- Director: Zelda Williams
- Writer: Cody Diablo
- Stars: Kathryn Newton, Liza Soberano, Jenna Davis, Cole Sprouse
REVIEW
Lord Byron once challenged his guests to write a ghost story and Mary Shelley not only accepted the challenge but crushed it by writing the novel Frankenstein: considered one of the early examples of science fiction, it still serves as inspiration for writers over two centuries later.
Enter Diablo Cody who rose to fame with her coming of age story Juno, which was followed up with other films that were also centered on the kind of women that are affectionally referred to as “difficult”. Of course, the most cantankerous of all of the female characters Diablo has created would be Jennifer from the film Jennifer’s Body. Upon its release in 2009, it was not received well by critics or audiences, but has since found a bit of a cult status as people have warmed up to its special brand of cranky feminism: Jennifer’s Body was dispatching Fuck Boys before the term even existed. Fifteen years later, it could be argued that Jennifer walked so Lisa Swallows could run. Written by Cody and directed by Zelda Williams, Lisa Frankenstein is an 80’s set horror comedy that reimagines Shelley’s classic story with a feminist twist in a way that only Cody could pull off.
Kathryn Newton (Freaky) stars as Lisa Swallows: an awkward teenager who rarely speaks and prefers to spend her time doing wax rubbings of the headstones in the now abandoned Bachelor’s Grove cemetery. Her favorite headstone belongs to Mr. Frankenstein himself and in her dark and morbid teenage heart, he believes she wants to be underground with him instead of above ground with her new family. Stepsister Taffy, an excellent Liza Soberano, is bubbly, popular, beautiful and gives terrible dating advice, but she is the only one who accepts Lisa exactly as she is. As tends to be the case in films like this, Taffy brings a reluctant Lisa to a party and things go horribly wrong for Lisa, but the accompanying storm that hits town at the same time also brings Frankenstein to life. From here, a truly strange teenage romance story unfolds and you’re either here for it or you’re not. The amount of insanely ridiculous things that occur in Lisa Frankenstein almost outnumber the amount of era appropriate nostalgia props that set designer Andrew W. Bofinger deserves a standing ovation for.
As Lisa and Frankenstein build a sweet bond, the two also discover that her sewing skills combined with Taffy’s tanning bed can restore his dead and rotting body. Billed as The Creature, Cole Sprouse does as much as he can playing a corpse with no tongue that has been unwittingly brought back to life and then fallen in love with a brooding teenage girl. While Lisa has her teenage hormones set on the token emotionally deep bad boy Henry, Frankenstein is always looking out for Lisa and as their homicidal rampage begins to catch up to them, we are treated to an outrageously campy, sexually motivated murder that feels like it was ripped out of a John Water’s film.
Lisa Frankenstein will never be accused of doing something new; in fact, it’s easy to accuse it of being Edward Scissorhands for the Z generation that mocks their parents high school fashion while simultaneously adopting it for themselves, but this is more of a high brow Frankenhooker, if you will. Truly, the funniest scene in this film involves someone carrying a dismembered penis in their pant pocket. Like I said, you’re either here for the humor and insanity or you’re not: if you’re not, this is probably a pretty tortuous film experience.
Williams does a solid job of keeping this generic teen romcom on track and the cast seems to be having a blast reliving the 80’s in all of its pastel glory. The opening credits, a dream sequence and an absurd sex scene are all really cool throwbacks to a simpler time in cinema and the soundtrack is a blast. For the various faults that could be attributed to Lisa Frankenstein, it’s the delightful campiness and horror comedy that shines through that creates a fun experience for the kind of people who have always felt a little bit “other”.
Lisa Fremont
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