Fantastic!

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

"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.

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.

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.

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 … masturbate! 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".