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If you didn’t know that Lisa Frankenstein was a contemporary film, you could be forgiven for thinking it was made in the eighties, as the era’s influence looms large.
Aside from providing the setting for the flick, everything from the artwork to the shooting style and soundtrack could easily have been lifted straight from the decade. It is almost as if this movie has time travelled.
Described as a “coming of rage” movie, it is the classic story of a lonely teenage outsider who finds their purpose – which just happens to be reanimating the corpse of a Victorian gentleman that she has fallen in love with!
Kathryn Newton stars as Lisa Swallows, whose mother was the victim of a gruesome axe murder.
The tragedy leaves her traumatised with her father free to marry the horrid and narcissistic Janet (Carla Gugino), who arrives with a daughter named Taffy (Liza Soberano). It’s all just one stepsister short of Cinderella.
After an incident at a party where Lisa is electrocuted by a tanning bed (there is a reason they come with warnings!), is drugged and almost sexually assaulted, she finds her she finds herself in a cemetery at the grave of a young man who died in 1837 after being struck by lightning.
Clearly having never seen any movies of the era where wishes go awry such as Labyrinth or Pumpkinhead, she wishes she was with him. Cue more lightening which resurrects his corpse, bringing him back to life as a lovesick zombie (Cole Sprouse).
What ensues is a murder spree, as he targets anyone who hurts Lisa while they collect body parts from their victims to replace pieces of him that are missing. They then use the faulty sunbed to help integrate them onto his body and slowly reanimate him.
Obviously, this ghoul meets gal romance can’t have a happy ending and it isn’t long before Lisa is being investigated for the deaths, which somewhat complicates this fledgling romance.
Newton and Sprouse have great chemistry and play their parts as seriously as Romeo and Juliet, despite the underlying silliness of the zombie character’s situation.
However, it is Gugino who really shines in her time on screen, revelling in her wicked stepmother role. This could be a very two-dimensional part in someone else’s hands, but she really makes it work. The Janet star has featured in a lot of rather macabre fare in recent years (Gerard’s Game, Fall Of The House OF Usher) and appears to have really found her niche.
Lisa Frankenstein is described as a comedy horror, but it actually sits across so many genres that it is almost schizophrenic. When you learn that it was written by Diablo Cody, who has never bound herself to one particular style of movie, this makes sense.
Her influences scream out of the screen. The nods to Weird Science and numerous other John Hughes movies are obvious. There are also shades of Edward Scissorhands and other Tim Burton works, plus John Waters and even Wes Craven movies get a look in – which is not a combination you usually find sitting alongside each other).
The unfortunate thing about paying homage to classics though is that it is difficult to live up to them.
As a result, Lisa Frankenstein somewhat struggles with pacing and has some inconsistencies.
It never really finds an emotional baseline with so much going on and, at times, feels rather erratic as if Cody just threw all her ideas in a blender rather than carefully curating them.
Despite this, the film still manages to be a lot of fun and at 101 minutes it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome.
For all its flaws, it is cute and quirky and a nice throwback to the golden era of the teen movie.
Lisa Frankenstein is out now in UK cinemas.
