Lisa Frankenstein movie review (2024)

For starters, its an intriguingly genrebending horrorromancecomedy mashup written by no other than Diablo Cody, a scribe peerlessly tuned into the feminine rhythms of both teenage girls and adult women (considering Juno and Young Adult) with humor and insight, as well as the scribe of the fiendishly offkilter fleshandblood pleasures of Jennifers Body. Then there is director Zelda Williams (the daughter of Robin Williams) making her feature debut, a talent raised in the world of comedy. And, finally, we have the wonderful Kathryn Newton (of the aforementioned Blockers) in the eponymous role, a reclusive, '80sera goth girl in Madonna outfits who falls in love with an uncanny creature from the grave and sassily goes off the deep end. Considering all these earthshattering assets at its disposal, its such a bummer that Lisa Frankenstein doesnt quite work on any levelnot as a comedy, or a comingofage flick, or an outlandish love story, leaving us craving for a lot more of each bloody dish it serves up. The blame should be split evenly between the script and direction here, with the former not pushing it boldly enough in any direction, and the latter merely matching the storys timidity on the screen with flat visuals lacking a sense of witchy magic. The tale follows the peculiarly named Lisa Swallows, a misfit who witnessed her mom get barbarically slayed by an ax murderer, only to see her dad get married to the intolerant Janet (Carla Gugino) in the tragedys wake.