Lisa Frankenstein

In selected cinemas now

At some point in our life, we have (probably) all uttered that timeless adage of ‘they just don’t make films like this anymore’. For me, this is usually when I’m watching comedy classics from the 1980s through to the early 2000s, as I feel that crowd-pleasing comedies have mostly become extinct in today’s cinematic landscape.

Enter Lisa Frankenstein, the feature debut from director Zelda Williams that follows Kathryn Newton’s Lisa Swallows as she navigates high school while dealing with some psychopathic tendencies and her new-found relationship with a zombie (Cole Sprouse).

The look and feel of this film is incredibly unique, with the production design and camerawork immediately transporting you back to the world of 1980s American cinema. The colours pop, the outfits rock, and the lead performances compliment this aesthetic perfectly. Indeed, Lisa Frankenstein evokes the style of a John Hughes movie, which makes it an absolute treat for viewers who, like me, have a taste for the unabashedly cheesy. Crucially, the 80s setting never feels cheap as the film, much like The Holdovers, actually feels like it hails from that era.

The style of humour is also pretty dark, which I greatly appreciated. If you love the humour in something like Heathers, you’ll definitely appreciate this. There are some one-liners that will absolutely stick around in my head for the foreseeable future and one scene in particular that will go down as one of my all time favourites.