Lisa Frankenstein, the feature debut of director Zelda Williams, has a lot going for it, but this one detail is just too good: Cole Sprouse (Riverdale’s Jughead Jones, above) plays a “handsome Victorian corpse” who is reanimated by an unpopular high school student in 1989. Important question: Can we have him in lacy collars and velvet? Please? (Note: I do not care if this is historically accurate. The heart wants what the heart wants.)
The very loose take on Frankenstein is written by Diablo Cody, who knows her way around teen horror (Jennifer’s Body).
Along with Sprouse, the movie stars Kathryn Newton (Ant-Man and the Waspe: Quantumania) as Lisa Frankenstein, and a handful of actors whose roles have yet to be announced. According to Deadline, Carla Gugino, Liza Soberano, Joe Chrest, and Henry Eikenberry have just joined the cast.
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Gugino has starred in a trio of creepy Mike Flanagan series for Netflix: The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and the upcoming The Fall of the House of Usher. Chrest plays Mike and Nancy’s dad on Stranger Things, so “teenagers dealing with creepy stuff” should be very comfortable territory for him (Deadline says he may be playing Lisa’s father). Soberano voices the title character in the Netflix series Trese, and Eikenberry plays Derek on Euphoria.
There is one more tidbit from Deadline’s summary of the film that I feel it’s necessary to share:
Set in 1989, Lisa Frankenstein follows an unpopular high school student (Newton) who accidentally re-animates a handsome Victorian corpse (Sprouse) during a lightning storm and starts to rebuild him into the man of her dreams, using the broken tanning bed in her garage.
THE BROKEN TANNING BED IN HER GARAGE. Please let this movie be as delightful as it sounds. Lisa Frankenstein is now in production; no premiere date has been announced.
