(Photo via Entertainment Weekly/Michele K. Short/Focus Features)
6/10
Typically, when writing a review, it’s done in isolation. Initial thoughts are drawn out from the first or second viewing, and outside opinions are kept to a minimum until sourcing becomes necessary to bolster certain points.
This review is the opposite. AP Entertainment got it dead wrong with “Lisa Frankenstein.” It is not “unwatchable” by any means — it’s irreverent and nonsensical, but the words “idiocy” and “dumb” are an unfair snap judgment. It’s not great, but if you’re looking for something goofy to see with yourself or your partner this Valentine’s Day, this is the movie.
“Lisa Frankenstein” is a horror-romance-comedy from first-time director Zelda Williams and writer Diablo Cody. The movie stars Kathryn Newton as Lisa Swallows, a high school girl who witnesses the brutal murder of her mother. Two years later, Lisa’s father Dale, played by Joe Chrest from “Stranger Things,” remarries, and her new relatives make life confusing and lonely.
Lisa copes with these changes by visiting the abandoned grave of a long-dead bachelor, wishing she was dead herself. Despite her budding friendship with her new sister Taffy and the ongoing support of her father, Lisa’s relationship with stepmother Janet grows increasingly adversarial. On the night of a party, where Lisa is drugged and groped before leaving in a righteous fury, lightning strikes the bachelor’s gravesite, who reanimates as The Creature, played by Cole Sprouse.
“Lisa Frankenstein” has a love-love relationship with coincidence. Not love-hate, because the coincidences make this the enjoyable, hammy rom-com it is. This movie doesn’t feel the need to explain why lightning can resurrect a dead man, or why Lisa would be willing to bathe, clothe and house him. It just goes for it, and it’s much more fun that way.
When The Creature first meets Lisa, he crashes through the window while she’s home alone. Lisa reacts accordingly, screaming and throwing whatever’s in reach as this maggoty stranger stumbles after her. Lisa, for someone so horrified, quickly reverses her opinion of him in the middle of dialing 911, stopping when she hears The Creature moan on the other line. He’s picked up her father’s novelty shoe phone, which endears Lisa to The Creature at warp speed.
Despite the film’s title, Sprouse plays more of a zombie than a Frankenstein. At first glance, despite his grunts, shambles and missing appendages, he’s mostly the same man buried decades ago. Sprouse faces the unenviable task of humanizing a nonverbal, undead companion while infusing hints of romance, jealousy, and murderous rage. He accomplishes this, for the most part, but his mannerisms are too recognizable — it’s the same Frankenstein your uncle plays, two beers deep at the family Halloween party.
Newton’s Lisa, however, is highly expressive and never predictable, due in no small part to the writing of Diablo Cody, writer of the 2007 award-winning “Juno.” Lisa is hilariously self-absorbed — her feeding The Creature’s desire to kill for her is wild to behold. As a reward for killing the people Lisa hates, The Creature harvests their bodies to replace his missing appendages. Lisa stitches the new parts on and overloads the family’s faulty tanning bed to electrify them to working order, causing The Creature looks more human after each session.
Set in the ’80s, “Lisa Frankenstein” is colorful and bizarre in its sets and fashion, contrasted by Lisa and The Creature’s coordinated goth wardrobe, which features boots, bangles, blazers and the frequent use of black. Despite its effective recreation of the ’80s, the choice of era comes across as arbitrary. It seems like it’s meant to be associated with horror films of the time, like “The Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Friday the 13th” and “The Evil Dead.” Even so, there is an unfortunate lack of influence from this era of horror. “Lisa Frankenstein” feels like a Diablo Cody film of the modern day, sharing the exact humor and characteristics of the present. Though it wants to appeal to current audiences, carrying over styles from ’80s horror franchises could have been a great creative choice that was otherwise missed.
As Lisa and The Creature’s relationship deepens throughout the movie, the parts they replace on The Creature’s body tell us more about the man he used to be. Stitching on Janet’s ear improves his quality of un-life, but the attachment of his new hand, cut from the boy who groped Lisa, brings us music — we saw in the opening that The Creature was a musician, and now we hear him from the Swallows’ family piano, playing his and Lisa’s favorites. A great insight strikes Lisa, who realizes that beyond what she sees of him, The Creature once lived a real life. The Creature grunts and points in response, reflecting the lesson on her. It’s memorable in its simplicity, though a small moment buried in otherwise good jokes.
Most hilariously, however, is The Creature’s quest for a penis. Taffy, despite her genuine love for Lisa, is found in bed with Lisa’s crush, Michael Trent. Lisa is furious at Taffy for sleeping with him, and at Michael for treating her like, in his words, a “kiddo.” The Creature, fueled by love for Lisa, is also furious and unexpectedly bursts into the scene with an ax. We watch in slow motion as Sprouse swings the handle, the sharp end sinking between Trent’s legs. In the light of the afternoon sun coming through the bedroom window, the shadow of Trent’s penis flips through the air, landing in a waste bin on the other end of the room. Trent dies, Taffy gets drenched in blood, Lisa is horrified and The Creature, satisfied, takes his balls and goes home.
With The Creature’s borrowed equipment, Lisa sleeps with him that night, fulfilling her wish to lose her virginity before she’s arrested. Though the wish has come true, Lisa is moved by The Creature’s love. Lisa reciprocates his love and joins him in death, overloading the tanning bed and burning herself alive while The Creature watches on. In the afterlife, the couple spends their days by the pond, reading each other poetry.
As rom-coms go, “Lisa Frankenstein” is a passable entry to the genre, though less passable as a horror film. It is, however, constantly enjoyable. I can’t help but describe this movie as good, despite knowing it’s less than so. It could be better, but I can’t imagine it being any different. Whether alone or with your partner, “Lisa Frankenstein” can be a goofy and enjoyable Valentine’s Day outing.
SZNS will return to our Best Picture reviews in the coming weeks leading up to the 96th Academy Awards ceremony, broadcasting on March 10 on ABC, 7 p.m. CDT. Oscar-nominated films previously reviewed include “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,”“Poor Things,”“Maestro,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.” For more reviews and film news, stay tuned to SZNSMAG.com.
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