Director: Zelda Williams
A lightning strike, a broken tanning bed, and a girl with nothing left to lose combine into an unlikely home-improvement project in Zelda Williams's directorial debut, a horror-comedy set against a very specific slice of 1989.
What is Lisa Frankenstein about?
Lisa is the kind of high school outsider who spends more time in the local cemetery than at any party, drawn especially to the grave of a young Victorian man whose life, and death, she's built an entire fantasy around. When a freak electrical storm strikes the cemetery, it does more than knock out the power: it brings that corpse back from the dead and sends him wandering, badly decomposed, into Lisa's life. Rather than panic, Lisa sees an opportunity, using a broken tanning bed in her garage and whatever else she can scavenge to slowly rebuild him into something closer to presentable. Kathryn Newton plays Lisa with a mix of teenage numbness and growing resolve, Cole Sprouse takes on the mostly non-verbal role of the reanimated suitor, and Carla Gugino and Liza Soberano round out a household and social circle that has no idea what's assembling itself in the garage. Director Zelda Williams and the film lean fully into the era's neon-and-hairspray aesthetic while keeping the tone somewhere between prom-night comedy and genuine body horror.
Cast & crew
Kathryn Newton anchors the film as Lisa, opposite Cole Sprouse's largely wordless performance as the reanimated corpse, with Carla Gugino and Liza Soberano rounding out the supporting cast.
Context & significance
Lisa Frankenstein marked Zelda Williams's feature directorial debut and reached theaters in 2024 as a United States production steeped in late-1980s style, pairing horror-comedy with a coming-of-age romance framework.
Where & how to watch
Lisa Frankenstein is available to stream on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, part of a platform built for Farsi-speaking audiences. The film's page can be browsed without any account, and streaming it just requires logging in with a free K-Time account.