‘Lisa Frankenstein’ – A Twisted Romance Blooms in Diablo Cody’s New Horror Comedy
Diablo Cody and Zelda Williams’ Lisa Frankenstein puts a new, comedic spin on Mary Shelley’s tale of reanimation.
Zelda Williams has teamed up with Oscar-winner Diablo Cody, who wrote the cult classic Jennifer’s Body, for her directorial debut. The result looks like something that will delight horror fans who love their gore mixed with dark humor and teenage angst. It channels several 1980s classics like Heathers and Edward Scissorhands.
It’s 1989. Lisa Frankenstein follows a lonely high school outcast who has fallen for a dead guy from the Victorian era. Or, at least, his fancy headstone and her dreams of him. She accidentally reanimates his corpse using a faulty tanning bed, and the pair start a romance filled with dancing, murder, and replacement parts.
There will be plenty of axe swinging, teased hair, fantastic 1980s fashion, and surprisingly solid dating advice.
Cody wanted to flip the age-old trope with this movie and tell a story about real feelings, telling Empire…
“It was funny to me how the whole Frankenstein narrative was co-opted in the ‘80s by movies like Weird Science where they were like, ‘What if we could create the perfect woman?’ You see that theme across genres, and I felt like nobody was making a ‘building a man’ movie except The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I love, and which we reference in the film.
“I thought: ‘What if a teenage girl had the ultimate sensitive guy who can’t talk? What would that look like…?”
Lisa Frankenstein Cast & Details
The movie’s cast is led by Kathryn Newton (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) as Lisa and Cole Sprouse (who you might recognize as Jughead from Riverdale) as the reanimated corpse. Joining them are Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House), Liza Soberano (Alone/Together), Joe Chrest (Stranger Things), and Henry Eikenberry (Euphoria).
A coming of RAGE love story from acclaimed writer Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body) about a misunderstood teenager and her high school crush, who happens to be a handsome corpse. After a set of playfully horrific circumstances bring him back to life, the two embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness… and a few missing body parts along the way.
Lisa Frankenstein arrives in theaters on February 9th – just in time for Valentine’s Day.
