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Lisa Frankenstein
23 Plays13 days ago
The time has come. Like all things, eventually Franken-summer had to end. And so we leave you with this film- a classic coming-of-age tale about a simple girl. She's just figuring out who she is while on a bit of a murder spree to revitalize the corpse of a victorian dude that gets accidentally resurrected. We've all been there!!!
It has to be seen to be believed, so we recommend you see it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21188080/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_in_0_q_lisa%2520franke
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Hosts and Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
I'm Melinda. I'm Ariel. This is Hot Set, the movie podcast about costume design.
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome back to our podcast, academic as always. I can't stop talking about how academic we are and just like just you know brush my my hair over my shoulder. Yeah. For the people that can't see us, we're actually wearing motorboard mortarboard hats while we record. Yeah. I have to move the emblem from one side to the other. I've got you know the the gown, all of it, just full on like Oxford academic all the time.
Lisa Frankenstein Film Overview
00:00:48
Speaker
ah Today is our conclusion to this summer's Franken-summer. And we are concluding our adventure with the film Lisa Frankenstein from 2024, directed by Zelda Williams.
00:01:03
Speaker
On IMDb, this summary says... A coming of, in all caps, rage love story about a teenager and her crush who happens to be a corpse.
00:01:14
Speaker
After a set of horrific circumstances bringing him back to life, the two embark on a journey to find love, happiness, and a few missing body parts. Basically, that what the movie's about?
00:01:25
Speaker
I think that I would, if I were in charge of writing this summary, and if I had had the fresh experience that you and I have had coming off of Franken-Summer and watching multiple decades worth of um this property, I would say, what would happen if Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein, wanted to bone his creation and ah we wanted to find himself? Which we saw last time. We did see that last time. We did. Yeah.
00:01:53
Speaker
This is definitely a new step based on that. And um yeah, i watched it before you did. And this is my second time watching it. And i i did forget, i think, about 80% the movie. So yeah.
00:02:08
Speaker
so No shade to this movie, but I was like, I'm rediscovering it as I go. And I think in our last episode, I said it was directed by Diablo Cody. It's actually written by Diablo Cody and then directed by Salta Williams.
00:02:20
Speaker
It's fine. Yeah. You just want to keep it straight. Okay. It's very formal podcast. so So first impressions. How did you, how was this ride for you?
00:02:32
Speaker
um I do feel like the movie delivered the vibe that I was expecting. i really didn't know what the plot of the movie was going to be. So I did not know ah if our titular character, Lisa, was going to be the monster or in this case, like the creator. So that was like, I just really didn't know. Like I had seen, i think,
00:02:59
Speaker
the poster maybe, or just like knew vaguely what the movie was, but I had no idea what the particulars of the movie plot was going to be. So I was really just like on the journey with the movie. And um I mean, it was ridiculous. It was crazy.
00:03:17
Speaker
It was everything that you want, like a Diablo Cody movie to be, I
Comparing Lisa Frankenstein to Weird Science
00:03:23
Speaker
think. so It feels like a Diablo Cody take on weird science. And like that movie is,
00:03:29
Speaker
insane And I think that the character Lisa Frankenstein might be named after the woman that they create in Weird Science. I think her name might be Lisa. That sounds right. I think that's, yeah.
00:03:41
Speaker
There's a lot in that movie too that makes you go, huh? Same here. What? No. ah Yeah. And if I had to describe the movie in one sentence, I would say this movie is ah teenage girl's journey into becoming Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter. Because that is absolutely what she looked like at the end of the movie. Like she looked like Helena Bonham Carter from Harry Potter. at the end i feel I feel like this is a wig a wiggy movie. Yeah.
00:04:15
Speaker
And we're wi ah the hers on Lisa Frankenstein's head really do tell the story because they start with like sweet open curls in braids. Like they're very sweet and little, little, you know, bangs happening.
00:04:30
Speaker
And by the end, they are massive man eateries. Chapel Roan. Yeah. But less conditioned. Like Radagast, Bird Nest.
00:04:47
Speaker
Radagast does the 80s.
00:04:50
Speaker
There's just like, there's something about right now with um some costume design that I'm really enjoying, which is...
80s and 90s Influence in Modern Filmmaking
00:04:59
Speaker
um Folks who grew up in the 80s, yes, still designing movies that are looking back at the 80s in the style of movies that were happening in the 80s.
00:05:08
Speaker
But also eightyies and 90s babies. We're all adults now. And we're making things that are about the 80s. And we grew up on 80s things. So there's like a step outside of it that's beyond like just movie going step outside where it's like – this uncanny valley of like a memory of the eighties, but things are also still being done like accurately for sure, you know, but it it just feels like it's a step outside.
00:05:39
Speaker
And that's what this movie definitely feels like. It's just like, it takes place in 1989 and you get hit with, you get hit with that in a lot of ways. in idiot Yeah. And it's like, ah it is one of those things where I feel like people who, you,
00:05:57
Speaker
remember or think they know what the 80s looks like is this and it's only the end of the 80s that you really get the yeah types of styles of like clothes and decor and like makeup and hair and people kind of want to like extend that back into like the early 80s and it's like no no no they were not doing that yet no the early 80s came out of the 70s like as a kid we're so black and white when we're growing up right like I think that a lot of us who grew up in the 90s had this moment and maybe before but we had this moment where we're like wait before 1940 something it wasn't all black and white in the world Right. Just camera footage. Okay. but my You're like five years old realizing that.
00:06:42
Speaker
But um that's the same thing where you hit a point in your life as you're growing up where you're like, wait, I've lived through a decade now where i I'm fully conscious of what's happening or multiple decades and I see how the decades evolve.
00:06:55
Speaker
Right. from the first couple of years to the end, they're like unrecognizable. Yeah. And the eighty s do not escape this. like they There's a wide range of things that happened. And it's also like East Coast, West Coast, and the center of America is very different. And like international stuff is very different.
00:07:13
Speaker
And you can kind of point at it and go 80s. But unless you know the differences, I can understand it being a little bit hard going specifically what year, but like, yeah The character of Lisa in this really does go on this character-finding-herself journey.
00:07:29
Speaker
And that is very much um visualized with her
Costume and Cultural References in Lisa Frankenstein
00:07:34
Speaker
costumes. And so it's like she... Bellatrix Lestrange. She really does end up being... It's kind of like a a Madonna-esque journey fashion-wise where she like ends up with a bunch of tool and like this like manic pixie goth girl yeah kind look. Yeah, the red lipstick. And just like the sunglasses inside, like all this stuff that is really great and really cool and really fun.
00:08:01
Speaker
And it's totally like Winona Ryder-esque like in Tim Burton stuff for us. Yeah. Like yeah it's it's very fun. I think i've read ah I read a couple like snippets of interviews with ah with ah Zelda Williams and with the production designer, and they both referenced Tim Burton specifically as being an inspiration point for like certain aspects of the movie. I feel like that comes through very strongly.
00:08:31
Speaker
It's not subtle. um like it's right there. um But yeah, it is always kind of interesting to see, like, when you get enough distance from a time period, what survives in the cultural conversation as like, the key images and people and, like, pop culture moments from that decade. And it's like we're we're getting to the point now where...
00:09:00
Speaker
we're starting to see like what is resonating as far like towards us as like the 2000s, like what is still in the conversation from the 2000s, what's still in the conversation from the nineties, what's still in the conversation from the eighties. And so it's like interesting since we've, you know, been alive through all of those different decades to kind of see what, what endures, what lasts. And, uh,
00:09:28
Speaker
I guess for this movie, what lasted was ah like pastel pink seashell lamps. Yes. Oh, my God. That makes me immediately think of grandma's like grandma houses. Yes. Just the seashell lamps everywhere. Very Golden Girls-like.
00:09:45
Speaker
Oh my God. There's like, okay. so yes, so Janet is the stepmother. Okay. Just to, so we gave you the synopsis, but spoilers ahead.
00:09:56
Speaker
So Lisa is, do you want to say like 17? No, she's 17, 18. Yeah. Cause she's in her final year of high school. um And previously her mother was murdered by an ax wielding murderer who was wearing a mask. So she was like hiding in the closet and has been traumatized, obviously, by this event.
00:10:18
Speaker
Six months later, her dad, who is played by the actor who plays the dad in Stranger Things, Mike Wheeler's dad, who goes, what did i do What did I do? Because he's such a terrible dad. Yeah.
00:10:31
Speaker
He's a terrible dad in this, too. He has that down to a perfect, like, he's the perfect, like, disengaged dad who has no idea what's happening his family. He's got it. Except that he's, like, super dialed in to the stepsister, Taffy.
00:10:44
Speaker
Yeah. And um who is kind of, like, styled, like, Phoebe Cates, like, Fast Times. Yeah. And um ah so he he marries this new woman, Janet, six months after his wife has been grew like horrifically murdered.
00:11:00
Speaker
Insane. And moves his daughter to a new town, new community, moves her in with this family of this woman and this other young woman. And they're all expecting her to just like be happy. And she's like...
00:11:15
Speaker
And it's I think it's worth mentioning that Janet is a nurse at a psychiatric facility. Janet is Nurse Ratched. Literally, she is Nurse Ratched. She's Nurse Ratched.
00:11:25
Speaker
And so like she is horrible. And immediately we find her just hating Lisa. like Lisa is a blemish on her new perfect life. And so anytime anything happens, like she literally says, ah your father wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I knew.
00:11:44
Speaker
I knew it was you. ah Just like, is this horrifically passive aggressive, terrible woman and is constantly threatening Lisa with, you know, if people don't fall in line and don't follow the rules, they go to the loony bed.
00:11:57
Speaker
Her daughter, Taffy, or Yeah, Taffy. yeah She is like this really pretty girl who's like charismatic and sweet and is actually really trying to like be a good sister and like get to know Lisa. actually liked Taffy. like She's obviously kind of living in this sort of like pretty person bubble where like yeah where everything works out for her. Yay! Everyone likes her, but she is a nice person. Yeah. And she takes Lisa for who Lisa is. And she's like, she
Character Interactions and Comedy in the Film
00:12:30
Speaker
could say things that are horrible. Like some of her lines, depending on how they're delivered, could have been horrible, but she actually means them.
00:12:36
Speaker
Like she was Miss Hawaiian Tropic or something. And she's like, my I swore as Miss Hawaiian Tropic that I would look after those less fortunate. So you can use my tanning bed. Yeah.
00:12:48
Speaker
And she like means it, though. She's like, I just want you to look healthy and like be happy and come with me to this party and have a nice time. The translation of the like, Dr. Frankenstein, like...
00:13:00
Speaker
um bed with the lightning rods into the tanning bed is brilliant like where like i couldn't i i was like in awe of like that translation and connection i was just like this is yeah so funny of like a tanning bed that has a weird quirk to it where it'll electrocute you and we find that out the night that lisa's going to this party This house party with Taffy and she gets electrocuted in the tanning bed.
00:13:28
Speaker
And it's just like a throwaway line like, oh, sorry that it electrocuted you. Yeah, oops. Oh, well. And then for Lisa to like, use the the kind of byline of this tanning bed by Hawaiian traffic Tropic that it like, brings you to life or whatever, to like...
00:13:46
Speaker
take this corpse who's been reanimated while she spiked on PCP. Like I can't even remember how that happened because this movie is a fever dream. um with movement she get a trip but Yeah. She like drinks this beer that spiked with PCP and she's like stumbling through this bachelor's grove that she goes to regularly while she's trying to walk home because the party becomes like way too much for her.
00:14:08
Speaker
And there's a storm and, A green ball of lightning in the sky. yeah And it like awakens the corpse of this bachelor who has this memorial that is very striking and romantic to her. And then he like breaks into her house and he's just a disgusting. thing Worms and trying to like tackle her. And it's terrible. And he can't talk because he doesn't have a tongue. Like, of course. Yeah.
00:14:36
Speaker
He's looking pretty good, though, for a corpse presumably as old as he's meant to be in 1989. It is Cole Sprouse after all. it's like he's got more flesh than I would think and hair.
00:14:50
Speaker
ah he's ah Yeah, I mean, like he's gray, but he's not. yeah He's not like key parts but giant holes in his flesh or anything like he's he's pretty intact.
00:15:02
Speaker
And um so he comes up and she's just like immediately talking to him like he's an annoying golden retriever that like came into her house and like shit on her carpet. just This is just such a bonkers like attitude where this does feel very like the magic of this is insane where it's like in Frankenstein, another Frankenstein movies that we've seen when the monster...
00:15:26
Speaker
is revealed to people who have never seen him before. We either see that characters are trying to extend a kindness because they think, depending on the monster's design, that he is somebody who's been through a horrific accident or they're immediately like full of terror. And like this is a movie in which the doctor intended to bring this corpse back to life.
00:15:49
Speaker
right In Lisa Frankenstein, it kind of happens by accident. Yeah, unknowingly. She does not... She did not intentionally bring him to life. She brings him further towards a healthier self because of this magical tanning bed.
00:16:02
Speaker
But like immediately she sees him and she's not, she's like scared because she thinks it's a home invasion, which she's already experienced. Yeah. But she's not like, ah, you're the most disgusting, crazy thing I've ever seen. She's like, ah, it's almost like this is happening again. ah Like you kind of smell and you need to take a shower like that. Yeah. Like he breathes in her face and she's like, ah, ah, ah,
00:16:24
Speaker
I also, so um I'm sure that we will get to it anyway, but I just, I need to bring it up now that um that she is, ah we are We are shown early on that she has sewing skills. She is a seamstress at a dry cleaner.
00:16:41
Speaker
And she is going to use her sewing skills to like stitch the body parts onto him. And just thought that was delightful. love woman with a trade. love a woman with a skill.
00:16:53
Speaker
i also love the use of the giant metal sewing machine as like a blunt force object to to harm Janet. That was... Okay, let's talk about Janet a little bit more. So like, obviously, we could go through the prop ah the the whole story of the of the movie.
00:17:10
Speaker
um Words are hard for me. Welcome to our podcast. um But you are so correct to talk about like, the things that we're supposed to talk about, delivering costumes.
00:17:23
Speaker
So Janet is very much She kind of reminds me, I think, of like my kindergarten teacher in 1990 something where Janet has a couple outfits, I think, that are like really, really large size prints of like fruit or flowers. yeah And she's got like a specific red shade of lipstick.
00:17:43
Speaker
And then, you know, this makeup look that is very Intense is not right because there are way more intense periods in the 80s. I think it's the actress's eyes that make it intense.
00:17:57
Speaker
But she's like very much this, I feel like middle America, like I'm an attractive woman who married like a car salesman, you know, and like I have to have the perfect outfit for my Christmas photo shoots and like...
00:18:10
Speaker
My face always sits in like the correct pose. But as soon as the camera's gone, I'm going to rip you to shreds because I just don't like you. Type A nightmare person, in my opinion. And like anybody. is who Everything is perfect. And if anybody doesn't follow through, then you are absolute trash and garbage. And she's like got this intensity. The actress is performing her. So like every outfit is like elevated by how she's wearing it. Oh, my God. Yeah.
00:18:37
Speaker
Her exercise outfit to like walk around the house in the morning and like eat her. like Her diet plate. Oh my God. Her diet plate. And isn't it like a braided sweatband something that's over her forehead?
00:18:48
Speaker
Three different colors, but like the okay color blocked like leotard with the fucking leg warmers. Like it's so good. so there was a color blocking moment that I, if I had actually been watching this with my like my grown up brain on, be able to verify this.
00:19:05
Speaker
But, um, the The evening... scene where Taffy in the beginning of the movie where Taffy has her hair in curlers, the dad is in this like blue, pink, and like another dark color, like purple plaid shirt.
00:19:24
Speaker
And then Janet is wearing a very specific dress. There's like, those colors are present kind of throughout the scene. And I thought I might be wrong, but I thought that the curlers that Taffy is wearing were the same colors present on the dad's shirt. Um,
00:19:39
Speaker
problem And then, like, might also be present on Janet's dress, like, yeah in one of those nice little ways to isolate Lisa, because she's not at all wearing the same things, and she's just different.
00:19:51
Speaker
um And meanwhile... There's really, really strong ah thread throughout the movie of pink and turquoise. Like, it is...
Color Design and Environment Contrasts
00:20:00
Speaker
Like very much the design of the movie is like oh those two colors together. There's actually a picture IMDb of Taffy leaning forward, like right center in the camera lens. And she's got yeah pink curlers or like.
00:20:15
Speaker
like more on the reddish side that they stand out from the walls because the bedroom is pink and the hallway is turquoise. And then her other curlers are all turquoise. So like right up here is like the reddish pink and then turquoise on the sides.
00:20:27
Speaker
It's such a striking color because you can see that those are the colors of the lights, like some of the lights in like throughout the movie. So the lighting is turquoise and pink for the cools and the warms. And then Like the movie poster has those colors. Like it's very tightly done.
00:20:46
Speaker
And like Lisa is frequently wearing reds and things. And then Taffy is wearing a lot of blues and purples to kind of keep them a little bit apart.
00:20:59
Speaker
And then we treat like throughout the movie, as Lisa kind of develops, it transitions into like black. And like the sort of like gothy like thing is such a sharp contrast to the like pastel dreamland like pink Victorian house with the seashell lamps and the soft couch. like it's It's really a nice... like It's a nice cohesive look that like allows for these like really big moments of contrast with the same house and the same yeah like objects around her. It's really nice.
00:21:35
Speaker
It's really strong. And like, depending on the lighting, the rooms and the costumes can go kind of like more towards the purple side or like soften really nicely. But color is very, very important in this movie. And yeah,
00:21:50
Speaker
And the lack of color is also very important. So it's like there's a dream sequence when Lise is coming off the PCP where she's dreaming about the stone bust who is the bachelor who comes to life as the monster.
00:22:04
Speaker
And they're watching like a a silent movie together. And she has this like Marie Antoinette. Like, hairstyle and gown that's very, very graphic so that it makes it look like a doll's dress. It looks and canned painted like Yeah. And it says Pabst on it, doesn't it think it says Pabst Blue. Blue ribbon ribbon like logo on her torso because she was drinking that beer. And I was just like, this is crazy. like Yeah. and she's got like she's got pearls like on her face where tears would be. and it's just like there's there are moments in here.
00:22:40
Speaker
that go beyond just trying to create like an 80s vibe, right? Like there's this kind of goth girl bully who looks really great every time we see her. She's got some pretty fantastic bolo ties and like jacket pins and the hair in this movie is really fun. There's like a popular guy who's trying to be real deep who who Lisa has a crush on and he's got, you know, a leather jacket because of course in the 80s there's a guy you had a crush on who was kind of a bad boy had a leather jacket and And um he edits the literary magazine. Okay.
00:23:15
Speaker
He's deep, like super deep. Yeah. Graphic t-shirt at the party that has like a Nietzsche quote on it. It does. Yeah.
00:23:25
Speaker
And like, there's um really amazing moments of makeup in this movie where Lisa cries and she has blue eyeliner and eyeshadow, I think, but it's like blue makeup on her eyes.
00:23:40
Speaker
And so then when her eyes open, it's all like melted down her face kind of like the crow a little bit like kiss or the crow and um but it's like blue instead of just being straight black and i just like loved that so much because it just like whatever that makeup is too is like that that stuff is taking a long time to come off because she cried she got rained on and she slept and it's still caked on underneath it just moved shifted, that's all.
00:24:11
Speaker
Which does feel a little bit like 80s makeup. um But there's also like you know extras in the movie, like students in the classes who have like great color blocking and like those patterned shirts that you always expect from the 80s and early 90s that are like super bright colors.
00:24:29
Speaker
I just like... I loved. Yeah. There's just like something cool to look at in like every frame. There's so much in it, but it's also so controlled that it, it just is like really rich and like so fun. It's just yeah fun to look at. The skills on display here are awesome because like production design and ah costumes were very much working together to make that happen And I love it when it works. Cause like I'm looking at a still of um Janet sitting at the table, pulling a worm out of her mouth. and She's got the workout gear on and like, she's got headphones on and behind her, you can see the house and like, you would see a house like this and you can, you can feel what year this is from. You really can, because it definitely extended into the nineties, but there's like every wall is a different color.
00:25:23
Speaker
and And there's like wallpapers, there's curtains with textures, there's patterns on the chairs, there's patterns on like everywhere. it and it could clash, but it's so tight.
00:25:34
Speaker
Like it just works so well because everybody really cared about the color story. yeah a um It also has something that every good 80s movie has to have, which is a makeover montage, but in this movie, it's the monster finding an outfit to wear out of her like dad and step-mom's closet.
00:26:00
Speaker
And it was so so funny to be like, well, yeah, obviously we have to have a costume makeover moment, but it has to be like the monster, like stumbling around, just like throwing random clothing on his body until he settles on his personal style to express his personality.
00:26:20
Speaker
Because like that's the thing that I love about these two characters, right? Is in other Frankenstein adaptations, the monster kind of goes either of two ways. One is that he's he's a monster with a mind, but can't communicate because he's like relearning things. And so everything that he's trying to communicate comes out through violence because he doesn't know how to handle his own strength and then discovers that he has strength.
00:26:45
Speaker
And the quickest way to get what he wants is to use the strength. Or we see the monster, the creature um become basically like as smart as the doctor so that he can confront the doctor and be like, you did this and you need to deal with the fact that you did this and that you made me and I'm exactly what you wanted me to be, Papa. um but And in this one, it feels like the creature, we don't know how old he is because I think on his gravestone or the marker, it only says what year he died. right But it's pretty fair to assume that he's around the same age.
00:27:22
Speaker
And um we get this like shadow puppet play at the beginning of the movie that tells the story of The Bachelor and like his heart breaking and All these things. So we we already come in with the knowledge that the creature is just as dramatic as Lisa is. He's such like a... He's like, I'm not going to do that. That's so stupid. bad And he does... Like, Cole Sprouse as the creature never says anything until the end of the movie. Like, everything he's communicating is through grunts and through, like, facial expressions.
00:27:52
Speaker
Yeah. But it's just like, yeah, the whole montage thing for him being like...
00:27:58
Speaker
Yes, it's like like he's wearing like one of her night counts <unk>s like a full on like laura ashley like Like frilly like pink floral with like the big scoop collar plate that we all some some reason had in that. And I can feel that like light fleece that was totally flammable. I can feel what my fingers.
00:28:31
Speaker
Absolutely. And the static charge of it, like, um just like being on your body and how you would like shock yourself if you touch the doorknob, like you could just, it's so gross. And I love that it's just like, for for it works for the character, not only because it's funny, but it's not just...
00:28:49
Speaker
a funny gag. It makes sense for the character because when he was living to go to bed, you'd be wearing a night shirt that would look like that, like depending on what, you know, class or station, but you would have these shirts that were really long that you would tuck into your pants and you could either like wear that to bed or you'd have one just to sleep in. And so it's like, it works.
00:29:12
Speaker
But it is. literally About him when he like later in the movie, And he's in like an outfit that looks sort of Victorian, but he's like made it out of clothes from her dad's closet. So it's like he wants to be in like a period shirt with like cravat and like suspenders, but they're all like stuff from the 80s.
00:29:35
Speaker
That's like trying to mimic that. And I was like, God, that is so... hilarious and like perfect way of like using costumes to be like, this is the type of clothing that this character is comfortable wearing.
00:29:49
Speaker
But these are the only items that he has access to. So he's going to try to make it work for like what he thinks looks good. and for for a creature, for Frankenstein's creature,
00:30:00
Speaker
He has a lot of costumes because like he's in a violent femmes t-shirt with like a
Costume Evolution of Frankenstein's Creature
00:30:05
Speaker
blazer. He's in other cool shirts. I don't know if one of them is Joy Division or not. Yeah, I think it is. And like he's got, yeah yeah, like a cool jacket on. Like he's he's wearing cool stuff in addition to So it's like we're we're seeing his journey as well through costume because he's experimenting with like – trying to be what Lisa wants in addition to being alive again.
00:30:32
Speaker
i'm Like, what is he comfortable in? yeah And it's because like the first, the first costume we see the creature in after he crawls out of his grave and over to Lisa Frankenstein's house is this like,
00:30:45
Speaker
period appropriate for him like frock coat that is just so disgusting and so distressed that like everything he's wearing looks like it's black because it's so caked in like mud and dirt but there's you can still see that there are like different textures like in the collar and the body of the coat and all these things so it's like you're getting ah a hyper fast, like, okay, yeah, he stepped out from a different era to, well, crawled out of a different era into the mud and into the, the night of 1989. It was fun.
00:31:19
Speaker
is one Like visually this, this movie is so much fun. And the fact that, ah Janet, yeah, we did mention that she's Nurse Ratched. She's supposed to leave for like a conference or something in her nurse's outfit.
00:31:31
Speaker
And why Melinda was like, yeah, she is Nurse Ratched is because she comes back to the house yeah and like doesn't tell anybody that she's coming home because she feels unwell because the creature's been poisoning her with like worms. She has radioactive spit or whatever. Yeah.
00:31:47
Speaker
And she's wearing straight up the nurse's outfit that Nurse Ratched would be wearing with that like little tiny sailor nurse hat, which is not correct at all. That's not what it's called. But just no, but the full descriptive.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah, the ultra starched folded nurse hat. Like, I don't know what else to call it. Like no one else wears that hat is a nurse hat. Like, yeah. the only And it's like the red stripe and then the white uniform with like the pin on it, like all these things. And she just like has this intensity that is just absolutely terrible.
00:32:19
Speaker
The dad is like a regular suburban dad. We don't really see him being super cool or anything. He's kind of just supposed to fit in with the house. Like he just... yeah He seems like the ideal man for Janet in that he has no opinions, no authority, no backbone, and only a like a vague awareness of what's going on. like so she 100% in control of the house. like She's not She did not pick him to be like an equal partner in her life. She she picked him to be furniture.
00:32:54
Speaker
To be furniture. Yeah. And he does a great job. He's doing it so well, like just so nicely. Hang it out. There's a scene where like ah Lisa has to take on more shifts at her job at the dry cleaners so that she can pay for the.
00:33:08
Speaker
bathroom mirror that got broken. And she comes home and the other three people are eating pizza and they haven't left anything for her. And I was just like, oh my God. And then the whole conversation is Janet trying to make Lisa feel like shit because she's like, ah Taffy just got back from a three hour cheerleading practice. Oh my God. i sewing Sitting in a sewing machine like an old lady.
00:33:30
Speaker
I wrote the quote down. Say it. I wrote it down word for word. This is what Janet says when Lisa says that she's tired and doesn't want to go to the movies with them. She says, how tiring can it be to sit hunched over a sewing machine like an old lady?
00:33:46
Speaker
and I said, Janet, you don't
00:33:51
Speaker
know. Janet? janet ah fuck Hunched. You use the word hunched. And that she gets murdered with a sewing machine. she gets murdered. The moment she said that, it's unacceptable.
00:34:08
Speaker
i feel deeply insulted. It's very tiring. Also, you have to use your brain a lot when you're sewing. And that takes up energy. And I can tell you right now, coming off ah like many hours of doing some embroidery, your hands hurt.
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah. Your hands hurt. Your back hurts. Your neck hurts. Everything hurts. Janet. Janet. you know We have different jobs. They can all offer pain.
00:34:35
Speaker
Okay. Let's not make a competition of it. Okay. Yeah. Like everyone can be tired. It's okay. Capitalism is ruining us all. Okay.
00:34:47
Speaker
And the reason that they took her ear and sewed it onto the monster, she wasn't using it to listen to fucking anybody. Yeah. And they kept the diamond earring in it that Taffy mentions. She was promised, her mother promised her that when she like perfected a certain backflip or something that she could get these diamond earrings.
00:35:07
Speaker
So the creature has like diamond earring. He's just like, it's getting cooler every day
00:35:16
Speaker
And bloodier because he murders a lot of people. Yeah. But I actually do think the body parts are very intentional. like Oh, they're they're super intentional. And like we see Lisa threading needles. She has glasses specifically for sewing.
00:35:32
Speaker
Here's the thing, though. I'm looking at this still on IMDb. It's the 136th photo out of 168. Okay. Okay. Let me scroll. Because we need to talk about this. We are both glasses wearers.
00:35:44
Speaker
Yes. My eyes are biffed. Most sewists that I know are glasses wearers. It's just for close-ups. Like most, not all, most.
00:35:59
Speaker
um In this shot, Lisa has her glasses at the tip of her nose in the traditional librarian post. The needle is up Parallel to her eyes, which means that she's looking over her glasses at the needle that she is threading.
00:36:18
Speaker
Girl, why are you wearing glasses? It's because you just want to feel fancy while you're sewing. Those glasses aren't necessary for the character. They're just communicating something without actually doing it. That's like something.
00:36:29
Speaker
It's like Ted from How I Met Your Mother where he has to admit that he wears decorative spectacles head. you' like yeah This is the thing that happens in a lot of movies where people have glasses and on stage, people have glasses as stage business or just business for their characters.
00:36:45
Speaker
And the people who are wearing them don't know how to wear glasses. So they treat it like headphones where it's like, it's there, but it's kind of in the way. So like, if you're listening and talking to somebody, you'd move one ear of like the over ear headphones off of your ear, right but they'd still be on your head.
00:37:01
Speaker
People love to a adjust where the glasses are and they are 100% never where they fucking should be, which is on your eyeballs. So people love to like hold it. Oh, let me just tap my teeth with the the arm of these glasses. Oh, I'm just thinking so hard. Let me perch the glasses on top Put them on your eyes. for like I can't can't believe what I'm seeing. I have to take my glasses off and rub them on my shirt and then put them one like put him on your eyes.
00:37:28
Speaker
That's where they go. And so this is just one of those quick little moments that ticks that box for me where I'm like, okay. She just has costume glasses for when she's sewing. That's hilarious. Except for when she's actually at work and we see her with the magnifying glasses.
00:37:43
Speaker
Yeah. And that was pretty fun. me was like, do I need those? Like, maybe. Maybe need those. Let's add them to the collection. You can't wear those magnifying ones with real glass like they're you can't layer them on top of real glasses so the that just it's further evidence that she doesn't actually need yeah glass glasses when she's sewing which whatever it's just being silly goofy but yeah I think if I could have anyone's wardrobe from the movie I think I honestly would pick Janet like I do really vibe with her clothes in the movie like they're so good like
00:38:22
Speaker
They are fantastic. And I know that I could never wear them. but just couldn't do it. Because the shoulder pads, the shoulder pads are so functional and so good.
00:38:34
Speaker
But they would drive me absolutely up the wall. But they are like every single one of her outfits is so strong. And this is true of like everybody, but hers are so, they're specific type of Yes. Yes.
00:38:45
Speaker
yes And like, what I love is that they really, they really did carve out each character very well with what each character wears. And like Lisa borrows Taffy's clothes when she's improving her style.
00:38:58
Speaker
And it keeps being mentioned where Taffy's like, is that my, and Lisa's like, yeah, you said the sisters borrow, you know, each other's things. And she's like, oh yeah, okay. And it's just like really, really delightful seeing these, like, I want to see the closets.
00:39:15
Speaker
yeah of these characters yes like we do get shots of lisa's closet for sure because creature's hanging out in there a lot but it's like i want to see all the i want to i want to see it all in a rack like go through it because how fun would that be too like is that who whose job is that by the way when you have a closet on a set to populate that closet is that wardrobe pulling stuff I don't know. It's such a good question because you would think that you would want it to be wardrobe because they know what the character's clothes are and can provide things in that world, that style, the colors, like you'd think.
00:39:59
Speaker
But... I'm sure that the actual physical act of putting the things in the closet is a set dressing person. So it's like, do they come to wardrobe and say, like, I need to fill in Lisa's closet? Like, can you give me some stuff? Like, yeah what I don't know how that works. Like, i wonder, because that that seems like a lot of like fun. Like for me, that would be a great little job is like, okay,
00:40:24
Speaker
we need we're going to show the closets of these characters, pull stuff. And then it's like, you know, of course, set dressing, they'll handle it. But like, to be able to just like, okay, here's a rack for this person. It's like, it would be fun to know if like some of those are just discards of like things that were tried and then discarded because they didn't suit or whatever. Or if you actually get to go back through racks and be like, here we go. going to populate this character's life.
00:40:50
Speaker
Like those little... I've done plays a few times where they want like a rack of clothes like on stage for like a play. And usually i have collaborated with the prop person to fill that in. But I don't think I've ever done one where it was like, it's this person's closet. I've only done, you know, we need this rack of clothes that's like good.
00:41:14
Speaker
we're doing like a show where we're backstage and we need like the rack of costumes. It looks like a backstage and it yeah always means like something really specific that has like nothing to do with the show that we're doing. Yeah. You have to put on like a Shakespeare costume. That's very obviously from like Titus Andronicus.
00:41:30
Speaker
think Like whenever you have a movie or a TV show where they're on the back lot, there always have to be like cowboys and showgirls and you're like, and Roman soldiers, cowboys and showgirl movies. Like yeah not happening.
00:41:43
Speaker
I just like, Those are moments of collaboration that I really love seeing. And I just like always want to know how did rock out? How did it work? Because like this isn't a massive movie. There's a lot of costumes. So when we're talking about like massive, we're talking about like Marvel's Avengers budget versus the more independent area of the scale.
00:42:06
Speaker
um And so there's like a more there's an intimacy about this movie where it it doesn't feel like super zoomed in and too tight. It just feels like, yeah, we're in a town where a lot of people know everybody. Everybody's listening to everybody else's business.
00:42:21
Speaker
And like these sisters are sharing closets. then the creature is sharing the closet of the dad. Like just, you know, all these different things. And it it feels intimate in that way, which is very cool. And that's a testament to the design that we've talked about with like the color palettes and all those things being very, very unified.
00:42:41
Speaker
Was there anything that like really, really struck out to you? Like you love Janet's wardrobe. Is there like a very specific moment, costume moment that is like your favorite? I'm trying to think if there's anything that we haven't talked about i do think it's um i think we've kind of talked about it but i do think you're right like the specificity of each character is so dialed in that um you really know what people are about just by like the moment that you see them like you can tell so much about their personality um i i thought it was really funny that
00:43:19
Speaker
The sort of girl who really seems to ah hate lisa the most, the like girl at school, looks like someone that should be her friend. Yeah, she looks like a goth an golf girl yeah Yeah. And yet she like really, really hates her. and In the first scene that we see her at the party, I think that she actually says – so she does the the traditional bully thing of like, oh, who are you? And she's like, we share a class.
00:43:44
Speaker
This year? This semester? And she goes, oh Bless. yeah What a power move. Like like this, it's like goth looking girl is the one that says bless.
00:43:59
Speaker
Oh boy. Where are we?
00:44:03
Speaker
ah But it's like, I do think that that true in a way, especially in this sort of like, weird ecosystem of high school, with people's like, personalities and like, issue their own like issues and power struggles and social complex dynamics that like the people that look like they should be your friends often not, you can't count on it.
00:44:30
Speaker
They might not be and they might not hate you. It's kind of like this nice thing of like in costume, of course, we look at clothes and what they tell you about anybody, obviously, right?
00:44:43
Speaker
But like that can work against you. So it's like somebody could dress very put together, very pretty, and they could be a horrible person. somebody could dress like this character as like an alt person, which you would assume would be someone who is familiar with being bullied or being outcast.
00:45:01
Speaker
And they could be the most burner at the stake. Like it's a nice thing when you find this balance of like, I can look at this character and I can see what they're about. And I can look at this character and I can't see what they're about because I'm making assumptions based on the language of everybody else in this movie that I have been able to look at and pick up what they're putting down. And so it's like,
00:45:23
Speaker
I feel like they struck a good balance there where none of it was jarring. Yeah. And none of it felt like, Oh, I'm taken out of the movie or, oh this. And also like none of it felt super stereotyped.
00:45:38
Speaker
Like we do see like cheer cheerleaders in cheer uniforms and we see like gothy alt kids or sporty kids, whatever, but it doesn't feel so stereotyped as like only polo shirts and tight haircuts over here. Like,
00:45:53
Speaker
we have what exists in the natural world, which is like people following style, but also following it kind of comfortably and not super tightly. who Yeah. That's fun. yeah What was your, what's your favorite costume moment? If it's something that we haven't talked about yet. My favorite costume moment is actually at the end of the movie in the very last scene.
00:46:14
Speaker
um So the creature has, like you said, he's like moved into this kind of, dressing in his style, like using the clothes that are available to him. And in the last scene, we see that he has dug Lisa up and he's rehabilitating her.
00:46:32
Speaker
but Yeah. And he's reading, i think it was like, was it like Percy Shelley wrote letters to Mary Shelley, like letters to Mary and something. So he's reading those to her on a park bench and she's dressed like Blossom.
00:46:48
Speaker
Yes. And he is dressed like himself in his shirt sleeves and his like suspenders. But his suspenders are rainbow suspenders. Those were a nod to Robin Williams, Zelda Williams, his father, because I think it was as Mork in Morgan Mindy that he had the rainbow son suspenders.
00:47:09
Speaker
And I loved it for both the nod to Robin Williams, because I thought that was really, really sweet. But I also just love the idea this, like, gothy, undead man has evolved to, like, and I wear rainbows.
00:47:26
Speaker
What about it Like, it's 1990 now, bitch. Oh, God.
00:47:32
Speaker
We're wearing all the colors. i I think it's important to note, and I completely, like, I meant to to talk about this as well. So I'm really glad that this was your
Symbolism in Final Scene Costumes
00:47:41
Speaker
favorite costume moment. Because the fact that Lisa's dressed like Blossom is important, but also important is that her entire body is wrapped in, like, mummy bandages underneath her Blossom outfit. So, like...
00:47:54
Speaker
All of her like ah from like her fingers down to her toes. She's wrapped up like a freaking mummy. And then she's got this like super cute 80s blossom outfit on top.
00:48:06
Speaker
And it was perfection. Yeah, this is a big old hat with like a giant flower set center. like correct in her head And I was like, what what a fun evolutionary step for her fashion from this like murderous um dark Madonna with like the tulle and the statement sleeves, like Stevie Nicks sleeves, like all this stuff.
00:48:30
Speaker
to Yeah, just like sweet, cutesy blossom. And just the idea that the creature is dressing her up in these outfits is just like... Just like these little knots to story like what could be happening here is just like pretty great.
00:48:49
Speaker
So perfect. So I just like love that these two very dark characters have just been killing people and harvesting their bits to like sew on to him. They've achieved their goal. So now they're just going to live.
00:49:02
Speaker
It's really like a happily ever after. it is. And it's like Taffy and ah Dale, her stepdad, Lisa's dad, leave flowers at Lisa's grave.
00:49:13
Speaker
And it says beloved wife on the stone. And then we like, you know, fade out and come up on these two on a park bench. And it's just like, okay, that's, I'm enjoying this.
00:49:27
Speaker
And what a like, i mean, yeah, it's It's fascinating because we've spanned like a hundred years of filmmaking in this like Frankenstein little mini series. And like, we're still...
00:49:45
Speaker
telling that story like in totally different ways. But like I don't think that we'll ever get sick of the like weird reanimated monster creature. like yeah I don't think that that story is going anywhere.
00:50:00
Speaker
still here. yeah yeah because like the the idea of life and death is always going to fascinate us because it's always going to terrify
Exploration of Life and Death Themes
00:50:08
Speaker
us. It's always going to intrigue us. And the idea of someone who can harness life after death is always going to be ah interesting. And it's always going to be interesting to see ethically what that person does with that power that they've either accidentally walked into or that they've created for themselves and mastered.
00:50:28
Speaker
And... using that as like a metric to gauge whether or not we're good or bad people is always going to be ah thing in our stories for sure. Like it's, it's one of those that will always be retold. And I do
00:50:44
Speaker
how it has a femme touch now h where it's not just about the power over life and death. It's, I don't know This life after death is like pretty cute. I kind of want to bone in.
00:51:02
Speaker
It's like, yes, we saw like the male version where – Like with the bride, it's like, I want to overpower you and I want to control you. And then in this one, it is like, Lisa really does treat him like a golden retriever because he so wants to make her happy. And she's like, could you pull yourself together for five minutes? Why are you doing this? And and she's like, wait, you love me?
00:51:27
Speaker
um And she's like, well, yay. Yeah. its She's made an accomplice is what she's done. yeah and so it's an equal. She has found an equal where she could not find anybody else who would ever understand her.
00:51:43
Speaker
And when we've seen the male led Dr. Frankenstein, it's always... About himself. Yeah, he's not interested in an equal. No, he's interested in the power dynamic. yeah And like proving to people that he has this power and he is a god. And Lisa couldn't give two shits about being a god.
00:52:00
Speaker
She wants a boyfriend. Which I have to disagree with the description on IMDb because it referred to the monster as her crush. And I'm like, no, no, no. She has a crush on a living boy for like 90% of the movie. And then at the end kind of realizes, oh, like maybe there is something between me and this creature. Well, we do see her at the very beginning in the bachelor's graveyard and she's like etching names and stuff like that. And she's, she's hanging out. So I think that, I think the description of her crush is wrong. I agree with you.
00:52:31
Speaker
But I think that she has romanticized this dead man because she can see what he looked like because there's a portrait of him yeah carved on his memorial. So I think that she has idealized this character. But like as soon as she sees him, she's like...
00:52:49
Speaker
which is a fair response uh possibly the only fair response yes like in immediately seeing a reanimated corpse i would i would be shocked if someone was like haha so we have not mentioned it yet but the costume designer was megan mclaughlin thank you and um i don't know that i recognize her work Yeah, I don't think I've seen anything else that she has designed.
00:53:17
Speaker
h I was looking at the list and I was like, I know of some of these things. i don't think I've seen any of them. Yeah. And, um but I, I very much enjoy her work here.
00:53:30
Speaker
yeah like her and the the wardrobe department, the hair and makeup department, the lighting, like cinematography, like everybody was doing fun stuff here, like creating this fever dream of neon. and like neand pla well yeah This was just like, I hope that this was a fun project for the team to work on that did.
00:53:55
Speaker
um I always get sad at the idea that folks working in film might feel what we feel, which I'm sure they do, which is burnt out. And so, like, because I don't work in film, I get to reap the benefits of, like, watching something and just enjoying it as what it is and not...
00:54:13
Speaker
immediately thinking of what's happening backstage, like, you know, how hot it is or how hard it is and how much running there is going on and bureaucracy, all this stuff. um But like this, this just felt like a really fun project and it felt like people really put that into it. So I hope that they got that out of it as well.
00:54:32
Speaker
And it was a fun little watch, especially in the context of 2025 Frankenstein.
Season Conclusion and Future Plans
00:54:38
Speaker
Agreed. It could not. i don't think there's a better way to conclude ah this little series. that This is a perfect ending because it's like the happy ending. Yeah.
00:54:51
Speaker
It's the sweet one. where We didn't like break Dr. Frankenstein's neck. instead we We got married and went on a date. I did not see one pitchfork. I did not see one torch.
00:55:03
Speaker
um nope And everybody like they weren't. and the only person who was like afraid or the only people that were afraid of the creature were the people that he was like directly about to murder. Yeah. The, the people that the person that everybody else in town talked about and like feared was Lisa. They were like, she's real weird. like like oh Turns out she was a serial killer. oh no All these things. It was a nice little like flip on the story.
00:55:36
Speaker
and yeah It felt like a good, bright way to end the the summer of Frankenstein. Yeah. Thanks for going on that ride with me.
00:55:48
Speaker
Yeah, I'm glad. I had been wanting to see this movie, but I just hadn't seen it yet. So i was glad that it ah worked out really well for this.
00:55:58
Speaker
We did. Yeah, now we have to, you you know circle up and decide on season four. wo exciting. I've always got ideas, but I feel like every season shift, I'm like, let's do this. And then I go, no, no,
00:56:16
Speaker
don't I know. i know. i have like like we We have our little lists. We have our little ideas. We do we have have some spreadsheets. We've got ideas.
00:56:26
Speaker
Nothing to be announced at the moment, but it is coming. We will let you know when we let you know, friends. How about that? Thanks for listening. Thanks for coming along on this this adventure with us. um It's been a pleasure. So we will see you soon.
00:56:39
Speaker
Yeah. See you then. Bye.