Usually, when you’re planning what movie to watch on Valentine’s Day, a few genres come to mind: romantic comedies, period romances, or tear-jerker dramas. That’s all fine and dandy — but some of us want a splash of horror in among the romance, something a bit quirkier and edgier to wash down those candy hearts.
So a perfectly good Valentine’s Day movie might, for instance, involve a couple getting together to harvest body parts from people who’ve wronged them. Oh, and one of the partners is an undead Victorian musician, and the other is a misfit 1980s Goth.
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That’s the general gist of Lisa Frankenstein, a horror-comedy scripted by Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult, Jennifer’s Body) and directed by Zelda Williams. It’s a comedically morbid, grimly romantic time. Though the pacing is disjointed, Lisa Frankenstein has all the elements of a killer black comedy, worthy of following in the footsteps of Heathers and Jennifer’s Body.
[Ed. note: This review contains slight spoilers for Lisa Frankenstein.]
Kathryn Newton (Detective Pikachu) stars as Lisa, a misfit 1980s teenage girl who’s still processing her mother’s violent death at the hands of an axe murderer. While her perky cheerleader stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano) does her best to help Lisa acclimate to their new high school, Lisa struggles to connect with her peers and would rather spend her free time writing poetry in an abandoned cemetery. In particular, she’s drawn to a grave with a handsome bust of a mysteriously deceased Victorian bachelor.
Her time at school is hard, but Lisa’s sullen attitude
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