Lisa Frankenstein is a bloody smart retro comedy about love, death and growing up
At the beginning of May, we’re not quite halfway to Halloween yet, but one of the best treats on streaming platforms is a new take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It combines the vibes of a John Hughes classic teen flick with a reanimated corpse tale and lots of loving homages to the history of fantastic cinema. Director Zelda Williams (legendary actor/comedian Robin’s daughter) sews these all together and brings them to life with a big splash of campy bad taste that somehow results in a warmhearted family film.
Lisa Frankenstein finds the titular heroine (Kathryn Newton) living with a new family in a new town. She was the only witness to her mother’s ax murder, and now Lisa’s adjusting to life with her nitpicking stepmom, Janet (Carla Gugino), her sweet-if-scatterbrained stepsister, Taffy (Liza Soberano), and her goodhearted and mostly clueless dad, Dale (Joe Chrest). This Frankenstein film is set in 1989 and it’s all big-hair and loud fashion with a soundtrack featuring Echo & the Bunnymen, Pixies (“Wave of Mutilation,” of course), The Chameleons, and Jeffrey Osborne’s big 80s ballad, “On the Wings of Love.”
Lisa floats through her days in a haze of PTSD, and she’s probably the only teenager who ever had every right to affect a goth persona after everything she’s been through. She’s friendly, but she’s self-conscious. She’s got a crush on the editor of the school’s literary journal, but she spends a lot of time in an abandoned cemetery, in a supposedly haunted woods near her house, where she talks to the handsome bust of a young Victorian man who died in 1837. Lisa leaves him gifts and flowers along with her most private thoughts. And one night, when Lisa stumbles home from a cheerleader’s house party, a storm rolls in and the young man’s grave is struck by a mysterious bolt of green lightning.
Lisa Frankenstein received mixed reviews during its theatrical run, but its production design and performances have earned consistently high marks. The small town and the old Victorian house that Lisa’s family live in are all dressed-up like a lower budget version of the community in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands — perfect white picket fences, matching green manicured lawns and lots of eye-popping colors. And the monster in the film even feels a little like Johnny Depp’s furtive and mostly silent character — they both yearn for love and connection, and they both make their way into the world with the help of teenage girls who see their best qualities beyond their startling exteriors.
Newton carries nearly every scene in the film and she does a great job of making Lisa a likable oddball. You’re on her side from the beginning of the film because even if she’s a square she’s always ready to stand up for herself. Cole Sprouse does a lot with a little, making the monster menacing and disgusting one minute, vulnerable and hilarious the next. Soberano’s Taffy is a lovable party girl and a sly scene stealer with her off-the-cuff delivery of horny punchlines. The supporting cast is also pretty flawless, and a chunk of the credit for these cool characters goes to screenwriter Diablo Cody. Her kids and adults are all real and relatable even though they’re all exaggerated for laughs. And while some critics have scolded the film’s uneven pace and loose plotting, Cody and Williams more than make up for it with their sincere commitment to their youth-and-romance themes, and the sheer fun of jumping between film universes from John Hughes to John Carpenter.
Lisa Frankenstein is now streaming on Peacock
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.