Lisa Frankenstein: Robin Williams' Daughter Debuts with Dark-Funny Horror Flick

By Thom Ernst

Rating: B

The director of the horror-comedy Lisa Frankenstein is Zelda Williams. She is the second of four children born to the late comedian Robin Williams. In 2014, Williams died tragically by suicide after a prolonged battle with depression.

Zelda was 25. Her father was 63.

A decade has passed, yet watching Lisa Frankenstein, Zelda Williams’ feature film debut, it’s hard to shake the memory of her loss. And yet you might want to shake it because Lisa Frankenstein is Williams’ standing on her own, apart from who her father was in life, more so from who he is in death.

Right or wrong, it’s inevitable that those of an age to remember Robin Williams will likely make comparisons. Inevitable, too, is the influence that Zelda’s father has on her work. What’s not inevitable is that this influence will stay the overwhelming factor in processing her work.

But for now, that might be OK, particularly for a first film where memories and demons collide in a creative effort to purge whatever trauma inflicts the survivor: Guilt, anger, shame, sadness, and possibly, even, humour. Dark humour.

Indeed, Lisa Frankenstein is dark. Not quite as dark as her father’s World’s Greatest Dad (2009) or Death to Smoochy (2002), but dark enough to register as having tapped into something deeply personal. It’s not off-putting, but it’s there, leaving us wondering just how intentional the connection between script and reality is for the director. 

 But the film is not written by Zelda Williams. The script is written by Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body) who, aside from working with Zelda, has no apparent connection to Robin Williams. Still, the script has some eerie parallels between character and director that can be hard to ignore.

The most significant parallel is the trauma that follows the untimely and violent death of a parent.

Lisa (Kathryn Newton) witnesses the murder of her mother at the hands—or rather at the end of the blade—of an axe-wielding maniac (Luke Sexton). The experience has scarred Lisa, rendering her an unapologetic outsider who prefers the company of gravestones over the company of her classmates. 

Lisa is the high school freak. She’s the butt of the mean-clique’s contempt, and the target of weak boys with lewd intentions. She’s a freak at home, too. Her stepmother (Carla Gugino) berates her, and her father (Joe Chrest) is ineffective. The one oddity in the mix is Taffy (Liza Soberano), Lisa’s popular, beauty pageant-winning stepsister, who is inexplicably sweet and supportive.

When a reanimated heartbroken 18th century creature (Cole Sprouse) seeks to be pieced together using body parts of Lisa’s freshly killed tormentors, Lisa is struck with a renewed confidence that transforms her into a 1980s Madonna, as Madonna appeared in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), which makes sense since the film is set in 1989.

Lisa Frankenstein can be fun, but there is a mean-spiritedness to Cody’s script that doesn’t fit with the film’s premise. It comes mainly at the hands of the creature whose victims are far from charming but don’t necessarily deserve the extreme comeuppance that’s dealt to them.

And Lisa’s quick turnaround from appalled bystander to full-on accomplice robs her of the audience’s empathy.  For a film that stacks sentiment like blocks from a Jenga tower, Lisa Frankenstein is surprisingly void of empathy. It can feel like a movie in search of the right mood.

Lisa Frankenstein is Edward Scissorhands as Sweeney Todd, it’s Heathers directed by John Hughes. It’s A Nightmare on 21 Jump Street.

Few of these references, including the earlier Madonna and Robin Williams connections, are likely to have meaning for the audience this movie seems targeted towards—which would be anyone versed in the art of Instagram.

Lisa Frankenstein. Directed by Zelda Williams, written by Diablo Cody. Starring Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse and Carla Gugino. In theatres February 9.