effects as an excuse to love gore?" she tells ABC Arts.
"When I started, there weren't that many of us … maybe four? I was in studios doing body castings and talking about intrinsic painting with silicone and how you can make blood come through here.
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