Lisa Frankenstein (2024) review

Outcast high school student Lisa (Kathryn Newton) - whose mother was killed by an axe murderer, enjoys reading in an abandoned cemetery and has a crush on the editor of the newspaper (Henry Eikenberry) - receives an unexpected visit from "the creature" (Cole Sprouse, looking like Jack White) that was brought back to life by a lightning storm, and the two of them go on a killing spree, starting by taking out Lisa's mean step-mother Janet (Carla Gugino), who wants to place her in a mental institution.  This is yet another adaptation of Mary Shelley's most famous novel (by veteran screenwriter Diablo Cody) only set in the American Midwest during the late 80's, and although it tries to be a horror-comedy-teen romance hybrid, it's quite mediocre at all of those categories.  Williams (in her directorial debut) is trying to recreate a Tim Burton-esque movie - in which the "weird girl" finally finds happiness - but that aesthetic isn't easy to make work ... and yet the conclusion is pleasingly dark, with Lisa sewing a severed "male appendage" on her rotting lover and then finding eternal love via suicide.  Don't try this at home kids, etc.