Review by C.J. Bunce
Beginning and ending with some evocative, moody, Gothic animation, Lisa Frankenstein is an engaging spiritual successor to the movies of Tim Burton, from Edward Scissorhands to Beetlejuice, Sweeney Todd to Frankenweenie, and Corpse Bride to Sleepy Hollow. This is a 1980s coming of age, supernatural comedy that borrows tropes from Weird Science to Boo, Bitch, and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Starring Kathryn Newton (Freaky, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania) in the lead role, Lisa Frankenstein is the story of a troubled teen who can only find understanding and camaraderie by tapping into the undead.
The 1980s saw two nerds create their dream woman in Weird Science. Lisa has already found her dream–sort of. She visits the grave of a young man who died in the 1930s, whose tombstone has a likeness of him that Lisa leaves covered in mementos. She makes a fantasy story wish, that only sort of comes true. She says she wants to be with him, only what she intended was she wishes she were dead. But the undead man comes to her rescue anyway.
Played by a mostly zombiefied Cole Sprouse, the Creature is missing some things, including an ear and a hand. Sprouse taps into all the dark Johnny Depp performances to react brilliantly without ever speaking. Casting of Newton and Sprouse was perfect.
This is a crazy indulgent fantasy farce. You have to think Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body) was working out some deep-seated issues from her teen years creating some of the bizarre sequences that made it into this movie. How far can you take the coming of age genre and crash it into a Frankenstein homage? This far. The “On the Wings of Love” segment is way over the top. Also very funny.
Production and art design is straight out of a Tim Burton movie, especially Edward Scissorhands, including lighting of the residence sets. Sometimes this means a black and white Bride of Frankenstein setting, sometimes using different film types, lenses, and cameras, other times it’s through the view of a strange fairy tale world you might find in a Charles Addams cartoon. Mark Worthington (WandaVision, American Horror Story) and Michelle C. Harmon (Happy Death Day, Scream: The TV Series) come together to build a fascinating fantasy world.
Holding up nearly half of the movie is Liza Soberano (Forevermore, Bagani) as Lisa’s (mostly) supportive stepsister. She’s a good balance to her mother and Lisa’s stepmother, a fairy tale type stepmother villain played by genre favorite Carla Gugino, who will have you thinking of Donnie Darko’s creepy Kitty Farmer.
But the movie is really a showcase of young actress Kathryn Newton. She’s the center of every scene and gets to run the gamut from shy teen obsessing over a guy to an out-of-control madwoman taking charge in all the wrong ways. Props are also due to the makeup and costume departments for the Creature, who changes throughout the movie.
If trigger warnings for family axe murders and bloody violence as comedy isn’t your thing, you will want to skip this one.
