Lisa Frankenstein: Film Review
I wanted to love Lisa Frankenstein so much – it ticked so many of my boxes on paper – but it just didn’t click for me.
Set in the 1980s, the film follows Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton), who has moved to a new town to live with her dad Dale (Joe Chrest), new stepmother (Carla Gugino) and stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano) following her mother’s brutal death. She is an outcast at her new school, with only Taffy being her friend, so she spends a lot of time in an abandoned cemetery talking to the tombstone of a Victorian man. One night, she makes a wish and he comes back to life. The reanimated corpse is missing a few body parts so they acquire them using murderous means.
Lisa Frankenstein had all the right ingredients – the concept, the performances, the terrifically ’80s production and costume design – but it felt tonally off. It’s described as a comedy horror but doesn’t fully deliver on either front. There are a few laughs and it’s darkly amusing in places but I wanted it to be funnier. I also wanted it to be more brutal and bloody than it is. Yes, people are killed, but you don’t see very much and fulfil its horror potential.
It isn’t just set in the ’80s visually, it is performed like it’s in that decade, with big, heightened performances that wouldn’t fly today. Gugino is an old-school evil stepmother and Taffy is a chatty bubbly cheerleader. I understood and appreciated what director Zelda Williams was going for but it felt tonally weird and jarring. It’s such a shame because I absolutely adored Lisa’s costumes and the production design in the family home.
I’m a huge fan of Newton and she doesn’t disappoint. She is having so much fun as this odd character and I had the best time watching her do her thing. Cole Sprouse‘s physicality is awesome and I was impressed by how he conveyed his feelings without speaking. Elsewhere, Gugino fully understood the evil stepmother assignment and Soberano was a delight as Taffy. This was her Hollywood debut so I will keep an eye out for her in the future.
Lisa Frankenstein, written by Jennifer’s Body’s Diablo Cody, should have worked but the execution lacked clarity and focus and didn’t hit like it should have.
In cinemas now