If you walked into the theater expecting a standard slasher or a sparkly teen romance, the cast of Lisa Frankenstein probably threw you for a loop. It’s weird. It’s loud. It’s neon-drenched and smells like 1989. Honestly, that’s exactly what Zelda Williams and Diablo Cody were aiming for. The movie isn’t just a tribute to the "Brat Pack" era; it’s a total subversion of it, anchored by a group of actors who clearly understood the assignment was to be as "extra" as humanly possible.
The Core Duo: Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse
Kathryn Newton isn’t a stranger to the macabre. You've seen her in Freaky and Abigail, but her role as Lisa Swallows is different. She’s not just a "final girl." She starts the movie as a traumatized, mute-adjacent teen grieving her mother and ends it as a murderous, lace-wearing visionary. Newton plays Lisa with this jittery, wide-eyed intensity that makes you believe a girl would actually try to "fix" a dead guy with a broken tanning bed.
Then there is Cole Sprouse.
He plays The Creature. For most of the film, he doesn't have a single line of dialogue. He grunts. He groans. He leaks black sludge. Sprouse had to rely entirely on physical comedy and Victorian-era pantomime. It’s a risky move for a lead actor, but he pulls it off by leaning into the "silent film star" aesthetic. He basically plays a puppy that occasionally kills people.
Why Liza Soberano is the Actual Breakout
If you follow Filipino cinema, you already know Liza Soberano is a massive star. But for US audiences, this was her introduction, and man, did she run away with the movie. She plays Taffy, Lisa’s popular cheerleader stepsister.
Normally, the "popular sister" in an 80s movie is a total nightmare. She’s the one who sabotages the protagonist at prom. But Diablo Cody’s script flips that. Taffy is actually... incredibly nice? She genuinely loves Lisa. She wants her to be happy, even if her advice is mostly just "try some glitter." Soberano delivers lines that should be vapid with such earnestness that she becomes the emotional heartbeat of the film. Critics basically spent the entire press tour calling her a scene-stealer, and they weren't wrong.
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The Supporting Players: Parents and Villains
The cast of Lisa Frankenstein rounds out with some heavy hitters in the "hey, I know them" category.
- Carla Gugino (Janet): She plays the "evil" stepmother, but with a suburban, aerobics-obsessed twist. Janet is high-strung, judgmental, and eventually finds herself on the wrong end of some garden shears. Gugino is clearly having the time of her life playing someone so unlikable.
- Joe Chrest (Dale): You probably recognize him as Ted Wheeler from Stranger Things. Once again, he plays a somewhat oblivious dad, but here, he’s trying to navigate a family that is literally falling apart—sometimes limb by limb.
- Henry Eikenberry (Michael Trent): The quintessential high school heartthrob who is actually kind of a jerk. He serves as the "rival" for Lisa’s affections, or at least the object of her initial, misguided obsession.
A Different Kind of Ensemble
What's wild about this cast is how they handle the "Coming of Rage" tone. It’s a horror-comedy, but it’s also a period piece. The actors had to nail the 1989 vibe without making it feel like a parody. Jenna Davis (Lori) and Paola Andino (Misty) fill out the high school hallways, adding to the atmosphere of a world that feels stuck in a John Hughes movie that went horribly wrong.
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The chemistry between Newton and Sprouse is what makes the ending work. Without their weird, gothic bond, the third act would just feel messy. Instead, it feels like a dark fairy tale.
The Experts Behind the Scenes
While they aren't on screen, you can't talk about the cast without the people who shaped their performances. Zelda Williams, making her directorial debut, brought a specific visual flair that influenced how the actors moved. She reportedly had them watch films like Beetlejuice and Heathers to get the rhythm right. And of course, Diablo Cody's dialogue is so specific—full of slang and rhythmic "Cody-isms"—that the actors had to treat it almost like Shakespeare. You can't ad-lib a script like this; you have to commit to the bit.
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If you’re looking to dive deeper into the world of Lisa Swallows and her reanimated boyfriend, your best bet is to watch the "Behind the Scenes" featurettes on the physical release or Focus Features' YouTube channel. They show just how much prosthetic work Cole Sprouse had to endure to look that decayed.
To get the most out of your next rewatch, pay close attention to the background characters in the party scenes. The costume design and the way the extras interact really cement that late-80s "Satanic Panic" era suburban vibe that makes the main cast's weirdness stand out even more.