‘Lisa Frankenstein’ Review: High-School Monster Mash

Writer Diablo Cody’s new horror-comedy “Lisa Frankenstein” is being called “It’s Alive!” No one will leave screaming.

“This is entertaining,” maybe.

The “Juno” author’s quirky take on Mary Shelley’s novels – from Boris Karloff to “Young Frankenstein” and “Frankenweenie” – turns the Gothic tale into a 1980s teen sex comedy.

Not a bad idea – and one that has already worked very well for John Hughes’s “Weird Science” in 1985. But here it’s a one-joke play that’s too self-aware to be uniquely funny, funny or thrilling.

Our Dr. Frankenstein is Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton), a high school outcast whose mother died and who now lives with a domineering father (Joe Crest), a cruel stepmother Janet (Carla Gugino) and Taffy (Liza Soberano). ) lives with a popular stepsister named. Who is both a supporter and an oppressor.

Lonely Lisa spends hours resting on her favorite grave in the town cemetery. One day, she accidentally wishes out loud that she could “live” with her dearly departed resident.

When lightning strikes the ground during a storm, a slimy, incomprehensible, walking corpse appears on Lisa’s suburban doorstep. She was briefly frightened after seeing the gruesome scene and a fight broke out between the two, but soon they became best friends.

In her bedroom, the Creature (Cole Sprouse of “Riverdale”) informs Lisa that he wants her to get some new body parts. She replies dryly, “You’re a dead man, not a Chrysler LeBaron.”

Yet, through a series of murders, they kill the people who wronged Lisa and cut up whatever meat they want.

In the film’s cleverest touch, each time a new arm or ear is sewn on, the creature lies down in a broken tanning bed in the garage to be electrocuted.

Lisa immediately becomes so emotional with this dreamy dead body that the pace of the film speeds up but the story slows down. He is strangely indifferent about a monster in his midst and completely ambivalent about gruesome deaths. Lisa – all adjectives, no drive – somehow evolves into the less-involved Wednesday Addams.

Like Frankenstein’s monster, many aspects of director Zelda Williams’ film are thoroughly confused.

For example, Cody tosses the creature and a sex toy in a strange scene that is met with a giant “Huh?” Get. Doesn’t add anything else. Is it for humor? Does this deepen the relationship between the two? Who knows? And not really.

Sprouse, who spends 99% of the film growling and groaning, looks better with each shock treatment. He doesn’t leave any impact, good or bad, but he’s not allowed to. The revived Victorian gentleman is a houseplant.

Newton, on the other hand, creates a fascinating oddity; An updated Winona Ryder in “Beetlejuice”. I wish Lisa was as interesting as the actress who plays her.