Lisa Frankenstein

Lisa Frankenstein is a 2024 American comedy horror film directed by Zelda Williams, in her feature-length directorial debut, and written by Diablo Cody. The film stars Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, and Carla Gugino. The plot follows a misunderstood teenage goth girl who meets and develops a relationship with a reanimated Victorian-era corpse. Cody stated that Lisa Frankenstein is set in the same fictional universe as Jennifer's Body.

Lisa Frankenstein was released in the United States by Focus Features on February 9, 2024. The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot
In 1989, teenage Lisa Swallows is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of her mother, who was killed by an axe murderer two years earlier. Her father Dale has since remarried a woman named Janet, who also has a daughter from a previous marriage, Taffy. Lisa spends much of her time at a local cemetery.

Lisa heads to a party with Taffy, who encourages her to socialise. She has an awkward encounter with Michael, her crush, and is accidentally drugged by one of his friends. She is later sexually harassed by her lab partner Doug. Lisa returns to the cemetery and speaks to the grave of a young man who died in 1837; a pianist who had fallen in love with a woman in his own time before she left him for another man, and was later killed by a lightning strike. A bolt of lightning strikes his grave after Lisa leaves, and the man is brought back to life as a zombie.

The man (referred to as “The Creature” in the film’s credits) breaks into the house. Lisa is initially terrified, but eventually recognizes him as the man whose grave she dotes on, and decides to hide him in her closet. The Creature is mute, covered in debris, and missing multiple body parts.

Lisa claims that a burglar broke in to explain the mess made by the Creature, but Janet claims she is making it up for attention. When she threatens to send Lisa to an asylum, the Creature kills Janet and cuts off her ear before the two dump Janet's body in the cemetery. Lisa sews Janet's ear onto the Creature, but discovers that the parts will not work without a current. They use Taffy's tanning bed to revive the ear, which also restores the Creature to a more human appearance. Lisa then lures Doug to the cemetery so that she can cut off his hand for the Creature. The Creature kills Doug and hides his body with Janet's. Once again able to play the piano, the Creature starts to bond with Lisa.

The police start to investigate Janet's and Doug's disappearances. Lisa is implicated but refuses to cooperate with the investigation. Lisa goes to find Michael, but she finds him in bed with Taffy and is devastated. The Creature enters and chops off Michael's penis. The Creature prepares to attack Taffy, but Lisa stops him and follows him as he flees to the cemetery. Lisa gives Taffy her mother's rosary as a token of appreciation for her kindness and sympathy, before pursuing the Creature into the woods.

Lisa confronts the Creature, who admits he loves her. They leave the cemetery after throwing an officer into a grave. Lisa attaches Michael's penis to the Creature so they can have sex. Afterwards, Lisa convinces the Creature to electrocute her in the tanning bed to avoid being arrested. The Creature does as she asked, causing Lisa to burn to death.

Dale and Taffy later visit Lisa's grave. Taffy is disturbed to discover an inscription has been added to Lisa's headstone, "Beloved Wife", which has been damaged by lightning. We then see the Creature sitting on a bench, reading aloud Percy Shelley's poem, O Mary Dear. A resurrected Lisa lies in his lap and opens her eyes.

Production
Diablo Cody wrote the script for Lisa Frankenstein, and she announced that she would be producing the film with collaborator Mason Novick in June 2022. Zelda Williams made her feature-length debut as the director of the film, which was revealed to be starring Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse. Further casting announcements of Liza Soberano, Carla Gugino, Joe Chrest, and Henry Eikenberry were revealed in August 2022, around the time when production began filming in New Orleans which was expected to run until September.

Some writers covering the film theorized that its title is an amalgamation of "Lisa Frank", a company known for producing brightly colored stickers and school supplies, and Frankenstein. However, Cody has stated that this play on words was unintentional. In actuality, the titular character's name is an homage to a character in the 1985 John Hughes-directed film Weird Science, since, like Lisa Frankenstein, it features protagonists who bring their fantasy love interests to life.

Theatrical
Lisa Frankenstein was released theatrically in the United States by Focus Features on February 9, 2024. It was released in the United Kingdom by Universal Pictures on March 1, 2024.

Home media
Lisa Frankenstein was released on video-on-demand (VOD) platforms in the US on February 27, 2024.

Soundtrack
A cover of the REO Speedwagon single, "Can't Fight This Feeling", was sung by American singer JoJo for the soundtrack. The song was released as a single on February 9, 2024, A music video was released the day before, interspersing clips from the film and JoJo performing the song in a recording studio.

Box office
In the United States and Canada, Lisa Frankenstein was projected to gross $4–6 million from 3,144 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $1.7 million on its first day, including $700,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $3.8 million, finishing second behind holdover Argylle. In its second weekend the film made $2.1 million, falling to ninth place.

Critical response
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars, writing that it "suffers from Mixed Genre Syndrome and hops from horror spoof to trauma survivor story to pure camp to high school comedy, never really finding its footing." Owen Gleiberman of Variety described the film as derivative and "neither scary nor funny", calling it "a horror-com smoothie made mostly of ancient, moldy fruit." The Guardian's Benjamin Lee gave the film a score of two out of five stars, criticizing its pacing and script, and writing that, "The film feels a little trapped between two worlds, a tween sleepover comedy on the verge of full body horror". IndieWire's David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of "C", commending the performances of Newton and Sprouse but lamenting that, "Scenes have no shape to them, the world feels half-built, and the reality that supposedly holds them together is too erratic for Williams to establish any kind of emotional baseline." Robbie Collin of the Telegraph awarded the movie two stars out of five, writing that it is “hindered by its obsession with 80s cult classics.”

Valerie Complex of Deadline Hollywood complimented the film's visual aesthetic and the performances of Newton and Soberano, but criticized its pacing: "[The] inconsistency in pacing, though reflective of the film's ambition to blend genres and tones, might detract from the cohesiveness of the narrative." Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting characterized the film's central romance as underdeveloped, but praised Newton's performance, as well as the film's production design and humor, calling it "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." The New York Times' Alissa Wilkinson also praised the production design, and concluded: "Brief, pleasant and fun to look at, the movie is not interested in anything more than love and being understood, and in that way it's a great callback to teen romances from an earlier era."