For the girls whose hobbies or taste in men have been met with “eww” more times than “oh cool!”, “Lisa Frankenstein,” directed by Zelda Williams, is the movie for them.
The film follows Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton), an odd and lonely girl, as she navigates a new school and new stepmother and stepsister following the gruesome axe murder of her mother just months earlier.
With interests that include silent films, gravestone rubbing and writing poetry, Lisa is too strange to fit in with the stereotypical 80s popular crowd with her pageant queen stepsister, Taffy. Unfortunately, she’s also too quiet and skittish to fit in with the cool, artsy crowd.
Who better to understand her sorrows and strangeness than a long dead, loney Victorian pianist (Cole Sprouse) brought back to life by a freak thunderstorm?
The film’s writer, Diablo Cody, is the master of the complexities of ostracized teenage girls. Her other screenplay credits, including “Jennifer’s Body” and “Juno,” are fun, juicy and strangely heartfelt—and ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ is no exception.
The film is an homage to classic 80s horror, as well as teen romcoms. Cody’s undead pianist, played by Sprouse and named simply as “the Creature,” is very Tim Burton in his undeniable grotesqueness and softhearted nature.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with having a more mainstream taste in men. But for those who prefer the more sensitive, quiet, dark-haired and perhaps undead, Sprouse’s Creature is the peak of manhood.
He only actually speaks one time in the entire movie, reciting Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “To Mary” to Lisa. Despite his quiet demeanor, he plays REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” and violently castrates another man so he can fulfill Lisa’s wish of not dying a virgin.
Enough about the Creature. The movie is, afterall, named after Lisa. Newton’s character experiences all the regular ups and downs of highschool, from an unrequited crush on her school’s literary magazine editor to having to cover up various murders.
Lisa begins killing those in town who have wronged her. This includes her new stepmother after she threatens to institutionalize Lisa for breaking her Precious Moments figurines, which Lisa does in order to get the Creature new body parts that can be attached and made to work under the electricity of Taffy’s tanning bed.
As Lisa strays further and further away from attempting to fit in at school, she finds her true self and what she really wants. “Lisa Frankenstein,” in all its comedic gore, allows Lisa and the Creature to find true love.
The Creature may not speak at first, but he understands Lisa, and that’s how their love grows. Lisa finds what all the freaks and geeks of the world want: someone just as weird as them.
“Lisa Frankenstein” may carry some flaws in execution (pun intended), but in the end, it’s just as real, heartfelt and lovably disgusting as Cody’s other works.
May everyone find the perfect weirdo for themselves in the end.
