52 Films by Women Vol 8. 9. Lisa Frankenstein (Director: Zelda Williams)

Still courtesy of Focus Features / Universal Pictures

Gothic teenage first love is a genre that has been mined for at least two centuries. Misunderstood at home, the young heroine falls for the brooding older man who has his own issues. Nevertheless, he demonstrates that he is the one. Their romance takes dark twists before they finally meet a tragic end, usually involving fire. The lovers define their own world. They aren’t trying to change others because they have no hope of doing so. That is what makes their tale so tragic, though there may be a coda, something that suggests that their impression has left a mark on others.

Diablo Cody (Juno) exploits these conventions for comedic effect in her screenplay, Lisa Frankenstein, brought to life by first-time feature film director Zelda Williams. It’s a throwback, not just in setting – the action takes place in 1989 – but to a type of teen comedy popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. Think Pretty in Pink but with dismemberment or Winona Ryder’s collaborations with director Tim Burton, though in Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, her character isn’t at the centre of the action. The animated title sequence is Burtonesque. The action takes place in a suburban neighbourhood with a nearby cemetery. Although a severed ear plays a part in the narrative, you’d struggle to cite Blue Velvet as an influence; Cody and Williams aren’t that kinky. The film’s violence has a practical function.

Still courtesy of Focus Features / Universal Pictures

Going in, you might imagine that Cody and Williams were crafting a feminist take on John Hughes’ Weird Science, the 1985 teen comedy in which two science nerds (Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith) created the woman of their dreams (Kelly Le Brock). However, High School student Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) isn’t a scientist, more of a seamstress, employed during weekends at a dry cleaning, invisible mending service, where her boss doesn’t expect her to have a boyfriend; that’s why she spends so much time at work. ‘It can’t be too hard bending over a sewing machine all day,’ her stepmother, Janet (Carla Gugino) tells her, in comparison to her daughter, Taffy (Liza Soberano), who spent four hours at cheerleader practice. Lisa has a tragic backstory (not featured in the title sequence). Her mother was killed by an axe murderer who broke into their home; Lisa called 911 but the police never caught the assailant. Her father, Dale (Joe Chrest) swiftly married the widow Janet, whose former husband is never mentioned. There is however a brief reference to Taffy’s grandfather being blown up in Da Nang, suggesting that Taffy’s father is Vietnamese. Janet describes herself as an IP – ‘an intuitive person’ – and listens to confidence building tapes on a Walkman when cleaning the house. Taffy is sublimely happy and supportive towards Lisa, though she does not understand Lisa’s crush on school magazine editor, Michael Trent (Henry Eikenberry), who published a few of her poems. He’s sensitive and literary, Lisa explains, before adding ‘he’s cerebral.’ ‘He’s in a wheelchair?’ Taffy asks incredulously. This is one of the film’s smarter lines; Zelda’s late father, the comedian and Mrs Doubtfire star, Robin Williams, would be proud.

Having failed to style her hair with crimping irons and endured an electrical malfunction in Taffy’s tanning bed – a prize won at a beauty pageant - Lisa accompanies Taffy to a party, where she meets Michael and is immediately told where the alcohol is. ‘My stepmother brought most of it,’ Lisa explains. She has no interest in drinking until Michael’s friend, Taffy meets Michael and expresses disappointment. Lisa meets Michael’s friend, rival goth Tamara (Joey Bree Harris), who offers her a spiked drink. Lisa is immediately affected by it, wandering the pool party in a daze, assisted only by her school lab partner, Doug (Bryce Romero), who initially appears sympathetic but wants to take advantage. Fleeing him – and the party - Lisa ends up at her all-time favourite place, the local bachelor’s cemetery – we see her tracing some of the engravings at the film’s opening – where she visits a grave of a young man whose tombstone she had adorned with her necklace. ‘I wish I could join you,’ she cries in the fuzz of blurred boundaries. Unfortunate wish, wrong outcome.

Still courtesy of Focus Features / Universal Pictures

Quite how psychotropic drugs could result in the exhumation of a grave and a worm ridden corpse (Cole Sprouse) missing a few appendages – right hand, left ear and a penis – sitting next to Lisa in blackened clothes, I can hazard a guess. Cody and Williams appreciate that the audience expects a reanimated corpse suggested by the title. So why not cut to the outcome? Only audiences who don’t know Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ – and it is well established in popular culture – will be confused.

Lisa finds herself with an unexpected new admirer but at least he isn’t handsy and though he reeks, especially when he cries – no one likes a man who cries, apparently – he is ultra compliant. But to begin with, the corpse follows her home and breaks into her house. He is lonely and lost, mute but somewhat cognisant. Having come to terms with him, Lisa has to hide him from the rest of her family and, of course, clean him up, encouraging him into the shower, where worms are washed away along with the dirt. After encouraging him to try on various outfits – Lisa especially likes him in a dress – he ends modelling a Violent Femmes t-shirt and looking suitably moody for a dead person. He spends the night in Lisa’s rather large walk-in wardrobe.

Having earlier smashed a mirror in anger, Lisa is subsequently blamed for the damage caused by the corpse. Janet threatens to send her a mental institution. Lisa remarks that Janet shouldn’t be so dismissive of individuals with mental health issues, given she is a nurse, but Janet counters that Lisa is just seeking attention. On the day in which Janet is due to go to a medical conference, the corpse makes his way downstairs and drops a worm into Janet’s peaches and cream. Janet spoons it into her mouth, spits it out and is horrified, before accusing Lisa of trying to poison her. The corpse comes to the rescue.

Still courtesy of Focus Features / Universal Pictures

The body count is modest. The creature spots an opportunity to repair his own damage, taking first a spare ear and later a hand before finally spotting a penis that he likes.  Williams’ staging is more discrete than my description. Lisa sews each appendage back on, using the faulty tanning bed to complete the procedure. The results are effective though the corpse never recovers speech. After one student’s disappearance, the police visit the school and Lisa is accused. It is only a matter of time before the truth is revealed.

There are two non-comedic speeches that land, the first when Lisa confronts Michael, whom she discovers in surprising company, and curses him for liking cool things but not allowing his girlfriend to like cool things. The second is Lisa’s declaration of love to Taffy, who proved a real sister. The love between women is portrayed as more substantial than heteronormative love. ‘You saw me where other saw through me,’ Lisa trills. The mute corpse cures Lisa of her mutism and she gains self-confidence, notably wearing a thin black dress that the corpse picks out for her. By the end, Newton is channelling Helena Bonham Carter, complete with sunglasses; Lisa looks over the top of the lenses.

Throughout the film, Lisa treats the corpse as a friend rather than a romantic ideal, though at one point, the corpse plays piano, and Lisa starts to sing. ‘Like a candle in the window’ is a recurrent, somewhat derivative lyric. Isabella Summers score is suitably gothic-romantic though not especially memorable. The film ends in a cemetery and a surprise inscription, before we see Lisa and her saviour reunited, reading poetry. As a romance, Lisa Frankenstein doesn’t work but as moderate horror-comedy, it entertains.

Reviewed at Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow, Screen Four, Wednesday 6 March 2024, 18:00 screening.