ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Lisa Frankenstein director Zelda Williams and writer Diablo Cody about the horror comedy movie. Focus Features’ film, which stars Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse, is now playing in theaters.
“A coming of RAGE love story from acclaimed writer Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body) about a misunderstood teenager and her high school crush, who happens to be a handsome corpse,” says the synopsis. “After a set of playfully horrific circumstances bring him back to life, the two embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness… and a few missing body parts along the way.”
Tyler Treese: Zelda, I was so impressed by the sense of style Lisa Frankenstein has and the confidence that comes across. How was it settling into your own vision?
Zelda Williams: Well, I’m very lucky by what was already on the page. It was a big swing, even just written. So I got to just kind of come in and take no prisoners — and cut off a bunch of lengths.
Diablo, there are so many little jokes in the script that had me laughing. How do you generally find the balance between telling that core story and adding in these little lines? Does that come from revisions?
Diablo Cody: That definitely comes from revisions. [It’s] always the hardest tone to find, when you’re trying to strike a balance between comedy, drama, and suspense all in the same movie. It’s tricky, but I can never restrain myself when it comes to little jokes and little moments. And at this stage of my career, I think people have come to expect that from the things that I write. So I feel more confident.
Zelda, about halfway through, the film just starts getting just wonderfully dark and twisted. Can you speak to the pacing of the film? I feel like if the movie rushed to that point, we couldn’t find the characters as likable as we do.
Williams: For me, I’m so lucky that I got to work with Brad [Turner], who is the editor on this. We really tried to explore a lot of different versions of it. And of course — with a comedy — you tend to want to have it be a bit quick in the beginning. We approached a bit of that, but by the time you get into even the second quarter of the film, I was really happy with where we settled on pacing.
It felt very much like the eighties movies that I loved and was kind of inspired by. And I wanted people to settle into these two and the way they talked to each other as well. If you moved through too quickly through the development of their relationships, whether it was hating Janet or loving Creature, you wouldn’t have cared if any of them lived or died. So I’m very glad that I that in the script and what we got to explore allowed for that development. You can’t do the gore without caring. Or — you can, but then you don’t care. [laughs]
Diablo, what was it about the eighties that just made it ripe for this story that’s so gothic in nature? It’s such a fun combination of styles.
Cody: I mean, I grew up in the eighties, so that’s a total nostalgic emotional point of connection for me. And also just the music of the eighties is amazing – [and] the aesthetic. [Plus,] just the fact that people were forced to be more present in their interactions than they are now. That makes for a better movie than, you know, people making plans on their phones. So, I like the complications that arise when people can’t get in touch with each other immediately. I mean, just from a narrative perspective, it’s so much more fun to set things in the before times.
