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Lisa Frankenstein, screenwriter Diablo Cody’s first foray into horror comedy since the devilishly fun cult classic Jennifer’s Body (2009), wears its influences on its sleeve: think Heathers (1989), Beetlejuice (1988), Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), and Frankenhooker (1990). But it disappointingly struggles to stand on its own against them, gesturing and calling back frantically while its own spate of jokes and horror set pieces arrive with trails of dead air in their wake.

Marking the feature-film debut of Zelda Williams, the film is, like its core four ancestors, set in a kind of visually heightened version of the late 1980s where the main characters live in a Barbie-pink house with a pristine picket fence to match. It circles around a high-school senior named Lisa (Kathryn Newton) restarting her life following an unthinkable tragedy. After her mom is killed by a never-caught ax murderer who broke into the family home (Lisa was the only witness), she moves in with her father (Joe Chrest) and the uptight new wife he married just a few months later (Carla Gugino, in an inspired turn) and starts attending a new school. She also has a friendly new cheerleader stepsister, Taffy (Liza Soberano), determined not to let Lisa, whose trauma has made it difficult to so much as speak, wallow in her grief, inviting her to parties and passive-aggressively offering makeup tips. (Lisa prefers shades of unflattering pink on her lips and dark blue liner smudged around her eyes.) 

Read the full column on South Sound.