Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

By: Mike Ward on Thursday, February 15

PG-13 Running Time: 101 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

A teen-oriented horror-skewing rom-com, Lisa Frankenstein has an inventive, creative spirit all its own.
Kathryn Newton needs to be a bigger star. She is rather wonderful yet again in a movie I wonder how many people will actually see.
The gothic vibe, the 1980s throwback look and feel - Lisa Frankenstein brandishes a sharp edge on high school dynamics, not fitting in with anyone, and feeling lost in a world that seems to pass you by. In an ironic way, I can see some teen and young adult viewers resonating with the film’s message.

NO

In all honesty, this just did not work for me. I see the components are there, but I just couldn’t vibe with everything screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Zelda Williams were putting down. Should this be Rated R? Would that help? I’m just not so sure that’s the case either.
When does an homage stop becoming an homage and starts becoming derivative of other films? I’m not so sure Lisa Frankenstein doesn’t cross that line more than once or twice.
Ultimately, the bigget disappointment of this film is that it just isn’t as clever or as good as it thinks it is. And that’s a real shame for all involved.

OUR REVIEW

Let’s start with a positive: Kathryn Newton is an underrated, tremendously entertaining actor. Often she elevates material, with the pulpy-horror flick Freaky and the teen rom-com The Map of Tiny Perfect Things chiefly among her most notable work. Her performance as Cassie in the Ant-Man Marvel movies is also a particular delight. Despite doing considerable heavy lifting with new teen-horror throwback Lisa Frankenstein, Newton’s energy, charisma and charm cannot elevate a film written by Oscar-winner Diablo Cody.

Cody, who wrote such rich material in the Oscar-winning Juno, and most recently for the 2018 Charlize Theron-led Tully, has a staccato-like cadence and “smart” humor, puns, and surprises en masse while often falling short in delivery. Director Zelda Williams (daughter of Robin Williams) shows potential behind the camera in her debut directorial effort, but seems to struggle in crafting a film that matches Cody’s unique syncopation.

Set in 1989, Lisa Swallows (Newton) is a teenager obsessed with death, also coming to terms with the murder of her mother years prior and her father’s subsequent remarriage to tightly-wound Janet (Carla Gugino). Stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano) travels in a different social circle than Lisa and she keeps Taffy at arm’s length. With big hair, a goth vibe, but also costumes you could envision on say Madonna, or other female pop stars of the time period, Lisa is something of a proverbial enigma wrapped inside a conundrum to most folks she encounters.

Frequent trips to a nearby graveyard leave her fascinated with the statuesque bust of a young man who died, c. 1830. She reads books at his grave and envisions a fantasy of what their life could have been like. Then, with a perfectly placed lightning bolt striking his gravemarker, the young man is resurrected as a zombie called “The Creature,” and played by former Disney star Cole Sprouse.

Much of Lisa Frankenstein is flat and uninspired, amusing at best. The “hide the boy” scenes when Lisa brings The Creature home are things we have seen before. We even get a “tries-on-clothing” montage! Acclimating him to the present-day offers a few hearty chuckles and Sprouse definitely understands the assignment. Yet, he often feels like he is adept at playing cover versions of characters we have seen previously in teenage horror movies of the past. A reviewer described him as Edward Scissorhands, without the scissors. And he’s a zombie who cannot speak, and a lot of teens have seen a lot of zombie lore in recent years.

Stifled by a PG-13 rating, I seldom advocate for a movie to be more bloody. Lisa Frankenstein needs something, anything to make it stand out. As Lisa discovers The Creature missing more than a few body parts, she enacts revenge against people who have wronged her to complete her undead crush. As he becomes more human with his new parts, Lisa’s plan leads to her pushing forward to join him from where he came. Cue the wacky song cues, the admitted morbid curiosity in seeing how this will all play out, while also wondering how Cody and Williams will wriggle their way through a film that feels both a half-hearted homage and gothic meet-cute rom-com satire.

Newton is rather wonderful though and she and Sprouse generate palpable chemistry, even as their story becomes more outlandish. Very little else sticks. There are momentary shocks here and there, but Lisa Frankenstein is restrained and held down, trapped, needing to break out of its shell to truly feel like the unique and clever film it believes itself to be.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, Carla Gugino, Bryce Romero, Jenna Davis

Director: Zelda Williams
Written by: Diablo Cody
Release Date: February 9, 2024
Focus Features

A teen-oriented horror-skewing rom-com, Lisa Frankenstein has an inventive, creative spirit all its own.

Kathryn Newton needs to be a bigger star. She is rather wonderful yet again in a movie I wonder how many people will actually see.

In all honesty, this just did not work for me. I see the components are there, but I just couldn’t vibe with everything screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Zelda Williams were putting down. Should this be Rated R? Would that help? I’m just not so sure that’s the case either.

When does an homage stop becoming an homage and starts becoming derivative of other films? I’m not so sure Lisa Frankenstein doesn’t cross that line more than once or twice.

Ultimately, the bigget disappointment of this film is that it just isn’t as clever or as good as it thinks it is. And that’s a real shame for all involved.