Lisa Frankenstein
“Lisa Frankenstein” is a great movie for a very select group of people. Thankfully, I am in that group. The target audience are those weird fans of 80s over-the-top horror movies where people are blissfully unaware as things spiral out of control exponentially. Movies that blend the comedic aspects with the absurdness of horror. Movies like “TerrorVision”, “Return of The Living Dead”, or “Critters 2” just to name a few. There are serious implications (like murder and reanimating the dead), but they're never taken too seriously.
The comedy takes much more of a forefront than the horror, and I think it works really well as a teen coming-of-age as well as a creature feature. There are a lot of laugh out loud moments delivered by almost everyone in the stellar cast and a really nice comedic arc with the lead character, Lisa (played by Kathryn Newton who folks might remember from “Ant-Man” or the TV series “Supernatural”).
While the movie is titled “Lisa Frankenstein”, aside from the fact that there is a reanimated corpse and a regenerative plot point featuring electricity, that's about where the similarities end. This is much more of an homage to the absurd 80s horror frenzy than it is to the classic Mary Shelley novel, or the James Whale 1931 movie. And that's totally fine for me. What they do come up with here is wholly original and filled with tons of nostalgic enjoyment.
They also do a great job of relying on practical effects, throwing CGI largely to the side, which I personally love to see. Horror was always hand in hand with practical effects, and CGI these days often results in lazy looking scenes, or less than menacing villains. Especially when it's not a triple A production (like Disney for example). Recent horror movies like “Night Swim” are especially guilty of this, where what could have been cool concepts are destroyed by less than mid-2000s TV level CGI.
The writer of this film is known in the horror sphere for writing 2009's “Jennifer's Body” which for some reason is gaining a cult following I personally don't understand. Quite simply, I don't like that movie. So when I saw the same writer attached to this my expectations were immediately lowered. So I'm thrilled to say I was wrong. I really enjoyed this movie. Is it the best movie of 2024? Already the answer is “no”. But will it appear on my favourites of the year? Maybe. It's just a fun concept, executed excellently.
8/10
