Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

Lisa Frankenstein is an awesome title but it’s a real shame the movie doesn’t know how to live up to it. Or, sadly, much of anything else. There’s not much of a plot, characters behave in inexplicable ways, and there are more loose threads left at the end than the titular heroine (Kathryn Newton) uses to sew replacement body parts to her newfound babe from beyond the grave (Cole Sprouse). It takes a special kind of skill to make a movie where a zanier Lydia Deetz type uses a malfunctioning hot pink tanning bed the way her mad scientist predecessors used giant sparking lab equipment… feel boring.

 And yet—and yet!!—the style of it all—dark Diablo Cody—is almost enough to save it. Shellacked with an 1980s glittery feminine gloss and wall to wall pastel carpets, Lisa Frankenstein looks bizarre and beautiful. Which brings me at last to its highest artistic achievement: the dark makeup around Sprouse’s eyes as each zap of the tanning bed moves him one step away from rotting corpse toward dreamy goth dandy. Delighted with his revitalization and increasingly in love with Lisa, the Creature—oh, Mary! (Shelley)—extends his hand to her for a dance and bows, Undead Duckie triumphant. (But like a hot Byronic one.)

 I’m glad this exists and have no doubt it will find its following—and hopefully inspire them to create better art of their own. That said, I’d be down for Lisa Frankenstein 2, especially since its final scene is so striking in suggesting a fascinating further feminist reimagining of classic monster tropes. Damn it, Diablo—couldn’t you have done one more pass?1.5 out of 5 sacs of blood.

—Jonathan Riggs