I AM LISA (2020)

I AM LISA (2020)

Tagline: They thought they killed her. She'll make them wish they had.

(Horror, Thriller, Wait Was That “The Last Man On Earth?”) [R]

Note: This movie did not get an MPAA rating, but I am going to say it would have gotten an [R].

Do you smell like fries? Did you bring me any?

In this one, a sinister Sheriff’s department in a small town run by a mother and son decides to badly beat up a girl named Lisa because she rejected the advances of the Sheriff’s daughter Jessica. Left to the wolves in the woods Lisa is bitten by a wolf but rescued right before she dies by a kindly but weird stranger. It doesn’t take long before Lisa begins to exhibit strange behaviors and power. 

First off I have seen a couple of reviews bashing the acting in this and I actually didn’t have an issue with that. I watch a lot of B-movies so I kind of have an idea of what to expect on a low budget and the talents you can get and this one is not in the “bad acting” range. There are a lot of subtle nods to horror flicks in this, but I think one of my favorite things directors do is self-reference. I think the first time I noticed this was back in the 80s when CHOPPING MALL came out and in one of the scenes there were posters from other movies directed by Jim Wynorski. We have the same kind of thing going on here. 

One thing I have to say is that if you are going to make a werewolf movie, go full werewolf. I don’t care if the werewolf looks like a werewolf or it just looks like a wolf but don’t give me a jacked-out vampire-looking creature and try to tell me it’s a werewolf. That crap might have been fine in the '50s, but come on people. I guess this movie is trying to say she’s a crossbreed, but you can’t go down to Party City and have an effects dude wolf up a wolf costume even more? I mean- there is a scene where Lisa is watching THE WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON from 50 years ago, and that movie has a better werewolf. 

Acting wise Kristen Vaganos does a pretty good job as Lisa. Don’t just take my word for it though. Apparently a lot of other people like her acting too. She has 9 projects coming out as of the writing of this review. Yes most of them are shorts and most are low-budget projects, but she gets a ton of work. I do like Jennifer Seward as Sam in this, but the script is really uneven for her. The opening sequences between her and Lisa give us a playful friendship between the two, but as the film gets more serious her acting gets more emotionless. It’s not Jennifer’s fault, but don’t you write that script giving the friend more of a range of emotions just dealing with not only what Lisa went through but her actions following those incidents? Carmen Anello plays Jessica in this and does a pretty good job just being someone you wouldn’t want to be around. Like most of this cast, she hasn’t been in anything I have seen aside from this movie. Manon Halliburton plays Sheriff Deborah and is very convincing as someone who is just absolutely terrible. She does have some mainstream acting experience showing up in both The Sopranos and Law & Order. None of this cast is going to blow you away, but the performances are more than adequate. 

When it comes to the score the movie is pretty solid, and some of the soundtrack is good, especially at the beginning, but it’s almost like they just gave up after the first 45 minutes and started just allowing any old band to be in the movie. The pacing is pretty good and the story moves along just fine, but the ending is lackluster and predictable. One thing I liked about the movie is that it wasn’t a total downer but a few of the lines at the end are cringe city.

For a middle-of-the-road werewolf movie, if you want to call it that, I AM LISA is definitely not in the top picks, but it’s not in the bottom either. 

This one gets a 3 out of 7. Just Kristen Vaganos's performance alone kept this watchable, so giving it a 2 would be overkill. I nearly gave this a 4, but the lore is shaky and we didn't really get anything we didn't get in films like GINGER SNAPS in the past.

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