318: Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

SPEAKER_02 0:04

I did the door-to-door sales for eight years. It's fucking it's rough. I never got to eat off any carpets though, I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hackerslash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. You're in need, babe. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

A total joke, a waste of time, or a slash. Totally killer. Unintended.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris. I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superflight Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

She's probably off in a bar having a dirty banana.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

And the classic horror connoisseur, Sean.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

All those hours screaming with your legs spread against the wall.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

This week we went back to the theater to check out another new release. This time, though, it's Zelda Williams' directorial debut, and it's as much about the spark of first love as it is about the spark of life. You see, this week's film blends a Mary Shelley masterpiece with an iconic graphic design brand that soared to popularity in the late 80s. And thus, a tale as old as time gets a technicolor twist as Diablo Cody and Zelda Williams tell the story of a young girl with teenage dreams that crash headlong into the harsh realities of her new normal. While that new normal featured a stepmother in new school, her reality is further skewed by finding companionship in an unlikely place. The heartbeat of a freshly reanimated corpse. Their journey proves to be about more than the pursuit of love as Catherine Newton and Cole Sprouse embark on a quest for identity and belonging. And as they navigate the complexities of existence together, they're searching not just for emotional connection, but for the very pieces that make life whole. This week we're talking about Lisa Frankenstein. What were you both expecting going into this?

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Knowing that this is written by Diablo Cody with her track record, right? You have pretty high expectations, I think. You think of films like Jennifer's Body, of course, you think of Juno, Tully, but then you throw Zelda Williams in the mix, and I think that's where the uncertainty lies, right? This is Zelda's directorial debut, so we don't really know what to expect. So from the trailer and what little I know about the film, I think it looks to be attempting to meld this monster classic with, you know, a classic of its own with this kind of like 80s teen flick vibe to it, but that's it, that's really all you get from it.

SPEAKER_04 2:41

I mean, really, I based everything I expected on just watching the trailer before seeing the movie, and so I just expected a goofy, campy rom-com aimed at teens that also featured a reanimated Cody Martin.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah, it's really the Diablo Cody and Zelda Williams of it all that brought me to the expectation of this being cute, but also hilarious. I don't care for Cole Sprouse, but I am finding that I have a little bit of a soft spot in my heart for Catherine Newton. And I really expected this to be a good time, all of those 80s movies that you both were referencing earlier, right? I'm thinking about 80s movies like Breakfast Club, I'm thinking about like Sixteen Candles, Pretty and Pink, I'm thinking about The Sure Thing, I'm thinking about Summer School, I'm thinking about even horror movies like Once Bitten or Teen Wolf.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

And so that vibe and that energy really set me up for thinking this would be a good laugh. But I found that while watching it, it wasn't that I wasn't laughing. There were a couple moments that got me, but it was mostly like writing LOL, but you're not actually laughing externally. And maybe it's because my theater, when I watched this, it was an AMC scream unseen. So nobody knew what they were getting into except for that it was a PG 13 horror movie. It felt like the vibe was just off in the theater. So the things that hit for me gave me the internal chuckle, but not this big sweeping, like, oh my gosh, this is side-splitting laughter, even in some ways that I would have laughed in Jennifer's body.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Interesting. It's definitely not like a hilarious laugh out loud, make you cry laughing kind of film. I think also the hit or miss factor of the response you get from the general audience is really gonna depend on what year you were born, to be honest with you. I think this isn't gonna necessarily resonate with everybody from a younger generation. There will be some. I'm not like excluding all generations here, but unless you really, you know, lived through this type of generation through the 80s, through the 90s, right? I think that it won't resonate with you as strongly unless you just have like interest in that, or you kind of find yourself gearing towards that kind of style where you like that music or whatever, and something that draws you to that. And so that could be like the hit or miss, like it's just going over people's heads a little bit, and they're just like, What is this?

SPEAKER_04 5:11

Yeah, I think to me, it's interesting, it has a sense of quirkiness to it while you're watching it, but it was like not quite quirky enough. Because I think had this movie been made like 30 years ago by Tim Burton, it would have been really endearing. We're not quite there. Like we gravitate there sometimes, but we haven't fully committed to being proper quirky. And so it's it's got this weird kind of balance where it doesn't want to be too quirky, it doesn't want to be too mainstream, so it falls somewhere in the middle. And I think there was kind of an opportunity here to bring me some good Tim Burton vibes, but in a newer style, and we really didn't get that.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah, they kind of got that a little bit, they had hints of it.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

I do wonder if part of this though is have we gotten an oversaturation of 80s nostalgia in media? We have the Stranger Things of It All. We have True the It reboot that took place in the 80s instead of the 50s. And there's a lot here where we often look back to this time period and it's like, okay, how much of this can we really see? Yeah. That wasn't an impact for me at all. I still really enjoy it. I think because I grew up watching 80s movies with my siblings, who all very much lived their early teens and childhoods in the 80s. But I do wonder if that's a factor for people, or are they just numb to it at this point?

SPEAKER_02 6:31

They're both depicting this 80s nostalgia in a way, but I think when you look at a show like Stranger Things, or you look at a film like It or whatever, I think that hits a different type of childhood nostalgia, whereas this film is really almost just trying to recreate this 80s teen movie vibe that we got, and you mentioned a lot of those movies just a moment ago. I think it's an interesting watch, to say the least. I think on one end of the spectrum, I think Diablo Cody and Zelda Williams did a pretty good job at creating this world where everything kind of ties together, and even the smallest details are relevant to this whatever this story it's trying to tell. But I think at the same time you have all of that and that works, but at the same time, there's things that just don't quite make sense at the same time. It's just strange. Like the rules of this universe don't always make sense, and and some of it can leave you feeling a little bit confused, and it also feels like some parts are a little bit rushed. It's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Okay, you said rushed right there, and there is a moment where I felt like this movie jumped really quick to just being okay with some things. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what? And it's not like a huge stop sign for me, but it was a moment where it started to lose a little bit of the polish. And I do wonder, is there an extended version of this that we're gonna see one day down the road? Are there gonna be deleted scenes that were taken out of the cut to keep it into a pr a PG-13 rating? There are things here that I feel like were probably really well considered and thought out in post and in production, and maybe you just didn't make it to the final cut. But man, I'm even thinking now, Sean, as you're talking about this, look at how we felt about Totally Killer and its representation of depiction of the 80s. And there's something here that feels less Totally Killer and more 13 going on 30.

SPEAKER_04 8:30

I was thinking of Totally Killer when we're talking about movies and nostalgia and trying to get a certain feeling because Totally Killer, it's obviously not like aesthetically accurate to the time period, but it's not trying to be. It's trying to go for specifically creating a feeling of nostalgia. It's trying to have bright colors to put on those rose-colored glasses and think of the past, but it's mostly just trying to be fun. And we have moments like that here. We didn't go like full breakfast club, but we have some wardrobe choices that point to an appreciation of perhaps 80s fashion. We have cars from the 80s. Some of the houses remind you a little bit, like they're accurate, and so that that part feels good. The way that the characters interact, it's not quite there because it's 2024, and it's hard for people to act like they did back then, even like our accents have changed since then. It's really tough to nail a period piece, especially when it's it's so close to now. We're talking about like 30 something years ago, and so it's it's really hard to be accurate, even if you were only alive for like a year or two in the 80s and you remember just enough as a like a little baby, you're never gonna hit, right? It's never gonna be a hundred percent unless you're making perhaps like a documentary or something. Then of course you have some footage you can pull from and get a little bit closer. So I think the request the question for me is like, are they able to hit a certain feeling? Is it important that this is back in time? You know, it's really the question that you have to ask yourself because they made a choice to set it in the 80s. Did they have to? No. But since they did, are they doing something with it? And I think one, it gives you an easy out for a lot of things like technology. We don't have to worry about cell phones, which is very convenient. Uh, but then it also gives you the benefit of, you know, a different culture than what we have now. And so you kind of get to play on that a little bit. The thing that really takes you out, though, I think for me at least, and it's the thing that truly surprised me, is there's like a certain tone to this movie. And then anytime we get a gore or kills, it's totally separate. It's updated, it's modern, it's realistic. It's not that there's like a ton of gore and stuff like that. Sean's gonna cover that later. We really show some real looking stuff. And I don't know if that takes away from the vibe that we had going on, where it was kind of fun and cute, CN teen, but it just like didn't match for me.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yeah, see, I think it did that in an interesting way, though, because I was completely shocked how violent this movie is for being PG 13. Listen, we have the Lisa, we have the Frank, we have the Lisa Frankenstein, and when you think about Frankenstein, and obviously we just covered the version from the 1930s a couple weeks ago. There isn't a ton of death there. Like there is, but it's not visceral, it's not brutal. Right. It is macabre, and the idea of exhuming remains and stitching someone together from fresh human remains and taking a brain stolen from a lab. The idea is there on paper. I don't know why I didn't expect this to be violent. Maybe because of the PG 13 and all, but I mean we've had plenty of PG-13 horror that is pretty violent, but that was something that really stood out to me in a positive way. In a, oh, this is a fine pairing kind of way.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Yeah, it is interesting that it retained this PG-13 rating for some of the stuff that it does do in the film. So I I agree. It's really just teetering on this fine line, I think. And kudos to them for getting the PG-13 rating out there because I'm sure, you know, there'll be a lot of teenagers that are gonna have a lot of fun with this movie. But Mac, I think when you're talking about the 80s vibe, are they trying to are they trying to bring you there? Are they not? What are they trying to do? I think it is interesting because I do think they have this 80s theme. Obviously, it's set in the 80s, they bring the 80s, you know, whether it was factual or not, they bring the 80s colors right to you, and that's what you want to see, and it's there, but then they also bring this very classic 1930s kind of conceptual idea of this monster, and they blend this all together, and then you talk about the kills, and the kills kind of become serious for a moment, and then it takes you out of this. And I think whether it's intentional or not, I just think it's trying to be something that takes you out of any sort of reality. I think it's just its own entity, it's its own world, and I don't think it's necessarily trying to be any one thing, but I do think it's trying to be this kind of collage of different inspirations and love for all these different types of cinema, whether it's horror or not.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

You know what's interesting about that though is it removes you from the semblance of reality, but it does so by dropping you in to very serious gravity. There is a moment in this movie that actually made my jaw drop, not because it was shocking and I didn't see it coming, because you can see it coming from a mile away, but the way that it's handled, I actually really, really appreciated. And there's a moment where it jumps into a character moving on from this moment and we have a great musical break, but that is a very serious moment. And while nothing in this movie is scary, I do think that it handles what could be the actual real scary moments of life in a very classy way.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Yeah, I think this film is far from frightening. It's not trying to be scary. I don't think it's trying to be scary one bit. I think it's this blend of plug in any 80s teen movie with Mary Shelley's classic monster, and maybe a little bit of you can even you can almost even say that you can throw in a little dash of like some 90s teen movies like Can't Hardly Wait or Not Another Teen movie or something like that. That might be early 2000s, I don't know. But uh you put all that and you mix all that shit up, and I don't think scary is what you get, but you do get an interesting film. So, you know what? There are underlying tones now that I'm reflecting on it, there are underlying tones of mental health that I think is a little bit scary in this film.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Exactly. That's what I'm saying, man. There's stuff here that is just waiting right there beneath the surface, it's treading water, but it doesn't go heavy-handed in a way that it feels like it detracts from the movie or it distracts from what is actually happening. But it for me was like the perfect amount of seasoning.

SPEAKER_04 15:03

I mean, whatever seasoning they they chose. It's definitely not scary. I mean, the original Frankenstein, I think, is also a sympathetic character in in many ways when you look at movie depictions at least, you know, not talking about the novel, but the monster we get in this in this film is also in many times a sympathetic character. And so you're not really worried about him at all. You're not concerned that this is going to happen in your life. You're not scared of, I mean, unless you have a specific phobia related to this, but there's nothing really here to like pose, you know, that role of inducing fear. It's adjacent, you know, it's in the realm, it's talking about a horror monster that's very classic and and important, of course, to Sean, but it's not like setting it up in a way that, hey, this monster, this one's gonna be real scary. It doesn't try because it doesn't need to, it's not it's not really about that.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Yeah, this is a horror comedy through and through, but the horror is in the violence and not in who you think the antagonist is supposed to be, which I think I can applaud it for, right? We have Frankenstein as we covered it. We know that there are many other iterations of Frankenstein. We've talked about how there's an amalgamation of so many different styles of movies. It's not going to be the most fresh original thing that you've ever seen by any means, but I do think it gets credit for taking such fun ideas and just delivering on exactly what it said it was going to do.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Yeah, I think that's it right there. I think, you know, here's what I'll say about this film. I think you can one say that this movie is just pieces of a large collective of other films. There's a lot of inspiration.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

That's the meta.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

It is. But I think the world that Zelams creates is really just a lot of fun to watch, to be honest with you. I think it's how Zelda blends this 80s teenage angst with 1800s horror and gives us this vibrant and original take on what should be boring and overplayed by now. So I think give give kudos for that because it was entertaining to watch.

SPEAKER_04 17:04

It's that see the balance of everything, you know, that whole mixture is the hard part for me in some parts of this movie because it ends up feeling like Frank and Scissor hands for a lot of it, right? And so there's like clear nods to other things that are like almost impossible to ignore. But I think you're right that the blend creates something new. You know, there's nothing new under the sun. We've talked about that like plenty of times here. And and so I think this is no different, but they have some moments where they really had to, I think, watch it, otherwise it would have been like a little bit too on the nose how clearly it pointed it at other properties.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Yeah, I'm really just soaking in what both of you are saying, and it really is the meta for me that now hits about this being a Frankenstein movie, and it's a Frankenstein movie. Yeah, yes. It is stitched together. I absolutely adore that now, and it actually gets more points in my book. But let me say this the ending. Ooh, okay. We talked about how moments of this movie felt rushed, and I haven't decided whether or not I feel the ending was rushed. It did feel inevitable. There was a moment where it felt like the third act is like a car wreck you can't look away from. And I don't mean that in like, wow, this is a shitty ending, but rather a oh no, I don't want what I expect to happen to happen. Like I'm genuinely invested here and I want a different outcome, but holy shit, I just can't stop seeing these two things collide. And I think it makes for a good ending. I think I'm surprised by the last moment that we get.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

You know, it I think it sets itself up one way, and you think maybe that it's going to take a different approach, but I think there's some things that we have to unpack here from multiple layers with multiple characters.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

Yeah, this is God, this is really tough. I think the ending was actually my least favorite part of the movie, and it reminds me of another movie that we have watched with a very similar type of main character played by Winoda Ryder. And I think they were faced with a similar decision in terms of what to do with the main character, and I think they made the wrong choice here. You mentioned watching, you know, a car wreck or a train, you know, everyone you can't look away, right? Because it's so compelling. And you just can't wait to see what happens. But here, this was tough because you can kind of see where things are headed, and there's a particularly grotesque and gross moment that we're going to talk about in the spoiler half, and that's where things started to really go downhill for me. It's tough because I think the ending removed a lot of character arc possibilities. And so I think there's developments, there's changes that these characters could have had over the course of this film, and we didn't deliver on that. Instead, they changed in, I think, worse ways.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

Yeah, I also feel like the ending was my least favorite part of the movie, but it's not that it's a terrible ending, it's really not, but the problem for me was you said inevitable, Chris, but it was also predictable. It was super predictable for me, and I think the ending is also where the magic of this universe starts to get pretty murky. You're left feeling a little bit confused at the end just because of the choice of direction or the way that it did choose to end the film. So I'm not a huge fan of the ending. It's not the worst ending, but I think it just wasn't the ending I was hoping for, I think. And I don't know what that is. I haven't found that answer, but it definitely isn't what I got.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Well, it's giving mixed back, and we can explore momentarily if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But as we make our way to our ratings, Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Most of what you see in this film is just blood, but I think you know, a lot of what you get is very just jarring, and we've already kind of alluded to it. So you get some of these shots, and it's not that you see a lot of what is actually happening, but I think what you do get just kind of shocks you a little bit for a moment. But you're not getting a lot of that carnage from any of the deaths or kills in this one, so I wouldn't really expect that, although you do see some severed body parts, and I'm not just talking about arms and legs here, but overall the gore is pretty tasteful, but it's still getting a low gore score.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

And what about the animal report?

SPEAKER_04 21:22

All right, I tried my best here to remember as much as I could. So we're gonna say it's all good in the hood this time. Correct me if I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings then. Lisa Frankenstein from 2024. Was it a hacker or a slash?

SPEAKER_04 21:34

Well, whatever it is, I think it was a bit of fun. You know, I I think it's lighthearted, it's bright, it's silly, it's perfect for teens and nostalgic millennials alike. Um, it's not a perfect movie by any means, but overall it doesn't feel right being too harsh about this movie. It's a bit like I mentioned of Frankenstein meets Edward Scissor Hands, and that's definitely a positive, honestly. Two great things. It does struggle sometimes with the balance, and I wish it had. Had picked, you know, either go fully dark and disturbing or go fully cheerful and quirky. But overall, it's a slash for being an easy, fun watch and for having made me laugh several times out loud in the theater, unlike Chris.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Listen, I I laughed out loud a couple times too. I left the theater though with mixed emotions. I felt like I had a good time, but the film was missing something. There were moments where I wanted more out of the film, and then there were things unexplained that I definitely wanted explained a little bit better. It had every moment that you want in a teenage high school movie, but with this undead kind of classic monster vibe to it. I think I was talking to you about it, Chris. It's definitely a movie that's it's a little bit dark, it's a little bit humorous, but it's also kind of dull somehow. I don't know what it's missing some kind of pizzazz in certain areas, but I think this movie has grown on me and I kind of want to watch it again. So I know I'm saying a lot of things that sound like it may not be good, but I genuinely did have a good time. I'm just really nitpicking things out of this movie. This feels like Diablo Cody's love letter to horror cinema in a way. The more I think about it, the more I feel like this was a fun way to pay homage to so many classics while keeping the presence of this kind of cute teenage coming of age story. And overall, I thought this was more clever and fun than disappointing. And I can see this being a film that you could really watch if you wanted to, you know, kick off your spooky season in October or even right now in February for Valentine's Day. So I think for that it deserves a slash.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

I'm right there with you, Sean. I really wanted this movie to be great. I really did. I thought this would easily edge out Warm Bodies as a Valentine's Day horror movie that isn't strictly about Valentine's Day. And while it was cute, the reality is that there are a lot of moments that were just okay. And there were moments and components of the plot that felt rushed. I mentioned that earlier, and overall it lacked, I think, the level of humor I wanted from it. Almost like the level of humor I needed to get from it, knowing the caliber of production going into the movie. It wasn't all I hoped it would be for sure, but I think there's still a lot that I enjoyed. For example, I I enjoyed a lot of cheeky jokes, a killer soundtrack. Oh my gosh, I can't wait to talk about it. I was listening to it as we were preparing for the episode. There's also, like you mentioned, Sean, a clear-cut love letter to both classic horror but also 80s teen comedies, 80s horror movies. But even beyond that, it actually does one specific thing that I have often said I wished horror movies would do. So I find at the end of this, you know, and Sean, we were talking about this before, I was thinking I would watch a sequel, but now I'm at the point after a few days of separation where I actually think I'm invested enough to actively want a sequel. I want this to continue. And it does feel like it's greater than the sum of its stitched together reanimated parts. And that feels like enough merit for it to earn a slash for me. I just encourage you to temper your expectations before heading in. And with that, Lisa Frankenstein from 2024, now showing in theaters, has earned a Universal Slash. Go check this movie out. If you're watching it, post its theatrical run. Feel free to check the link in our show notes and see where you can find it right now. Then join us in the second half so we can discuss further. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

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SPEAKER_02 27:45

And I bet I know what's coming or not.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Oh what were your favorite kills?

SPEAKER_04 27:50

I'm gonna say Doug is my favorite kill. I have a least favorite kill, of course, and that's Janet. We can talk more about that here in a minute. Doug's kill was interesting because Doug is a jerk off.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

Total POS. Deserved it. Some of the other characters who died didn't deserve it, and Doug absolutely did, but he also he wanted his hand. They really conspired against this dude. They plotted and planned. He got exactly what he deserved.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Anyone who preys on a girl at a party, a preying on anyone, period. B to take advantage of her in a vulnerable moment. That is another thing entirely. And then to have the nerve to talk shit about her, but then also thinks that she actually wants it. And then also, I'm sorry, just the hilarity of this, he doesn't even want to go into the Bachelor Grove Cemetery because it's not Christian to leave bodies like that. It's not Christian to touch bodies like that, motherfucker. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Yeah. Get the fuck out of here.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Hated him, hated him, hated him. Absolutely the best kill in the movie because he had it coming. And just to note on this whole Janet, you weren't a fan of, absolutely her death was great. She was my fucking runner-up because Bam Bitch went down.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

Alright. If we're talking about Doug, I had the exact verbiage that you just used, Chris. I said Doug had it coming. Any guy who takes advantage of another woman or anybody, like you said, that's under the influence because that's just fucking creepy, dude. Like there's nothing cool about that, and it's just slimy and nasty, and like fuck those people.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

A hundred percent. But here's the other thing earlier. I alluded to you could see this shit coming from a mile away. This is the serious moment of gravity. The second he rolls up trying to be a nice guy, you know that motherfucker is gonna take her to a bedroom and try to take advantage of her, and it is disgusting.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Again, the whole moment handled really well in a movie.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

It could still be very triggering for people if you are someone who has lived that firsthand, but I think so handled in a classy way, but fuck Doug.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Yeah, for sure. And you know the thing about Janet's kill while we're on these two, it's not that it's my favorite kill by any means. I just think obviously it's the first one, right? I mean, we got Lisa's mom's technically the first kill, right? But that's just mentioned. We see like the axe murder and whatnot, but Janet is the one we're introduced to, right, in the film, and it's just getting hit over the head with that typewriter or whatever. I think it just hits. Like those are those moments we're talking about earlier where we're going through this movie, we're having a good time with it, and then all of a sudden this lady gets hit over the head with a typewriter and just falls, and you slowly see the blood pooling around her head. And I think in that exact moment it takes you out of that reality, and you're like, Whoa, they just did that.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

Yeah, which I'm a fan of. Big heavy object. I couldn't tell what it was. I'm just glad it was in the closet because again, she had it coming. However, can we acknowledge, and maybe this is just me? I really thought that her stepsister was going to figure out that her mom was dead from seeing the white diamond study rings.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Right? Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Like that's what my whole expectation was. I didn't expect him to just come out axle blazing, cutting off a dude's dick in a bedroom, and that'd be how she discovers that oh my god, there's a homicidal maniac here. Every single time they were in some kind of semblance of proximity to each other, she's crying in her room at night, and then we have Lisa going up to her room, the bedroom door is still fucking open. I'm like, oh my god, that sister's gonna walk in here, she's gonna see those earrings, she's gonna it's the whole jig is up, your cover's blown.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

Yeah, that was interesting. You know, you mentioned Michael's death already. Getting your dick chopped off, if that wasn't bad enough. The fact that it was so dramatic was just adding insult to injury for this poor dude. I'm not saying that he didn't necessarily have what was coming to him because he was given mixed signals, and that's just a shitty thing to do. But man, that was a moment.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

It was literally balls to the wall.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

It was. Oh my. The silhouette on the wall was hilarious. Oh my god, so good.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Yeah, it really was. You know, I do think it's interesting to just break down the Michael of it all. He is allowed to not have feelings for Lisa. You think you can be nice without really giving mixed signals? I think there's a fine line between like flirtation, true intention of mixed signals. It's ambiguous, and I could see an argument where perhaps it wasn't intentional on his part. However, when Lisa is laying into him and talking about how he just wants a woman who cannot keep up with him intellectually because he wants to be the smartest person in the room. I was like, you're fucking reading him and I love it. So even if I didn't think he had it coming, he still had it coming.

SPEAKER_04 32:56

However, here's where I have some issues okay with several of these kills, and I guess this is really going into characters more as well. Um so I'm gonna try to hold back a little bit. But like we had missed opportunities here for Lisa to show her growth. What I had hoped for is by the end of the movie, she was gonna put her stepmother in her place, and her dad was gonna back her up, or at least roll over to let it happen. One of the two, I don't know. And so when she's just out with a typewriter to the head, it just felt like a cheap way of solving this dynamic. And that bummed me out. The same thing with Michael getting his head chopped off, the other one, like that to me, same thing. This was a moment where she was gonna stand up, speak her mind, call him out, make her sister feel like crap, and instead, he got his wiener cut off and then he died. And so, like, I just I had problems with this. Like, we had the potential for growth right there by the end, she was gonna be strong and she was gonna have to put Frankenstein's monster down, just like the original movie. That's what I was hoping for. And so we get to this instead, and it's like, this is weird. I don't want to have a sex scene with them. So this monster, this creature himself, is kind of playing like the good guy best friend who doesn't get the girl in all of those 80s and 90s movies. By the end, she realizes that she wants him and they fall in love and they're gonna be a thing, and all they needed was another dude's wiener. It's just so strange to me.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

I agree with some of what you're saying, but I think where you started and where you ended are two different things. We're gonna talk about it more in characters because we are gonna dissect this evolution of Lisa, if you will, but I do think that there was a progression. I don't know that Janet's death bothered me that much. It was interesting. They did take her out pretty quickly. I'm not mad that Lisa wasn't the one to do it, and I'll explain more when we dive into characters and to really dive into Lisa as a character herself. I do agree that the way they could have ended the movie could have been a little bit differently. Like I originally thought maybe it would have benefited from being a little more Romeo and Juliet, but that's not how it wanted to unfold.

SPEAKER_04 35:10

And then we get to the final kill of the movie and it's Lisa's.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04 35:15

You know, burnt to a crisp to set us up for Bride of Frankenstein, but then like her face is fine, which was also severely strange.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

I don't know that this needs to be if they do a sequel, that'll be interesting.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

I don't know that this movie needs a sequel, but hey, listen, I I'm not saying that it needed it, but I do say that I want it. But also, guys, come the fuck on about her burned face. Who gives a shit? This man rose from the ground looking crusty as fuck, and then he got hotter every time he was in the tanning bed. It's okay for it just to be dumb bullshit. It's okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Listen, that's cool, that's cool. But speaking of tanning beds, shout out to the fucking tanning bed from Final Destination for finally getting another gig.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Yes! Absolutely, it's in its comeback era.

SPEAKER_04 36:04

It is. I mean, there is something I did like about Lisa though, and it is her wardrobe. Her wardrobe is fantastic in this movie and only gets better throughout the movie. I mentioned earlier, why not a writer? And I feel like if this was made 30 years ago, this role would have been for her. They looked at Beetlejuice and they saw the characters there, and they looked back at the 80s and they saw some of the clothing there, and they were like, no, no, turn it up to turn it up to 11. They just went crazy by the end of this movie with the wardrobe, specifically hers, and and I was here for it. She didn't care, so it worked well for the character. She was just living her best life. I love the fact that like she borrowed pieces from her stepsister's closet, or even costume pieces. It was a great way for her to dress in the over-the-top way and for there to be a reasonable explanation for it. But the looks were great.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

Yeah, it's the wardrobe was good, the looks were good. There really is so much to love about this movie from the set design to the soundtrack, from the costume design to the cinematography. My favorite thing this movie did was blend all of these things together to create such great scenes. And I know that's kind of a cop-out in a way, but really it was something that I really enjoyed because I don't think every film can really pull that off. When you can take all of these different elements and blend it together to make some really vibrant, fun, entertaining scenes to look at, even when there's not much going on, I think is something special. There were also some moments in this film that felt like a music video, like watching some MTV from the 80s.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

80s montage. Yes. Some don't tell mom the babysitter's dead. Quick, we gotta clean up the house real quick. There is no detail in this movie that is too small to be beautiful. We have even the design of her bedroom, even from the red lights that she has on her headboard to the classic posters. We had the mummy, we have creature from the black lagoon, we have so many classics that are just there embedded in the movie's DNA, but then also in Lisa as a character. All of it was just so great. Even the opening title card was really cute, and I actually really enjoy the animation. But my absolute favorite thing, and what I think really just ups the rewatchability of this movie for me, is how infectious its soundtrack is and its score. It is absolutely phenomenal. I was playing two songs on repeat all the way up and through our recording. I want to go back to what is actually my favorite scene, and we talked about it earlier when we were mentioning Doug's death. It's the moment when everything is all fun and games until Doug starts to get much more creepy and then he puts his hand on her chest. The way that she has this sobering realization, despite being affected by drugs for the very first time at such a high potency, and we have a cover of I Can See Clearly Now, it's almost the same haunting melody of Alana Del Rey cover of a classic Disney song.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

So the way that she shifts from that room, and it's almost like in a dreamlike sequence going out into the forest, and you don't know where that room starts and where her actual bedroom begins. The transition there was absolutely immaculate. I was stuck in the chaos of her not really having full control of herself, the scariness of that moment, how lost and confused she was, and also just like the man, people fucking suck of it all. She ends up back in the grove and she wishes she could be with him because people just suck.

SPEAKER_04 39:56

That's a good one. And it was such a hardcore scene as well. I mean, I was so drawn to the clever bits and the comedy, and that's I think perhaps just an expectation of mine. And so I enjoyed the scene where we're playing the piano while the stepmom's eating her breakfast. This goes back to two things you both just mentioned about the production elements here, and that's she's got the headphones in, you know, she's got the outfit on, like she's gonna work out, and what an outfit choice! Really takes you back. It's hilarious. But he's you know, he's playing the piano. She picks one headphone off and listens, and he stops, puts it back on, he picks it back up. And like this is the type of comedy I'm here for. And then for the finale of that scene to be him spinning a worm into her breakfast. This is the kind of stuff I thought we were gonna get the rest of the movie. Instead of like going like super, you know, we gotta kill everybody and chop off their wieners. I was really expecting like a lot of plays on the fact that this dude is dead and was rotting. I was really drawn to that scene. I feel like it's a good one, and they still have that good play of we got the music, we've got the wardrobe, and now we can add a little comedy in.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

I I think there's some really great comedic moments for sure. You know, Chris, the the scene you shared is is arguably one of the best scenes in the entire film for a number of reasons. One, because it literally does exactly what I said that I loved from a production element in this film, and it just blends everything together so perfectly because you get Lisa all fucked up walking through this house party, and you've got that strange cover of I Can See Clearly Now, and this lightning storm is happening, and the visuals are stunning, and she ends up at home. But it was a great sequence of scenes where they give you all of it the set design, the costume design, the acting, the ambiance, the music. It was all there to make this really amazing scene. It was such a strange, almost hard to watch, but enticing at the same time, and that kind of sums up the whole movie, in essence. Like, there's parts that you're like, I don't really want to watch this, but I am watching this. It's just this interesting feeling. So, arguably best scene in the movie or or sequence of scenes, but there are some really funny moments too. There's obviously the introduction of the creature, and they're talking about the music and the cure, but he thinks it's the cure to her severed hand, and she's like, not that kind of cure, but emotionally could make you better kind of thing. I thought that was hilarious. There's subtle moments of great lines. There's the scene where Taffy is spilling Lisa's tea at the party, right? And just talking about all the shit that she has going on, and every time it cuts back to the per the people she's talking about, there's one more person there, and that was just such a silly thing that I thought was really humorous. So there are some really great things that they did there. I will say, top scene though, outside of what you said, Chris, it's the black and white montage after Lisa is sleeping or dreaming or tripping or whatever. I can't really tell, but that felt like this really awesome music video. It felt like that there's Easter eggs to Bride of Frankenstein all over that, and it was very cool to watch. I really loved that part of the film.

SPEAKER_04 43:16

Sean, I forgot about that scene you mentioned with spilling the tea and telling her backstory.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:21

The timing was really good with it as well. And it had this feeling where I was like, I want more of that for the entire film. There's like a really good understanding of comedy and what's funny just with the simple things. And that's what I really needed in the final third. I needed that to really carry through.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Yeah, I think Taffy really brought a lot of the comedy that this movie needed. And I think maybe there could have been more, sure. I think maybe we could have gotten comedy from other places, but I don't know that I needed Lisa to be funnier. I do think that the two of them have such a fucking beautiful dynamic, though. Their relationship and just how sweet. Taffy is. Yes, she's absolutely spilling the tea. She's talking too much. But you can also see that she is very clearly a good person. And you know, Mac, you're talking earlier about a lack of growth from Lisa, but I saw nothing but growth from Lisa the entire movie. It may not have been growth in the direction that we all wanted for her. Maybe we all wanted better for her. But the fact of the matter is she was able to sit in a car while Taffy is traumatized and acknowledge the love that Taffy was trying to give her the entire time. And acknowledge that she was someone who made her feel welcome, even when no one else and nothing in her life made her feel that way. So I think though that dynamic of between them, so special.

SPEAKER_04 44:45

Yeah. I love the scene where she walks in dressed differently into school, and Taffy comments like how good she looks and makes a statement about her being able to be in pageants if she wanted to. She can't hear her, she's not doing that for her benefit. And so she like truly has her back.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

Yeah. And again, like these little quips sometimes come off as a back-hand compliment. But I think it's also just because of who Taffy is. But you know, there's a layer of sincerity there. This is just a movie that is made by women and features women supporting women. And honestly, that is exactly what we need in cinema.

SPEAKER_02 45:19

Yeah, I think this movie I think really benefited from having a really strong group of actors and actresses. A lot of talent here. I think we can probably agree that Catherine Newton was really good in this movie. She has a pretty decent resume already, as it is, with films in the MCU. You've got her in Big Little Lies, obviously she's in Freaky. There's all these different things.

SPEAKER_01 45:42

Paranormal Activity 4, but who's Counting?

SPEAKER_02 45:45

That resume is pretty long. It she takes her strengths from all of these movies and really delivers a performance in this film that I think is both comedic and believable at times. Here's the thing: when we talk about growth with this character, she had to be scared and then be scary. That is hard to do. I think she really transformed this character throughout the duration of this film and really showed some strong dynamic range. She had to work with the creature for a good portion of this film. And this creature has no words for almost the entire movie. But the fact that Catherine had to play Lisa and work with someone that didn't actually say anything the whole movie, I think speaks to the range of her acting skills, and it was still like you still understood what was going on.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

A thousand percent, because this is another example of Catherine Newton having to not be just her character in Freaky, but having to play Vince Vaughn's interpretation of who her character would be in Freaky.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

This woman is just incredible. I might have a little bit of a crush on her. She is phenomenal, her range is dynamic. I absolutely love it, and I'm so glad that she is emerging as a Scream Queen. Yes, we talk about the direction that her character goes. She is not just the doctor, she's also the bride, but then she's also the heroine of every other 80s teen movie we've seen. This is such a unique blend of an interpretation of who we expect this character would be. Just so much credit there. The third act was a car wreck for me because I wanted her to get away with it. I wanted her to have happily ever after, and I guess in some ways she does.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

She kind of does.

SPEAKER_01 47:31

Happily ever after life, I get it. But I just wanted her to have some success. I mean, she went on her own terms, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 47:40

I guess. I I mentioned earlier the Hoin and a Ryder thing. I'm thinking of Beetlejuice, right? We talked, I think, in the Beetlejuice episode about the alternate ending that they thought about, which was, you know, that she would off herself and it was just like too dark and really showed the wrong things. They had the same choice and went with that ending. And so that's, I think, what bothered me is because you've mentioned her growth, right, throughout the film. She went from not speaking at all with the trauma of her mother's death to telling these people what for. And I think that part was great. What was not great, it was the creature, the monsters, it was his problem that caused this, which was that he was killing people. Yeah. And I think that took away from some of it, right? She, if she's able to tell off her evil stepmother and gain some dominance there, I would have been happy with that. Typewriter to the back of the head, all that work undone. She wants to tell that skeezy dude, you know, not to touch people that way and that he's gonna pay for it. Let's make that happen. But then the monster's gotta show up and take him out. She realizes this dude has been playing her and her stepsister and had no actual intention of doing anything meaningful with her, and she tells him that. And I think that part was great. And the monster shows up and cuts off his member and then kills him or whatever, and then storms off because he is the jealous good guy best friend who wants what he can't have. And so I think maybe my issues with her growth were that her growth was being held back by this apparent love interest because it doesn't really seem like she was interested once he showed up.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

Ultimate ally Mac. So, for all that I've said about Lisa and as much as I've complimented this movie, I don't give a fuck about it being a love story. I almost wanted a buddy story. I wanted her to do literally anything else besides hook up with the corpse. And it'd be one thing if the corpse was giving soulmate, but the corpse was giving convenience. The corpse was giving I'm not talking back. And so I'm giving you the space for you to speak, which is the bare minimum you deserve.

SPEAKER_02 49:43

Yeah. So here's the thing. One, I don't mind the love story of it all. That part doesn't bother me. I actually would have loved for this film to have ended on the note of this all still happened, right? All everything in the third act still happened, but at the end of it, you know, they obviously had their moment, all of that happened, but then at the end of it, we got Lisa with the surprise kill to the creature, but then off to self in that Romeo and Juliet fashion. So that's what I was kind of hoping for at the end of this movie that we didn't get. I don't really like, nor do I think it makes any sense that she gets into the tanning bed that electriccutes her, that then sets on fire, where she should be dead, but somehow still gets brought to life by the tanning bed. This is where the rules of this universe make no sense whatsoever. And even in a universe that doesn't make sense, this still makes less sense. Two negatives don't make a positive in this scenario. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 50:45

It's interesting because I saw that as a much later situation, as in she actually died in the tanning bed, the tanning bed caught fire, she's not coming back from that. He then exhumes her remains and finds a way to electrocute her separately in a different medium and then brings her back later. Well, I saw that as like way later down the road, because now this motherfucker's talking. Now this motherfucker's talking, he's reading literature, he also has had more shock treatments, more shock therapy since we last saw him when he was reading that note.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Well, he's been hitting the tanning bed.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

A different tanning bed, though, or some other jolt of electricity. So I saw that as actually the epilogue of the movie, a super epilogue, which is like many moons later.

SPEAKER_02 51:33

Yeah. Well, okay, so that would make more sense, but they didn't do a great job at guiding you there. You got there, I didn't. Maybe that's a me thing. I don't know. And maybe that's what the sequel. If there is a sequel, maybe that's where we're gonna get some more answers. But just to continue on what we were saying before we got on this whole rant, because we're gonna go into Cole Sprouse as a creature here. I think he did a fantastic job giving purpose to every grunt and facial expression to really sell the fact that Lisa and him could understand each other in some way. I think Lisa as a character had this great chemistry with both Cole and with her sister. And so I think that's something to be said about Catherine, but there is this obvious love story. We're gonna get back to this love story thing because there's this obvious love story between Lisa and the creature, but we also get this coming-of-age story with Lisa, which is really interesting. And the result of all of this is this story of Lisa learning to embrace the things that separate her from the societal norm and are deemed weird by caring and loving for this creature. So I don't really mind the love story because I feel like it represents something different than what's really just on the surface of what you see. And so I like the overall message.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

Yeah, again, like a bromance, I guess is the term that I'm looking for, would be fine. It's not that I have anything against her caring for the creature, her nursing him back and aiding and embedding him, finding these body parts, whatever. I'm good with that. Their chemistry is great, but for me, just like in the moment when he's in the house and he she spends all this time being chased by him, and then all of a sudden she sees him sitting down on the phone, she's like, Oh, you're actually okay. It felt very quick there. It felt like their romantic angle was also quick. It felt like a moment of just desperation, and she only began to consider him that way because he was a vessel and a body instead of having actual love for him. Which again, this is the interaction of a creature that she is caring for and nurturing, and she is speaking now. She feels a level of comfort and safety, which is great for her, but again, I just lack the true romantic chemistry. Their chemistry as actors, fantastic, their interaction as creator and monster, phenomenal. But the romantic we're gonna live together forever in the afterlife, the Romeo and Juliet of it all, I was lacking.

SPEAKER_04 54:11

I mean, she literally used him to use her Hitachi. She was like, hey, you have one hand, you can help me out with this, friend. It was definitely weird. I'm with you. I think their closeness, their chemistry was good, and I think keep that. But I would have preferred it. I just maybe I like happy endings and everything, but like I would have preferred it that he ended up with her sister.

SPEAKER_01 54:32

I would have preferred that he ends up with no one. Maybe she actually makes him a bride in the sequel. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_03 54:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

I don't think I needed him to find love. I needed her to find the love that she craved in her sister. Not in a weird way, but like in a this is just companionship and someone who does show up for you and loves you unconditionally.

SPEAKER_04 54:51

I mean, I wanted her to be alone.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

I feel like she found that though.

SPEAKER_01 54:55

She did, but then obviously it was gone quickly after. It's almost like having it all isn't as good as getting it all. It's there and then slips right through your fingers. So she's realizing what she has in the same moment that she's losing it. She's losing her grasp on it. And it's like, wow, I did have this. And then it becomes that whole cliche, don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. Whatever. I just want a little bit more of that energy for her. And again, that's not me saying that the movie needed to do it differently, but it is me saying, if I could go back and control Lisa Frankenstein's life, I'd give her a little easier time.

SPEAKER_04 55:30

Yeah, I really I honestly wanted this to be one of those times where by the end of the movie, he helps her find strength, right? And she's independent and strong and realizes that she deserves better in her life and decides to make that happen. And I mean, I also would have preferred that any kill that he had was complete buffoonery and done by accident, and that everything gets blamed on him, even though it was all accidents because you know he can barely move, he's a corpse.

SPEAKER_02 55:57

That would be funny. I mean, if it was really just tying into just the humor of it all, but I think it wasn't trying to go too I don't think it was trying to go too heavy in that, but I do think that would be hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 56:07

Yeah, that would give very much Tucker and Dale versus Evil.

SPEAKER_02 56:10

Yeah, yeah. I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_01 56:11

Officer, we've had a doozy of a day.

SPEAKER_02 56:14

Yeah, that I think that's good. But let's just talk about Janet for a minute because what a showstopper Janet was. I think Janet is like Carla playing Janet, her performance as the evil stepmom was uncanny. She really, in my opinion, every moment that she was in a scene, she took over that scene. Like she commanded that scene. She is so I mean, she's good in everything, really. Let's be honest. I also loved her in the Fall from the House of Usher series that we just got. I think amazing work, but she just performs so well and she played such like a evil stepmom so well that I just thought, man, you loved to hate her. You absolutely love to hate her.

SPEAKER_01 56:59

Absolutely. She pulls focus in all the right ways. She has such a suffocating presence. And can I tell you what my actual headcanon is?

SPEAKER_02 57:10

What?

SPEAKER_01 57:10

We obviously get the moment where Taffy's spilling the tea in my headcanon. Janet is the one who killed Lisa's mom. Or hired someone to kill Lisa's mom so that she could steal her husband. Oh my. Spicy. She seems like that kind of conniving bitch.

SPEAKER_03 57:26

Spicy. But she's only made of moonlight. They got together pretty quick, right?

SPEAKER_02 57:31

That was the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 57:33

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 57:34

Come on. Or maybe it was the dad all along.

SPEAKER_01 57:39

I did write that in my notes as well until I realized how fucking inept he is at anything.

SPEAKER_02 57:46

Yeah, or is it a show? I don't know. Is he just playing the show or is it look at him? Now he's left with no wives at all.

SPEAKER_01 57:54

Just his hot stepdaughter.

SPEAKER_02 57:56

Yeah, what?

SPEAKER_03 57:56

There was a little yeah, that I get okay.

SPEAKER_01 57:59

There's the sequel.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

Oh boy. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 58:03

They're gonna portray him as like the next fucking Dennis Raider.

SPEAKER_04 58:06

Oh my gosh. No way. Well, it would be more interesting than his repeat performance of Stranger Things.

SPEAKER_02 58:13

Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_04 58:14

Talk about being typecast. They were like, hey, can you be the same character and just read these lines instead?

SPEAKER_02 58:19

What you did in Stranger Things, just do the exact same thing here, please.

SPEAKER_01 58:23

Yeah, your daughter's name is Lisa now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:29

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_01 58:30

Though let me tell you, again, the whole bam bitch went down of it all. Leading up to that, in that moment, she's in her nurse's outfit. So we see her just completely unhinged as someone who's supposed to be nurturing people. But then also let's talk about the realities of how mental health was cared for or not cared for properly in the 80s. Not exactly. So there's a whole layer of mess there. But I really want to shout out in the prior scene when she is around the house, she has her headphones on, she's eating the worms in her fucking bowl. She is listening to a tape about being a highly empathetic person and about narcissism and about energy vampires and emotional vampires. Hysterical. Absolutely hysterical. Complete lack of self-awareness.

SPEAKER_02 59:21

Every moment of this film had purpose, I feel like. You may watch this film and not actually listen to what was playing on that tape, right? But when you do listen to your point, it is something that just is so funny. It's so ironic. And that's every detail. There's every you look for all these little details in this movie, and it's there. It's a it you really you can eat up so much of this movie. It's really well done.

SPEAKER_01 59:46

And speaking of eat up, it goes straight into a door-to-door salesman, not unlike door-to-door knife salesman, who then tries to get her a carpet cleaner, and then she says, You can eat off my carpet.

SPEAKER_02 59:58

Hey.

SPEAKER_01 59:58

The double triple entendre there.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:00

I did the door-to-door sales for eight years. It's fucking rough. I never got to eat off any carpets, though, I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

Oh well.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:08

I guess it's time to discuss the worst parts of this movie. And I've mentioned mine. It's more than just a dude getting his willy cut off, because as you've mentioned, Chris, this happens in plenty of movies. It's not that. It's that that has to happen so that they can make boom boom time. That whole setup to me was unnecessary and annoying. It wasn't required for their relationship. That whole her wanting to lose her virginity thing, I get it. It's very common in these teen movies. We didn't need to see them sewing it on, making sure it worked, and then like getting the squish. None of that needed to happen at all. It was just too it was just a little bit too far across the line. It could have been implied, and I would have been, I guess, okay with it. I just don't think their intimacy was something that we needed.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

I suppose I can meet you where you're at, Mac. It's not that I have a problem with her finding sexual agency in this movie. Good for her. Get it, girl. Do what you want to do. I do think she probably deserved better than just a dead guy. You know what I mean? He wasn't even fully baked yet. At the end, we see that he's fully baked, but he wasn't there.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

He still had the thread from where he is sewn together. That could have just come right off.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:20

That wouldn't that would not be pleasant.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:21

It's just a neon green, like, what's the thread count on that stitching? You know what I mean? Like, I'm sure she's a great seamstress, but it's problematic. I think she just deserved a more fun time. However, I want to sneak into the best part here in the back door, which is bless Catherine Newton for reacting so perfectly to how horrific something smells. Because I talk about this time and time again. How do these motherfuckers never smell an undead serial killer lurking around their fucking house?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

But this man cries or just makes these weird fucking mo emotions and she is gagging. I absolutely love it. This is why I say she's my new favorite Scream Queen.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:12

I don't really have much else to say that I haven't said about what irks me about this movie, but yeah, the worst part for me still comes down to just how it kind of gets murky, like what happens. It just doesn't feel like it just kind of confuses you. It doesn't give you enough of what you need to really piece everything together, in my opinion. And so, you know, from the moment that, like, I think you said it, Chris, when we were talking about it, the moment where she just instantly becomes cool with this zombie in her, you know, living room that just broke into the house and chased her around the house. It was like an instant turnaround to the moment where she comes back to life when she, you know, they didn't explain it, they just show you electrocution, fire, bam, she's alive. Yeah, later in time, I guess, but whatever. I I get the tanning bed serves as this sort of catalyst for the movie, but to me, you know, she died in that tanning bed. They don't explain how she comes back to life. It fucking caught on fire. Maybe it doesn't have to make sense, maybe I'm overthinking it, but that's really those are the moments that kind of threw me off a little bit. It wasn't the seriousness of the kills. It wasn't that. It was literally just the things that I feel like it could have done a little bit better of a job in dishing out to you, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:35

That's a fair assessment. I actually now want to go back and re-watch it to see what you're saying. Maybe my mind did some stupid mental gymnastics and just filled in gaps that didn't have anything to actually fill it with, and I'm just imagining those answers were there. But also, I want to go back and re-watch to appreciate even more fine details. Like, for example, when she dresses the creature in a classic Frankenstein style outfit, but with an 80s band. Absolutely fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:07

That's great. It's a great montage that you expect to see in every like 80s teenage flick, the whole I'm gonna try on a bunch of clothes and come out with some silly outfits kind of thing. But it was just really cool to see with the creature in and of itself. And I think this movie was fun, I think it's entertaining enough to watch again for sure. I said it earlier, but I do think this is something you can pop on when you just want a light-hearted film to watch for the spooky season or something fun to watch with your partner on Valentine's Day. I think a ton of nods and Easter eggs to catch during a second and third watch. So I definitely expect myself to be watching this one again, probably when it is released for streaming or something along that nature. I don't know. I might even buy it. I'm not sure. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

Oh, I'm gonna buy the vinyl for damn sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

Oh, the vinyl for sure. That's a given. It's such a great soundtrack. You have to, you absolutely have to.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:04

I I did like how they snuck some pixies in there at the end, because that always a moment of joy for me. But yeah, maybe when it has streaming. We'll see. Couple years, I'll rewatch it. I think, like you said, Chris, though, it's all about those little details, right? And as you're watching it, you can pick up on a lot of really cool things. We picked up on a lot of the clever lines, but like you mentioned, there's pieces of the set that are clever, there's lines that are nods to other movies that are clever, and so yeah, I think, you know, a couple years, stream it, you know, see if I change my tune.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:33

Well, we'll see if you change your tune, but for now, there you have it, folks. Lisa Frankenstein from 2024 has earned a universal slash. And we certainly had a robust discussion here, but the conversation doesn't end here by any means.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:46

We want to know what you think. Would you eat off of Janet's carpet? Let us know. You can join in on the conversation by hanging out with us for free in our Discord. Click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:57

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SPEAKER_01 1:06:07

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, it's not haunted, it's abandoned.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:12

You know, people don't always put that on their backs.