Lady Stay Dead

Plot synopsis:
Gordon Mason (Chard Hayward) works as a handyman at the Rocky Beach Motel. Mason proceeds to spy on Marie Coleby (Deborah Coulls), who is bad tempered, bossy and constantly barks orders at and berates Mason all day. Later that day, when she packs up to drive to the airport to pick up her sister, Jenny (Louise Howitt), Mason intrudes on her, plays one of her songs on the radio ("Loving from a Distance") and rapes her. After Marie bites Mason and calls him an animal, he drowns Marie in her fish tank in a fit of rage. While trying to hide her body in a garbage bag, her neighbour Billy Sheperd (Les Foxcroft) catches him in the act and is also killed by Mason, who also poisons Billy's dog.
Later, Jenny is driven home from the airport and finds the house empty. She later finds Marie's jewels from her necklace in the fish tank and even finds Billy's dog floating in the water at the beach. She tries to tell Billy but sees his body lying on the couch and mistakes him for merely napping. Jenny tries making a few phone calls to find Marie and even tries calling Billy later, but receives no answer. She then meets Mason, whom she draws suspicion towards due to his knowledge of the house, which are later confirmed by sundown when she finds a muddy footprint on the carpet that was attempted to be cleaned off. She runs back to Billy's house to get help from him only to find his body hidden in his garden shed. She runs back to the motel to call the police only to find Mason there waiting for her, dressed in a suit with presents for her.
Mason cuts the phone wire while she calls the coastal guard service. Mason then proceeds to taunt Jenny and whistles "Loving from a Distance" every now and then. He also tries to break into the house to no avail. Two policemen arrive shortly, officer Clyde Collings (Roger Ward) and patrolman Rex "Pops" Dunbar (James Elliott), but Pops is killed by Mason with a shotgun from the cop car when Pops tries to radio for backup. Collings reveals to Jenny that Mason has a history of raping other women who never laid charges on him because of their "irate husbands". He then tells Jenny to make a run for the highway since Mason won't see her in the dark, but she stops when she finds Marie's body in the backyard and mourns over her. Collings tries to strike a deal with Mason, who refuses, but Collings vows to kill Mason after he sets his partner (who survived the gunshot) on fire. Collings chases Mason and fights him in the swimming pool and eventually drowns Mason.
Jenny, who eventually ran out and hid in the bushes on the highway, comes out of hiding when Collings' car drives by and orders her to come out. It's revealed that Mason survived his drowning and killed Collings. He proceeds to strangle her, but envisions Marie in her place and has a mental breakdown. Mason is then hit by a passing motorcyclist and is thrown into Collings' car. Another cop car drives by and the two officers inside find Jenny lying on the road. One of them inspects Collings' car and finds a barely conscious Mason inside about to shoot him with the shotgun, but that officer shoots and kills Mason.

Tags: violence, cult, murder, sadist

Review:
Deranged Sweaty Sleazy Forgotten Gem that turns into a good movie halfway!.
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..
A little slow at first but worth it..
The first 30 minutes are like "Oh God!
This sucks" but after the sister gets to the house on the movie it gets pretty cool.
Even though you know who the killer is & don't think he's scary, the music & direction make it seem like a slasher or gore movie.
Its not real bloody or scary but I liked it..
Great.
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.
Sleazy and forgotten Australian slasher..
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..
One of the worst horror movies I've ever seen - inept and ridiculous on every level.
"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..
Good solid drama rides high on plot, some sex and violence aplus.
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..
Cheers, mate!.
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..
Perversity and misogyny in the Land of Oz. 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"..
A decent enough slasher.
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 porn 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.