Those Dear Departed

Other than the good looks of Pamela Stephenson there is very little about this film that comes off.Scripted by Steve J. Spears, a sometime actor (he appeared as The Mechanic in Mad Max 2. 1981) and television writer, the story about a woman (Stephenson) who murders multiple people including her husband (Garry McDonald), a paranoid actor appearing in a hit show Freud - The Musical, who all team up together in The Great Hereafter to extract their revenge, deserves some credit for its novelty value. However director Robinson (who wrote the story for The Coolangatta Gold, 1984, and has largely worked since in television) does not bring it within coo-ee of Jim Sharman's The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) which is its unabashed reference point.

Whilst some scenes do work, for example, the demise of Norda (Su Cruikshank), Garry McDonald is mis-cast in the lead male role and the musical scenes simply go to waste. Which is a pity as there is a lot of potential here that perhaps a bigger budget and a director with more flair could have made work.

 

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