Horror romances can be a difficult genre to get right, butLisa Frankensteinmakes a valiant attempt at recreating bothFrankensteinandBride of Frankensteinfor a modern audience. Thoughthe cast ofLisa Frankensteinis excellent, its mixture of kooky teen drama, body horror, genuine romance, and modern sexuality doesn’t quite work, with the choice to also makeLisa Frankensteina comedy overshadowing what was an unexpectedly emotional love story. ThoughLisa Frankensteincould still become a cult hit, it didn’t do well at the box office, earning just $13 million against a budget of $9.9 million.
Lisa Frankensteinstars Kathryn Newton, who has also starred in horror comedies,FreakyandAbigail. ThoughFreakyperformed better thanLisa Frankensteinat the box office,Lisa Frankensteinhas an 81% positive audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and is Kathryn Newton’s first horror romance. Something that very few horror romances acknowledge in any detail at all is the fact that the love interest, whether they are a vampire, zombie, ghost. or monster, had a past life. Lisa Frankenstein does, and this is the moment thatLisa Frankenstein,which also stars Cole Sprouse, becomes a love story.
Lisa Frankenstein Actually Addresses The Monster’s Past Life (Which Many Other Horror Romances Avoid)
Lisa And The Creature Getting To Know Each Other Addresses The Topic Of Consent Later
In 1935’sBride of Frankenstein, The Bride is created from parts of corpses but none of the characters seem to care about the past lives of any of her parts. This lack of backstory often plagues horror romances. Zombie romanceWarm Bodiesmakes R’s lack of backstory a plot point, but even the wonderfully weird love storyThe Shape of Waterdoesn’t address The Creature’s life before capture.Lisa Frankensteinhas been compared toEdward Scissorhands, but Kim knows little about Edward’s past, whileinLisa Frankenstein, Lisa gets to know The Creature as a person.
When Lisa’s wicked stepmother, Janet, nearly discovers The Creature, Lisa gasps “damn it, Janet!”, which is a reference to a song title in horror comedyThe Rocky Horror Picture Show.
InLisa Frankenstein, The Creature plays a song for Lisa and reveals that he wrote it. This moment is Lisa’s realization that he had a life (she talked to his statue as more of a blank canvas), and this is when she begins to fall in love with The Creature as a person and communicate with him as an equal. AsThe Creature doesn’t speak inLisa Frankensteinfor most of the movie, it is even more important thatLisa Frankensteinshows him as a fleshed-out characterwho can communicate and give consent, as he and Lisa share intimate moments.
Lisa Frankenstein’s Ending Makes Exploring The Creature’s Past Even More Important
The Overuse Of Humor Dilutes Lisa Frankenstein’s Love Story
The ending ofLisa Frankenstein, in which Lisa chooses to die by being electrocuted in a faulty 1980s tanning bed, with a quotable line that may live on past the movie.“Death is temporary, I’ll love you forever"changes the story ofLisa Frankensteinfrom a retelling ofFrankensteintoBride of Frankenstein. The viewers know The Creature’s story and see Lisa fall in love with him before becoming a Creature herself, which could be viewed as a way to give The Bride character justice, with a modern reboot and a backstory of her own.
Lisa Frankenstein Soundtrack Guide: Every Song & When They Play In The Movie
Lisa Frankenstein is filled with 80s classics. We break down every song that is in the horror romance and exactly when it plays during the movie.
It has been suggested that the overuse of comedy did not helpLisa Frankensteinsucceed as a movie or as a romance, muddling the genres and diluting both the humor and the love story.Lisa Frankensteinwas supposed to be funny, but the film could have taken inspiration fromEdward Scissorhands, in which the central love story grounded the more comedic parts. By treating The Creature as a rounded character, which set up a believable love story, and losing some of the sillier gags,Lisa Frankensteinhad surprisingly more to offer than its original premise suggested.
Lisa Frankenstein
Cast
Lisa Frankenstein is a comedic fantasy-horror film by first-time director Zelda Williams and is a twist on the classic Frankenstein formula. Set in 1989, a high school outcast named Lisa accidentally revives a handsome corpse from the Victorian era and resolves to rebuild him into the perfect man.
