Courtney Howard // Film Critic
LISA FRANKENSTEIN
Rated R, 1 hour and 41 minutes
Directed by: Zelda Williams
Starring: Kathryn Newton, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Cole Sprouse, Carla Gugino, Joe Chrest, Bryce Romero
LISA FRANKENSTEIN desperately wants to be a “cult classic,” and perhaps if it had gotten a major polish on its script prior to filming, it could’ve been. This slick, low-budget/ high-concept genre picture – marking Zelda Williams’ directorial debut – definitely had potential markings of one as its perfectly-cut trailer suggests. However, it comes up short in earning that coveted distinction as the shenanigans that unfold, centered on a lovelorn girl and her reanimated charge, frequently fail to yield positive returns on our investment. Feeling like it was a spec script dusted off a studio exec’s shelf, the promise of the picture’s premise goes weirdly unfulfilled, from its brittle character development and weak situational circumstances to its try-too-hard camp.
17-year-old Lisa (Kathryn Newton) is having a rough time in 1989. She’s recently had to pack up and move after seeing her mother slaughtered by an axe murderer (who never was caught and surprisingly never returns in this story again). Grief has rendered her zombie-like, anti-social and practically mute. Her demanding, aerobicized stepmom Janet (Carla Gugino, playing her like a Jazzercised Nurse Ratched) and supportive-but-stifling pageant queen stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano) are terrors, pushing her to participate in activities. While she pines after hunky classmate Michael (Henry Eikenberry), what she really wants is to sulk in the town’s abandoned cemetery, longing to be as dead as the unnamed Victorian-era gentleman in the grave she routinely visits. Naturally, it’s this wish that will bring her to life again.
After lightning strikes the grave during a big storm, the inhabitant’s muddy, lumbering, re-animated corpse (Cole Sprouse) visits Lisa to return the rosary beads she left on his handsome headstone. Noticing a spark of humanity still left inside and feeling obligated to help, our modern Mary Shelley gets the Creature cleaned up, outfitted in a Violent Femmes tee-shirt and stashed in her closet (à la E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL) as she figures out the next steps. He brings her out of her shell (à la a gender-swapped WEIRD SCIENCE) as she brings him body parts to make him whole again. Yet their relationship reaches a crossroads when the townsfolk grow suspicious.
Shockingly, Cody’s script is careless, making rookie mistakes connecting its sloppily constructed characters and their conundrums. The trauma Lisa’s incurred seeing her mom brutally killed rarely plays into her antics. It doesn’t come up again after the first act and certainly not when confronted by the Creature during his initial home invasion. Potentially meaningful thematic sentiments – on grief and self-actualization – come across as hollow and inconsistent in execution. The pair’s late transpiring love affair, which doesn’t make a lick of sense in context given Lisa’s been pining over Michael for 90% of the film, fits together like a square peg forced through a round hole. Lisa, The Creature and Taffy’s journeys are all severely undercooked and it suffers further from reverse sexism as the Creature is there exclusively to aid the anti-heroine’s arc. He’s selfless and she’s selfish. Taffy is loyal and protective, rallying around Lisa for the majority of our time spent with her, until the 3rd act when she’s suddenly not due to contrived reasoning, totally betraying what we’ve grown to believe. Plus, it completely collapses after a shoddily configured finale.
Despite its blights, the cast is a highlight. In Newton’s capable hands, her geek-to-chic, Madonna-meets-Siouxsie-Sioux goth girlie makes for an empathetic heroine, combining vulnerable sensitivity with assured vigor and vibrancy. Sprouse’s pantomime act is legitimately delightful and heartfelt, channeling much of his performance through physicality and broad comedic style, like a newfangled Buster Keaton meets Edward Scissorhands. Still, it’s Soberano who absolutely steals the show. She’s a revelation, whose work contains multitudes, bringing together strength, sweetness and silliness. She digs beneath the surface of what could be a brain-dead, superficial mean girl, elevating the confounding material.
There are genuinely hilarious parts too. Williams leans into the outlandish overtones with ease and wisdom, at least until the middle of the second act when tonal fluctuations begin to occur. A choice Hickory Farms joke and a handful of Cody-isms do some of the comedic heavy-lifting, as well as Gugino delivering the film’s most quotable line. Using a tanning bed as a contemporary reanimation tool is terrifically innovative idea. Period appropriate details like a saturated color palette (a la WOMAN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN), courtesy of cinematographer Paula Huidobro and production designer Mark Worthington, and soundtrack selections ranging from alt-new-wave (“Lips Like Sugar” and “Wave of Mutilation”) to 80s pop ballads (“Can’t Fight This Feeling” and “On The Wings of Love”) set the atmospheric mood. Posters from CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and other classic monster movies hang on Lisa’s bedroom walls as a form of reverent homage to pioneering filmmakers.
Ultimately, LISA FRANKENSTEIN ranks as a middling directorial debut for Williams – one that clearly showcases her tonal inspirations (like DEATH BECOMES HER and HEATHERS), as well as her convivial vision and voice. If this serves as her training wheels for more thoughtfully executed horror-comedies, then it’s served its purpose. As for Cody, though not her worst effort (that would be RICKI AND THE FLASH), it misses the mark by miles compared to her previously written works featuring indelible characters with compelling heart and sardonic humor (JUNO, TULLY, YOUNG ADULT, JENNIFER’S BODY). Maybe she’s only as good as those directors who electrify her words to animated life.
Grade: C–
LISA FRANKENSTEIN opens in theaters on February 9.
