Lisa Frankenstein is COVERED in Camp! (Video Script)

(Sits) So Lisa Frankenstein...

/There’s this girl named Lisa who was forced to move to Smalltown, USA-ties when her dad remarried thanks to an axe murderer killing her mom/

(While eating a bag of Smartfood Kettle Corn on screen) Cunty, I know.

/She’s not like other girls. Not in, like, the porn trope way, but in the Beetlejuice’s Lydia Deetz meets Scott Pilgrim’s Kim Pine kind of way. Her stepsister Taffy is a slave to 80’s societal girly-girl stuff and has a hard time relating to why she’d rather be a Mathlete like Cady Heron in Mean Girls over a cheerleader like Britney Allen in Bring it on: All or Nothing/

Also, let me know if you wanna see a video of me reading too hard in the Bring it On movies. I’m always looking for an excuse to talk about racism, redlining and modern-day segregation

/Anyway, the dead guy she picnics at the grave of because nobody alive understands her comes to life in a freak plot device -- played by one of the Big Daddy and Suite Life twins, I don’t know which one -- and their connection causes her to start living life the way its intended; like nobody gives a fuck./

Once again, very cunty

/But what happens when she gets in over her head? What happens when the confidence of the dead starts making her a menace for the living? And more importantly, what happens to all of her chic glam goth outfits now that the movie is done?/

Are they in a bougie-ass thrift shop in Los Angeles somewhere? THEY SHOULD BE ON DISPLAY SOMEWHERE, not Kayleigh McHarness’ suburbia-ass walk-in closet belonging to the house her privileged-ass parents laid a six-figured number for!

And before you ask: Yes, they are. Because Kayleigh is spelled EXACTLY how you think it’s spelled.

Now I’m not gonna lie; while that was definitely intended and written as a joke, the costume design was initially what attracted me to this movie.

I’m a sucker for “stereotypical bright neon pastel colors everywhere” 80’s aesthetic, and I love the way Lisa’s character progression wardrobe was used as a highlighted compliment to it.

/It represents that “I’m tortured so I’m experimenting with goth” act in a way that Knives Chou’s highlights tastefully reflect in both the movie and the graphic novel series, not like the ones that wanna shove their “otherness” down your throat because they’re addicted to attention like the Wonder Bread wanna be Light and Mia from the American Death Note movie./

Because of this, seeing this combo play out was basically enough for me to keep the trailer rolling after the 5-second “skip ad” button.

What made watching this a high priority however, was the one-two combination of this written by Diablo Cody -- the same gal who wrote Jennifer’s Body -- and this being the directorial debut of Zelda Williams -- The voice of Kuvira in Legend of Korra and also Robin Williams’ daughter.

Not only was I fond of how she worked in social issues that femme presenting people into a story about a succubus and wanted to see what she could do with Mary Shelly’s baby...

But I wanted to see if Zelda had the chops to own up to her nepotism in order to say she earned and deserved her place in the realm of film direction /just like Malia Obama did with screenwriting when she co-wrote the “Girl, Bye” episode of Swarm./

And what I got was a great combination of story, direction, and exaggeration that’s backed up by good -- while predictable -- performances that play into what makes everything work so well with each other, despite there being something buried inside truly worth digging into.

Now I know that this is the type of movie that’s gonna have no problem finding its cult following of a fanbase, and there’s definitely some adjacency to said fanbase on my end.

Am I here to rip into this movie? No. There’s no point. Outside of the victims of the movie, there’s no point in killing someone over someone having a negative opinion about this.

That doesn’t mean some of yall might find what I have to say a critique or a back-handed comment when I’m trying to make a joke, in which case -- first of all -- please refer to the part of the video where I said “don’t nobody gotta bleed over little Lisa Frankenstein, mama; it’s not that deep...”

These are my opinions, my points, and you are welcome to agree or disagree with them as you see fit.

But if you end up liking what I’m putting down, my name is La’Ron Readus; offering you critique and immersion of your favorite bits of geek and pop culture media 

And if you like what I do here or on my main channel, feel free to join my Patreon...

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With that being said, I hope you’ll forgive me that out of all the things that I noticed and stuck with me about this movie, not a single one of them involved Monster Fucking (pause while looking away from camera). For that, I’m sorry...

“That’s REALLY Weird, Lisa...”

One of the things I really like is how the movie handled camp (amplify Camp w/ voice enhancer background noise and large visual spelling of the word every time it’s said in the video)

Thanks to movies like Bottoms basically channeling their inner Seth MacFarlane, one of the things that’s been popular has been boosting up the aspects about tropes that are normally only supposed to be inconspicuous.

/Yes, you know that this is the stepmom that hates the main character step-daughter and constantly lies to herself in order to convince herself that she’s a good person that does everything for the right reasons even though she’s not and doesn’t. But we’re not supposed to see that blatantly play out as if the TROPE is the character./

Because the trope ISN’T the character, the CHARACTER is the character, and its in how natural that character plays out aspects of that specific trope that makes it both more believable and relatable.

But that’s not what happens in over-exaggerated comedy movies that are basically live-action versions of Sunday Night Adult Animation shows.

What happens instead, is that the trope balloon is blown up to the same size as the character balloon, allowing them to intermingle instead of the small trope balloon being trapped inside the big character balloon.

They’re still their own characters, but the tropes and stereotypes that define the type of character they are is allowed to be perceptible.

/Because of this, everyone’s a cartoon character. They represent tropes you’d expect from an 80’s teen horror or romance, and are applied to the personalities of these characters so hard that it’s practically blindsiding you with a sign that says “THIS IS AN EXTREME EXAGGERATION.”/

And that’s the thing about Camp; it can easily have a home in comedies like this and be completely recognizable, and you can definitely tell it found a home in Lisa Frankenstein.

/Since the type of comedy in Lisa Frankenstein already caters to over exaggeration with it being a parody of John Hughes style teen movies from the 80’s, camp -- naturally aligned with over exaggeration in the categories and genres that allow it -- already fits in this mold. Matter of fact, it’s the exact same mold and they can interchangeably fit into each other./

Even moreso, there are parts of the movie that I found a lot more funny and entertaining the moment I was able to spot the camp in the first place, because it put me in a place of preparing for what type of comedy -- and even storytelling -- is about to come my way

/Yes, the pink house WAS what gave it away, thank you for asking./

I would have to say my favorite use of it was in the characterization of the Beautiful All Along trope badly hiding inside Lisa Swallows.

/She was already 80’s awkward new kid pretty, but her transition to 80’s colorful goth chic pretty that turned the right heads was just as bombastic the more confident she became./

(I can’t. Not until we hide the body) Work.

What I like about how the comedy and camp intertwine in how Lisa Frankenstein displays Lisa’s arc is that now that you see how the comedy and camp are directing it, you start to live for her a bit more than when you did on her introduction.

/You don’t DREAD the makeover montage that likes to pretend it’s the first time you’ve ever seen one first of all, because it’s NOT a montage. The fashion, attitude and personality shifts over the course of the film because seeing her change is what we’re initially watching this movie for./

And because it’s amplified by the one-two combination of over exaggerated comedy and camp, you’re invested enough in her character and development to both laugh and scream “YES, BITCH” at the same time by the time a scene like THIS plays!

(Is that Sherry? No, it’s Lisa)/(“Honestly, Work” scene from Uhnnnn)

“Lisa Looks Good”

Now. WIth that being said, am I going to use this portion to talk about Lisa Swallows’ character? Yes. Am I going to use this portion to talk about how Kathryn Newton gets us to care about Lisa Swallows’ character? Also yes.

/Because out of all the actors and actresses that can get away with playing a High School senior despite being in their late 20s and early 30s, Kathryn Newton does it in a way that allows the teenage girl characters she plays to channel her real-life maturity so that they can realistically go from self-conscious to self-confident./ (I am a fucking piece)

It also doesn’t help that her face has that “I can be sexy, pretty, unbothered, over it, and maniacally obsessed and look ridiculously attractive every time” thing going on, too.

/With the exception of Ant-Man 3 and like, Abigail, Kathryn’s ability to showcase either a shy, introverted, or weirdo kid turning into someone we’re gonna be rooting for once she learns that She’s Kenough puts her casting in roles like this right between Winona Ryder during the entire 90’s and 1999 Natasha Lyonne when she was in “But I’m A Cheerleader,” and Lisa Swallows is no exception./

Yes, her performance is given an unfair elevation because it already fits the theme of the movie’s use of both comedy and camp...

But genuine performances and the characters they represent can come out of the ones in a scenario you can’t take seriously for the life of you even if you tried.

/Bottoms -- this movie’s big sister -- is a perfect example of genuine heartfelt characters that are rarely touched by the flamboyance brought by the parody, yet feel right at home with the events happening on screen. Ayo Edebiri’s Josie does this in spades, yet her belonging in this universe where high school football players go to their classes in steel cages makes sense./

Kathryn’s performance as Lisa Swallows brings that same energy. She convinced me that she wasn’t kissing the same guy that everyone in conventionally stereotypical 80’s tropes were stuck in got cooties from, despite also displaying having the same hickey.

/There were signs of depression, signs of uniqueness. She actually was that “weird” kid that preferred the company of either themself or their English Teacher (yes, I’m calling out myself. It’s fine), all while doing everything to tell me that this was where she belonged regardless if her Act 1 hurdles were gonna be real enough for the viewer to jump over./

Now. Does her performance end up becoming exaggerated thanks to the camp? Yes.

Lisa Swallows is the perfect kind of character to start steadily becoming consumed by camp. The thing about it though is that the prominent elements of self-discovery that’s common with the tropes Lisa represents still genuinely come through even when the events can only be made sense of because you know it's focused on comedy... Not to mention its camp

That’s why it feels good the moment she starts giving into it. Because by the time she does, we’ve been on just as wavy a ride with Lisa at this point where we think she DESERVES it.

Giving into the camp as a character like this can be a way of visibly showing the audience that she’s treating herself. That she’s made enough progress in her character arc that she can start truly dressing like the clever combination of Lisa Frank and Frankenstein she was made to be.

Its even used as its own antagonist to her progression as a character, when you think about it.

/Because once she started gaining the confidence to make her punk goth aesthetic work with her bone structure, the more she got lost in the Mean Girls script reflecting how much her character was affected by the film's natural camp./

It’s a visual representation that just so happens to be a great representative of the film’s ACTUAL representation. “Changing for the worse -- which includes becoming selfish, blindsided and uncaring -- when it’s steadily visualized by Lisa’s steady deterioration into camp” is such a solid metaphor.

And it even hits harder whenever the character breaks out of the shell and sees what a mess the actions of that character resulted in. Because now she has to address it. She has to acknowledge it. She has to admit she went too far and that she wants to make things right.

/The camp represents the actions that Spider-Man made wearing the symbiote, and breaking the camp to acknowledge what was done under its influence is Peter stripping Venom from his ballsack in a church tower, and trying to apologize to Harry for turning him into a way more handsome Darkman./

Do I hate that this is the only way I can properly get my point across? Yes. Because, as you know, I HATE Venom.

But me hating Venom doesn’t stop this statement from being true.

All that to say, that everything Kathryn did as Lisa under the influence of camp made absolute sense.

/From the ability to match Taffy’s freak, to cutting off the hand that forced her to touch her lab partners bulge. And watching her get retribution for these injustices made against her was incredibly fun and satisfying to watch, especially thanks to the camp./

Lisa’s steady increase on the graph that is Lisa Frankenstein helped make the movie. Especially in regards to the overall message you can claim from it once you get through to the very core.

“I’m Not Afraid of Death Anymore”

Was the Lydia Deetz of it all noticeable the moment we got a sense of Lisa’s character? Of course.

But seeing another way in how chic goth can be pleasantly applied to “The Weird Girl” only compliments her actual struggle that’s played throughout the movie and that people relate to.

As per my last email, Lisa as a character is a newborn baby that’s currently swaddled in a blanket of relatable situations and is currently breathing in the air filled with pollutants and microplastics known as camp.

/Because of all this constant breathing, it doesn’t take over the ambitions and developments of the character, it ENHANCES them. And in my opinion, Lisa has just the right opinions about life and the lack thereof that both provides a great dissection of her character and a way that amplifies the movie’s already strong sense of comedy and camp./

(I wish I was in the ground dead because life sucks and people are jerk-offs.)

How does this set off the Lydia Deetz comparison in my head? Well...

(No, Lydia, we’re dead. I wanna be dead too. NO. Being dead doesn’t make anything easier)

Now I glanced this about her character back when Taffy made an unsuccessful attempt to convince us that she was worthless.

/The party was the perfect place to give off the vibes that this is a girl that doesn’t gravitate toward the same social norms that everyone else -- including her ALIVE crush -- follows./

And the scenarios that properly display them are all things that one can honestly understand why one would gain that train of thought... even without the camp.

That’s why if I’m going to associate Lisa Frankenstein to any other iteration of Mary Shelly’s womanifesto, my immediate thoughts go to James Whale’s “Bride of Frankenstein.”

Enveloped in its own sense of camp, this telling of the second half of Shelly’s book showed how Frankenstein’s monster is a misunderstood grab bag of assembled body parts drifting in a sea of German white folk who fear what they don’t understand.

/Every time he tries to befriend someone that has working eyes, they scream and declare him a monster, and that attracts the mob that’s always ready with pitchforks, rope and a log tall enough to tie him down on. Because of this, he prefers the death he’s molded in instead of real-life people. Mostly because -- as far as he knew at the time --the dead can’t hurt him like the living do./

(I love dead. Hate living)

Lisa is an interesting reflection of that. She ticks all the boxes in how “The Weird Kid” is supposed to act when it comes to “Its me against the world” situations.

It also helps that because this is supposed to be part 80’s parody, the actions of everyone but Lisa in regards to her are exaggerated to emphasize the point thanks to the inherit camp.

But its in that exaggeration that you understand why Lisa gains the POV of Frankenstein’s monster in Bride of Frankenstein.

/If I lost the parental figure that I felt ever ‘got’ me only to constantly be surrounded by individuals that don’t care about my existence despite not knowing me, I’d probably be in the right to think about death as much as she has as well. It even makes her decision to hang at the grave of the creature before he was brought back to life instead of with the ACTUAL LIVING PEOPLE IN HER LIFE all more understandable./

(I wish I was with you)

But as much as she’s part Frankenstein’s Monster in this regard, she’s still part Victor Frankenstein.

/She may not have DIRECTLY brought the creature back to life, but she found vindication in how she came about giving him a new ear, a new right hand, and a new set of male genitalia. Including how to get them all properly up and working./

And considering every part came from a person that did her wrong -- justified or otherwise -- those in her corner reveled in how she went about it. But in doing so, we also saw the hubris, the ego, and the sociopathy that overcame Victor’s personality during his decision to play god play out in Lisa.

She feels herself, yes, and we love that for her. But she gets lost in the sauce in regards to how she personally amplifies her ability to tell herself that she’s the shit.

Every time you see her learn to appreciate the creature while ignoring his advances in pursuit of her real-life crush, every time you see her become less and less willing to be consolable to Taffy, every time you see her care more about the possibility of getting caught rather than the fact she both killed and participated in killing people.

/All of that is the Victor of her Frankenstein coming out in response to her natural feelings and responses about people thanks to her inner Frankenstein’s Monster. Fuck the living. With the exception of my mother, the only thing the living only gave me was grief and I hate that I have to be among them./

Then she finds the Creature.

/And the more he enables her, the more her original feelings about people are amplified and emboldened in ways that make her not see the people who actually TRIED to show her that life is worth living; that -- despite their fallibility -- finding solidarity among the living is possible/

(You’re the type of person who usually bullies me or looks right through me. But you didn’t)

In a way, this is on par with what I call a “Mean Girl” aesthetic.

What started as a way to get back at Regina George for taking back her Bobby Drake of a boyfriend ended in us realizing we’re slowly yet surely becoming what we aimed to destroy in the first place.

And its through this transition of Lisa’s development that started with her being Frankenstein’s monster and ending with her realizing she’s turned to Victor Frankenstein, that Lisa realizes that the limit does not exist. 

Yes, she still reacts to the creature offing those who threaten their newly established happiness like she’s been doing since her personality shift. You know, because camp.

/But in her realization that both the creature loves her and that she’s been growing closer and closer to him over the course of her own revitalization, she also notices that with the revelation she had with Taffy -- and how she reacted to it, real talk -- whatever bridges she initially had with the living had been burned by her own hand. So much that the only thing she had left -- especially now -- was her connection with the creature/

Especially now that she knows that one of the possible end results is that with her death, /she can spend an eternity with someone that loves her through both./

(We belong dead)

Conclusion

So Lisa Frankenstein... (Pause, then Thumbs Up) ...Yeah.

It’s not a masterclass in how to incorporate it by a longshot. But thanks to the writing and the relatability that Zelda Williams helped draw out of Kathryn Newton’s performance, it’s the type of story that can work if the choice to be taken seriously was heavily entertained despite how well it accustoms to the very nature of camp.

The question, however, is: Do I wanna see a non-satirical version of this story that doesn’t lean on to camp as much as this one does? (Pauses, limp wrist) Honestly, I don’t think so.

There’s already plenty of stories that take a good yet serious approach of being the odd one out that grows too much confidence to overstuff their hubris; one that’s meant to be fun and cheerfully lets its writing soak in the footbath that is camp won’t hurt.

Especially since you can still understand the struggles and lessons Lisa learns over her journey despite its presence

Lisa Frankenstein, as is, scratches a series of itches that a lot of people have in common.

Especially thanks to the story being written by a woman who relates to this energy considering her body of work, portrayed by a woman who is in her element when she PERFORMS this type of work, and directed by a woman who knows from experience the IMPORTANCE of this type of work.

If you’re looking for a film that provides a good example of what the comedy and tragedy masks mean in theater, you wouldn’t regret having Lisa Frankenstein as an example.

Not THEE example, just AN example. And out of all the examples present, this movie is one of the better ones.

(Snaps) Right! Yes! Homework!

Write in the comment section below what YOU thought about Lisa Frankenstein if you’ve seen it

And if there’s a movie you want me to talk about in this Readus 201 version of Film Friday, let me know in the comment section below as well!

Whoo, they should’ve NEVER let me find out I can self-medicate my ADHD; I’m about to make it ALL of y’alls problem!

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But until then this is Readus 201. Class dismissed./