Billed as a coming-of-rage tale, Lisa Frankenstein instead offers a celebration of outcasts and weirdos. Jennifer’s Body scribe Diablo Cody and director Zelda Williams, making her feature debut, wear their cinematic influences on their sleeves for a raucous zom-com that manages to go beyond references and aesthetics to capture the essence of ’80s cinema in a way few manage, for better and worse. It makes for a sugary sweet, almost wholesome effort held together by a trio of infectiously winsome performances.
Like most teens, Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) is simply trying to navigate the perils of high school while adjusting to her new home life now that her dad (Joe Chrest) has remarried a wicked stepmother (Carla Gugino) and given her an unwaveringly perky stepsister in popular cheerleader Taffy (Liza Soberano). Unlike most teens, Lisa’s new domestic setup comes right after her mother was gruesomely murdered while she was home, leaving her still reeling from the trauma and loss.
To escape the noise, Lisa often retreats to an old cemetery in the woods, where she frequents the grave of a young man who died in 1837. As luck would have it, a drug-induced wish by Lisa one stormy night winds up resurrecting the undead Creature (Cole Sprouse). It sends the pair down a wild path toward love that comes paved with dead bodies and a tanning bed.
While Lisa Frankenstein draws obvious influence from Heathers, Weird Science, and the films of Tim Burton, with Williams employing Burtonesque animated sequences to fill in some necessary backstory, it’s most indebted to John Hughes. Like Sixteen Candles, there’s a matter-of-factness to the escalating madness that plays like a series of strung-together vignettes of teen angst and comedy. Cody’s script throws a lot at its characters, who remain largely unflappable in the face of bizarre occurrences.
In true ’80s fashion, this is a world where anything can happen, and the characters roll with the punches. That ultimately lends accuracy to the era, but it can be a bit jarring for contemporary audiences. Lisa Frankenstein is more interested in capturing big emotions and character arcs versus tidy, cohesive storytelling. That also means that it can be tonally disjointed, never quite knowing when to pull its punches for its younger audience or go full throttle on the weirdness.
While the adults take on the more familiar archetypes of ’80s parents, it’s the central teen players that shake up the mold. Cole Sprouse finds impressive ways to imbue his resurrected Creature with a vibrant personality through an almost entirely physical performance. That only deepens the more the Creature’s quest for body parts evolves. But Creature is the straight man to the eccentric and increasingly uninhibited Lisa. Lisa Frankenstein is at its most effective when it focuses on the comedic partnership between Sprouse and Kathryn Newton, their unique dynamic earning laughs and audience sympathy. Liza Soberano is also a standout. Taffy is a far cry from the stereotypical popular mean girl and winds up becoming a secondary protagonist thanks to Soberano’s winsome portrayal.
Less effective is the central romance. Because Lisa Frankenstein moves at a brisk pace and takes narrative leaps to maintain it, the budding romance between Lisa and Creature feels more like hormonal convenience. Newton and Sprouse may have comedic chemistry, but it doesn’t quite translate to romantic love. That’s okay because this is a zom-com penned by Diablo Cody, which means that it’s far more effective when exploring what it’s like to be a teenage girl dealing with big emotions. Newton capably handles Cody’s rapid-fire dialogue, and considering what a chatty motormouth Lisa is, that’s no small feat.
As a celebration of teen girls and outcasts who just want to be loved, Lisa Frankenstein ultimately charms. The commitment to capturing that anything-goes vibe of the ’80s kicks things off to a rocky start, and the epic love story between a dead guy and goth girl falls short, but Newton is so magnetic that you’re hard pressed to care. Toss in a vibrant production design by Mark Worthington, Cody’s wit, and Williams’ careful threading of contrasting visuals, and you’ve got a cute, quirky, disjointed and harmless dark comedy that’s less interested in fluid storytelling than it is championing teen weirdos and outcasts through an ’80s vibe.
Lisa Frankenstein releases in theaters on February 9, 2024.
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