LISA FRANKENSTEIN (2023) (Universal Pictures Blu-ray Review)

LISA FRANKENSTEIN (2023)

Collector's Edition Blu-ray + Digital 

Label: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment 

Region Code: A

Rating: PG-13

Duration: 100 Minutes 59 Seconds 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Zelda Williams

Cast: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, Carla Gugino

Zelda William's Lisa Frankenstein (2024) is a dark coming of age love story about a misunderstood Goth teenager Lisa (Kathryn Newton, Freaky) whose past is marked by the tragic death of her mother at the hands of an axe-wielding psycho in a Bride of Frankenstein mask. A short time her father Dale (Joe Chrest, The Last Exorcism Part II) remarries wicked stepmom Janet (Carla Gugino, The Haunting of Hill House), and Lisa finds herself moved to a new town and attending a new highschool where she is an outcast, burdened with an overly cheerful but seemingly well-intentioned stepsister, Taffy (Liza Soberano, Alone/Together). 

Feeling totally alone and surrounded by people she either despises and who loathe her she hangs out at an abandoned cemetery at the grave of a young Victorian man who died in 1837, fantasizing of better life with him. After being drugged and nearly date-raped and a kegger Lisa retreats to the cemetery and makes a wish, later that night during a freak electrical storm the headstone is hit by lightning and the zombified corpse of the man (Cole Sprouse, Riverdale) appears at her home, zombified and rotting. There's an initial shock of him being there, perhaps a flashback to her own mother's gruesome death after a home invasion by an axe-wielding psycho, but eventually she realizes that he's her dream guy from the cemetery, but covered in dirt and rotting. She cleans him up and he shines up real nice for a corpse, looking a bit like Jack White from a few years ago.

From here the two embark on a murderous journey that leaves a body count, people who have wronged her like her wicked stepmom who wants to commit her to an asylum, a date-rapey nerd (Bryce Romero, Maggie), and the guy she's crushing (Henry Eikenberry, Euphoria) and chooses another, all end up on the menu. With each new victim that the creature takes a trophy of sorts, replacing his own missing bodies parts with pieces of theirs, like and ear, a hand, etc., and then Lisa puts him in a malfunctioning tanning bed which fuses the body parts to his own, in the process becoming less zombified with each tanning session, but still smelling pretty terrible apparently. The screenplay written by Diablo Cody (Lisa's Body) who I tend to like quite a bit delivers wit, but the execution feels a bit flat, dulling the edge, creating an uneven tone that struggles to balance the comedy and horror elements, but this definitely comes across as more macabre comedy than horrific, though it does have some very dark elements about it that also seem somewhat restricted by the PG-13 rating. Something I did quite like about it is the portrayal of Lisa, she's a likable character but not a great person, she's a villain to be honest, and the film does not try to paint her as any sort of hero, but as someone emotionally scarred by tragedy and has a twisted perspective on things. 

I thought it was a pretty decent retro-80's macabre love-story that brought to mind Lucky McKee's May, the body-part weirdness of Frankenhooker, and layers upon layers of 

Tim Burton/Winona Ryder influence with some serious Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands vibes, and further Ryder touchstones with a distinct if inverted Heathers tone. Nothing about it comes across as an original idea, but it is a fun amalgam of cult-film influences stitched together into an uneven but enjoyable hodge podge of 80's nostalgia. We also get a terrific selection of 80's alternative songs from Galaxie 500, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Pixies, The Zombies, plus a solid score by Isabella Summers of the band Florence and the Machine. It's not a perfect film, there's some wild tonal shifts, but I kind of like that uneven tone and the imperfection of it, and for a feature-length directorial debut I thought it it was a solid watch. Not perfection, but interesting and entertaining, especially if you dig stuff dead boyfriend comedies like Warm Bodies, My Boyfriend's Back, Burying the Ex, and the Tim Burton/Winona Ryder team-ups from the 80s. 

Audio/Video: Lady Frankenstein (2024) arrives on Blu-ray from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, presented in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1). It's a solid presentation with excellent color reproduction, string black levels and and solid depth and clarity. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 which delivers an immersive surround presentation. Dialogue is  delivered cleanly, atmospherics sound great, and the score and alternative 80's song selections impress. 

Extras include an Audio Commentary with Zelda Williams; 4-min of Deleted Scenes; 2-min Gag Reel; 5-min Resurrecting the 1980's; the 5-min An Electric Connection; and the 4-min A Dark Comedy Duo with Diablo Cody. It's a fun set of extras that explore the retro vibe, production design, screenplay and the character interplay. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepocase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork and slipcover with the same artwork as the wrap. Inside there's redemption code for a digital copy of the film. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork and a slipcover with the same artwork. Inside is a redemption code for a digital copy of the film. 

Special Features: 
- Deleted Scenes (3:37) 
- Gag Reel (2:26) 
- Resurrecting the 1980's (4:34) 
- An Electric Connection (4:43) 
- A Dark Comedy Duo (4:00) 
- Audio Commentary with Zelda Williams 

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Screenshots from the UPHE Blu-ray: