Lisa Frankenstein Is The Campy Horror Movie You've Been Waiting For

Cole Sprouse And Kathryn Newton Talk "Lisa Frankenstein"

"Buster Keaton was a big one for us," he tells me over Zoom. "But we obviously took cues from a lot of the eighties movies, like early Tim Burton stuff too, Edward Scissorhands, of course. A lot of those kind of silent, stoic monster types."

He also got to work with mime coach Lorin Salm to ensure his onscreen presence was as emotionally complex as it was hilarious. "When people hear mime they think like, 'Oh no, I'm stuck inside an invisible box,' but the stuff that we did was much more emotional movement work," he says. His favorite part about working with Lorin? "His license plate just said 'Speechless.' So I was like, 'I'm so in the right place.'"

"Cole's says, 'Actor,'" Kathryn jokes. Of course, I follow up to ask what Kathryn's would say, to which Cole answers, "'Poodle!'"

For Kathryn Newton's titular role of Lisa Frankenstein, she focused on the truly campy movies of the 80s, like director Zelda Williams' favorite movie Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and The Goonies.

"And then I watched Death Becomes Her and Meryl [Streep]'s She-Devil because Meryl does camp so well," Kathryn says. "I got a lot of inspiration from that. I saw that you can do it and not be overacting. There's a way to do this tone, and no one's done this in a really long time. Like I've heard people say the word 'camp' to describe movies, but I haven't seen any like She-Devil...and then, you know, it's a monster film. So it was easy."

And Kathryn Newton truly can "do it and not be overacting." There was never a point in the film that took me out of the movie. Even if the plot points were objectively ridiculous, they come across as fun because Kathryn has an edgy electricity that just makes you want to see more! And while her independent spirit and dramatics draw you in as a viewer, they also got the actress thinking about her deeper layers of the character, too.

"[Lisa] thinks no one understands her. No one hears her, no one's listening, and I think a lot of us feel that way, especially in high school," she says. "I was bullied more in middle school than I was in real life. It's school that's difficult, like trying to fit in."

"I guess I'm talking about myself [but] I think about me [a little too much]," she continues. "Look outside, listen to people, hear other people around you. Literally this character raises a guy from the dead who cannot talk — only listens to her — but she doesn't even realize he's listening and understanding. She doesn't listen to him at all. It's very ironic."

While it's dramatic, engaging, and hilarious, turns out Lisa Frankenstein also serves as a lesson on relating to other people — even if they've just come back from the dead.

For both actors, this movie follows iconic titles like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and when asked which of their previous characters would be friends with Lisa and Creature, they had wildly different answers.

"Obviously the butcher in Freaky, like for sure they're best friends, like in another parallel universe," Kathryn says.

"I think all the previous characters I've played would have probably been killed by these two actually," Cole says. "90 percent of the bowl cuts that I've played probably would have been killed."

"That's so sad!" Kathryn chimes in. "No, Liza [Soberano, who plays Lisa's step-sister Taffy] would have loved, you know, little baby Cole, but any of the modern day ones...no."