Fifteen years after the release of Jennifer’s Body, now firmly considered a cult horror hit, Diablo Cody makes a highly anticipated return to the genre. Interestingly, it is also her return to teen centred horror even though it feels closer to noughties teen life than teens today. Its retro eighties aesthetic may be still in vogue (if a somewhat wearying trend by this point), but the film’s tone feels closer to nineties teen movies, which is apt given it is explicitly set in 1989.
The titular Lisa (Kathryn Newton) is an outsider in every way – she’s a loner at school, received little to no support for her trauma from witnessing her mother’s murder (even from her father), and struggles to connect with her step family. No wonder she spends so much of her time in the haunted/abandoned/desecrated cemetary (depending on who you ask), particularly by a favourite tombstone with a handsome bust. It seems to be a wish come true when a freak lightning strike subsequently brings that bust to life, until her loneliness turns into a desire to dismember those who’ve wronged her.
Like Jennifer’s Body, Cody mashes up teen romance with horror, with her and director Zelda Williams showing clear knowledge of horror with nods to Bride of Frankenstein, Meliere, Romero zombie movies, and Rocky Horror. But the biggest influence seems to be early Tim Burton with the deadpan lead character of Beetlejuice living in the colourful suburbs of Edward Scissorhands. The playful effects work and animated title credits further encourage this comparison while demonstrating the inventiveness at work such as using a dodgy tanning bed as resurrection device.
Zelda Williams’s direction is confident, building off the promise of her 2018 short film ‘Shrimp’ which told a frank and engaging story about sex work, but as she implies in her audio commentary, having to dial back “adult material” for this film to get a lower age rating softens it too much. For a necrophilic love story, its grossness feels sanitised beside brief moments of gooey vomit and blood sprays and the Creature’s tears smelling awful. Even these moments are diminished by playing them broad rather than nasty.
I genuinely hope her and Cody get another chance to really let their freak flags fly uninhibited from courting the mainstream.
This is true even to the storytelling itself which, like Lisa’s wax rubbings of tombstones, strays towards prickly subject matter but avoids detail. Lisa’s sexuality is referenced throughout the film but despite Newton’s best efforts, it’s spoken rather than shown. This is best shown in a scene where she effectively uses the Beast as a vibrator and the scene is clearly meant to comically contrast with a tragic phonecall, but the focus on the latter means the joke is muted and possibly unnoticed by some audiences. Similarly, Lisa having her drink spiked at a party and narrowly avoiding sexual assault is as unsettling as you’d expect but doesn’t have much impact on her later behaviour.
This lack of depth isn’t a problem per se as there is no shortage of entertainment to be had. As mentioned before, Newton builds on promise of her previous work and with her scene-stealing role in Abigail, this year has been a strong showcase for her. She also brings out the best of the script, gradually showing Lisa’s growing self-confidence and selling the emotional journey the character goes through. Cole Sprouse as the resurrected Beast does good physical work but feels like he’s holding back to be a straight man to Newton which hinders his screen presence. In contrast, Joe Chrest steels every scene as Lisa’s passive dad, Dale, giving understated comedy and quiet sympathy when needed.
Supplements include deleted scenes, gag reel, an audio commentary from Williams, and short behind the scene features on creating the eighties aesthetic, characterisation of the two leads, and the script. These may be as shallow as the film itself but they do rightly highlight the top notch production design and costuming top notch. Lisa’s increasingly gothic outfits tracking her descent shows a clear attention to detail that is frustratingly not matched by the story – the shed that contains the resurrecting sun bed is effectively a shrine for her step-sister Taffy, lovingly filled with medals and trophies, but nothing is made of how Lisa usurps this space. Little touches like this aren’t enough to add depth to a frivolous tale.
But hey, what’s wrong with shallowness sometimes? The film is entertaining and doesn’t take itself too seriously. While I would’ve liked it to be weirder, I appreciate that it still goes as far as it does with body parts flying all over the place and sarcy dry humour throughout. For a film so offbeat, I would be more than happy to be proven wrong when or if this becomes another cult hit for its target audience. And for all my criticisms, Williams does show promise as a director, and I genuinely hope her and Cody get another chance to really let their freak flags fly uninhibited from courting the mainstream.
Lisa Frankenstein is out now on Mediumrare Blu-Ray
