Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) could not be more different than her cheer captain, pageant queen stepsister, Taffy (Liza Soberano).  Preferring instead to keep to herself and spending her afternoons after school in the abandoned Bachelors’ Cemetary – which is, supposedly haunted – she makes pressings of the graves and will read next to her favorite headstone as the lonely hours tick by.  During a major storm, lightning strikes the headstone, reanimating the Victorian-era corpse (Cole Sprouse) buried beneath, and now set loose in the modern world he seeks out the only person he knows: Lisa. 

Zelda Williams directs Lisa Frankenstein, a 101-minute campy teen rom-com from a Diablo Cody script, set in the same universe as the writer’s sophomore effort Jennifer’s Body (2009). From Focus Features, the film is heavily inspired by the look and feel of the 80s teen films with a healthy dose of style lifted from horror films of that same period.  Blending these two elements together brings about a film that has the same energy as Jamie Babbit’s But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) but it is inhabited by characters that feel like they were ripped from the pages of an early career Tim Burton script.  What that really means is that Lisa Frankenstein, with its popping colors and exuberant humor, feels like it has already been enshrined as a cult classic, even on its initial watch. 

Newton leads the film with a touch of mania, and she does a great job of navigating the wild and absurd tone that Williams is aiming for.  Lisa is a great character that runs so counter to the cast of the valley girl CW high school students without being cloying or pandering.  It is a refreshing reworking of the arc type that as of late has been either bluntly handled, quickly written off as queer, or pushed to the sidelines as a supporting character, Lisa has a tragic backstory that the film treats in the same cavalier manner as the rest of its humor so her standoffish nature both informs her character while helping her fit into the larger narrative. The film is incredibly accepting, and the characters want to welcome Lisa into their lives, but they just are not on the same page and Lisa is not ready to meet them yet. 

After her mother (Jennifer Pierce Mathus) was slain in her home by an axe murderer (Luke Sexton) while Lisa hid in the closet, her father, Dale (Joe Chrest) marries Janet (Carla Gugino) some six months later, moving his family into her pristine, pastel home peppered with Precious Moments figurines.  It is a rude arc, but it fits the film and allows for a lot of friction between the sisters so as the story unfolds and Lisa begins to adopt some of Taffy’s affectations, what starts as a punch line actually does pull off some real sentiment. Taffy, of course, is written as an airhead who does not realize when she is being made fun of, but even in those moments the script is not punching down on her and Soberano takes the ribbing gracefully, leaning into the jokes and hamming it up for the camera.

The film cannot be talked about, though, without spending some time discussing a character that never talks.  Credited only as “the creature,” Sprouse is giving a bold, physical performance and if any in the audience are not on board with the film’s style of humor by the time he is introduced, the creature will only further their ire.  Even those who are seeing eye to eye with Williams, it is a tough role to accept as Sprouse grunts and groans and spits up worms. The film sags a bit in the middle because we have to wait for Lisa to catch up to where we are with the narrative and the “rules” of this world.  The creature, while certainly a shock for the characters in the film, is at a high level not a hard concept to grasp the basic understanding of, but Lisa, who is not dumb, takes her time in figuring out what is happening. It is not even a case of the lore being exceptionally deep, it just takes a while for Cody to recalibrate and reorient the script after the creature is introduced and it feels like it was used as a chance to include some gags that were held too preciously during the edit.  

The key to being able to stick with the film is to accept it all at face value.  There is a story that builds well but the logic is loose, to say the least, so it is best not to try and track anything for too long. That being said, Cody strings a few great jokes and concepts that return and build in their intensity and hilarity. For one sitting there investigating every aspect of this decidedly silly movie, these punch lines may be apparent from a mile away, but for those letting the film wash over them, it will prove to be a sneaky delight.  Lisa Frankenstein also makes ample use of its PG13 rating with a few moments that feel like they were allowed to remain as part of the haggling process with the MPAA. The result is a film that is incredibly teen-positive, not shaming the demographic by addressing the pressure to engage with sex, drugs, and alcohol head-on in a fun and understanding way. It is not condoning, but it is also not scolding young people for being exposed to these unavoidable aspects of our modern world. 

For everything that works in the film, there is still an overwhelming sense of what it was all for that lingers as it concludes.  It is a comic fable about grief and growth given the framework, but because the logic is so loose, the message is unfortunately lost.  Sure, a teen comedy about a goth girl who falls in love with the reanimated corpse of a Victorian bachelor probably does not need messaging, but the story is full of elements that point to something higher that the feeling of it missing its mark is unavoidable when all is said and done.  It still does serve as a nice story about sisterhood, and it is not afraid to show Lisa in a bad light at times.  She makes mistakes, she learns, and the story moves on from there with Lisa having grown in the process.  The film is far from ferocious and really lets these characters bump and bustle against each other and learn to live with one another in a way that is refreshing with its lack of true antagonism; it is not Lisa agianst the world, it is Lisa with the world.  

Willams’ feature debut is, all things considered, a success. With Taylor Swift’s too-hyped attendance at the Super Bowl coinsiding with its opening weekend, it suffered at the Box Office as it was no longer well-placed counter programming for that younger demographic who may have been drawn in to see Newton or Sprouse up on the big screen. That stumbling block, though, is all the more fuel to turn the film into a modern cult classic that will surely find a core following. It strikes a perfect balance of irreverent and genuine as it dabbles in the absurd, and never taking itself too seriously, it allows the cast to lean into the antics of their characters and really let loose. That fun enviornemnt is clearly evident on screen and highly infectious to an open-minded audience; it is just unfortunate that this cannot be signed off with a zombie pun while staying true to the spirit of the film!