REVIEW: ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ Can’t Capture the Campiness of the 80s Horror Comedy Genre
In her feature-length directorial debut, Zelda Williams has teamed up with Diablo Cody for the new rage love story, Lisa Frankenstein. Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) is not your average high schooler. After losing her mother to a psycho killer, Lisa develops traumatic mutism. Attempting to navigate a new school while dealing with her new crazy stepmother, the only one Lisa feels comfortable talking to is a headstone in the local cemetery. When a crazy storm hits her little town, Lisa finds that the body (Cole Sprouse) in the grave has come to life. Named “The Creature”, Lisa finds comfort in her new friend and begins sharing her darkest secrets with him. As their relationship deepens, Lisa sets out to help “The Creature” find its missing body parts, while also taking revenge on all the people that have done her wrong.
Inspired by the horror movies of the 80s, and Mary Shelley’s horror classic, Frankenstein, this movie can’t capture the campiness that made either of those entities good. Instead, the movie can only manage to capture the worse traits of the 80s movies. For one, Lisa’s obsession with losing her virginity. I was hoping this would be a trope that would have died over the years, but alas I was wrong. This is a huge plot point in this movie, that felt completely out of character for the introverted character we met at the beginning of the movie. The other issue was the senseless violence. The violence featured throughout the movie didn’t help develop the characters nor did it fit the narrative. It didn’t fit at all. However, truth be told, I’m not sure what the narrative was supposed to be. Nothing about this movie made sense. It was as if the creative team couldn’t decide on the exact story they wanted to tell, so they tried to tell as many as they possibly could.
Newton and Sprouse lead this movie, and I can only imagine they did this movie because of Williams and Cody. Newton and Sprouse are decent actors, but there was nothing about these characters that made you want to root for them and their out of this word romance. Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, and Carla Gugino round out the cast and the only enjoyable character was Soberano’s Taffy. Her character fit the 80s campiness to a tee and was fun to watch on screen. I think I would have preferred the story to revolve around her then Lisa.
Lisa Frankenstein on the surface seems like a fun twist on the romantic comedy genre, but it just falls flat. There may be a select few who absolutely love this movie, but it is not worth heading out to the theaters to see. If you are set on seeing this movie, wait until it is out on streaming. For everyone else, check out another romantic comedy this Valentine’s Weekend. If you are looking for a new romantic comedy to watch, I recommend Upgraded on Prime Video.