Lisa Frankenstein's Liza Soberano Should Be 2024's Next Big Horror Star
Few archetypes typify American life better than that of the high school cheerleader. Our society remains both fascinated and offended by her mere existence; films like "Bring It On" have added legitimacy to competitive cheerleading on ESPN, yet cheerleaders continue to be used as shorthand to indicate shallowness or make someone else seem more interesting; indeed a cultural demigod once sang: 'She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers."
Cheerleader characters have often been treated as untouchable social elites due to their "unreachable social standing and influence", making it easy for audiences to dislike them in movies such as Megan Fox's Jennifer Check from "Jennifer's Body", even though Megan Fox actually played her as a flag twirler and not necessarily cheerleader! At its release, The Spirit Squads star was met with widespread hostility from critics. Such mistreatment is understandable when considering all of the negativity directed towards cheerleaders or women involved with spirit squads in general. Jennifer is not simply evil in high school; rather she represents something much worse - that even without Indie Band failing to sacrifice her and instead inadvertently turning her into a succubus by accident, Jennifer would still be an unpleasant presence to deal with. Though after watching "Jennifer's Body", you quickly realize how complex and multilayered this character really is; still many viewers fall prey to thinking Jennifer is only villainous at face value.
Integrating audiences and making them enthusiastic supporters is no small task, yet "Lisa Frankenstein" star Liza Soberano succeeds effortlessly.
Liza Soberano may not be well known in America, but the Filipino actress known for playing Taffy to Lisa on Girl Meets World has achieved superstar status there. At the 2018 Box Office Entertainment Awards, she was recognized as "Box Office Queen," while PMPC Star Awards for Television recognized her as one of their "TV Queens at the Turn of the Millennium". Soberano has long been celebrated for her talent as an international talent with an enviable resume, boasting roles across comedy, drama and romance films; but genre romp "Lisa Frankenstein" marked Soberano's official Hollywood breakthrough. "Lisa Frankenstein" stands out among all of her films as being her choice to explore this realm, which makes horror fans extremely grateful that it happened. Additionally, its relation with "Jennifer's Body" in how both characters are presented can only serve to validate her original intent for "Lisa Frankenstein".
Soberano provides both an empathic center in Zelda Williams and Diablo Cody's film as well as subverting expectations about cheerleader characters. Taffy may not be perfect stepsister material but she does possess sincere intentions of helping and affirming her new sister despite any differences they might present; yet Soberano really shows her acting chops during the third act when her character collapses into dissociative trauma, producing one impressive scream from Soberano!
Studios should take note: Soberano could make an excellent scream queen just like Jenna Ortega was portrayed to be.
Soberano's impressive work in "Lisa Frankenstein" was highlighted on today's episode of /Film Daily podcast; you can tune into that below:
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