Second-hand bookstore owner, Lisa (Kristen Vaganos), finds herself the victim of a brutal assault at the hands of the local Sheriff and her family. Taken to the woods and left for dead, Lisa’s troubles are far from over after she finds herself attacked by a wolf. As she recovers from her night of violence, she finds herself changing, and discovers the ‘wolf’ that bit her might not have been an ordinary wolf at all. Spurred on by her new found strength and aggression, Lisa begins to reap revenge upon her tormentors.
Essentially, I am Lisa follows the rape / revenge formula, minus the rape, but with the addition of a lycanthropic skew. It’s an interesting pairing of themes. Think I Spit on Your Grave by way of Ginger Snaps; but unfortunately that’s where the interest in the story ends. The story is told deliberately slow, which in itself is not an issue. The problem however, is that there isn’t much story to flesh out the film, so in addition to being slow, there’s not too much to engage with. A slow pace would normally provide the perfect opportunity to get to know all the players of the piece. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen here. Instead, we only learn the headlines about the characters involved, and it feels like a real wasted opportunity. The result is that when Lisa dispatches the first two of her attackers, we hardly care as we know nothing about them. Following the traditional revenge plot means that the first people disposed of are pretty low down the rungs, yet in other films like The Crow, we still knew something about both Tin Tin and Funboy.
What I am Lisa does well is create atmosphere. Most of the film is bathed in a yellow glow, referencing moonlight; the moon being an important facet of a werewolf tale. The rest of the world has been dirtied up, and there is something just a little off that points to it not being our reality that we are watching. Natalia Perez’s score is a fantastic synth-heavy mix that calls up eighties feelings and ethereal vibes. The soundtrack compliments the score, skewing strongly towards hair metal, so expect screaming guitars and pounding drums. Both sides of the music combine to help generate mood, tone, and again reinforce that this isn’t quite our world. As such, the supernatural is now a completely plausible venture.
This isn’t director Patrick Rea’s first film to screen at FrightFest, he debuted Enclosure (also known as Abor Demon) back in 2016. That film was a single location monster thriller set mostly within the confines of a tent in the woods, with only three characters. I am Lisa is a very different venture. Bigger in scale in terms of locations and number of characters, it fails to connect in quite the same way. Obviously, no two films are the same, and Rea shouldn’t be expected to make the same film over and over, but I am Lisa struggles to draw the audience in as he managed to do previously. One of the elements of Enclosure that we praised so highly was the work on the creature designs. With the success of his previous monster designs, I had high hopes for what would be delivered in a werewolf movie, but I was a little disappointed. The transformation was less The Howling, and more Buffy the Vampire Slayer vampires. It’s better than the likes of Teen Wolf and Twilight, but failed to live up to expectations.
Lisa is a character you want to connect to, although given how despicable most of the rest of the characters are, that’s not very hard. Kristen Vaganos does a great job with the role and juggling the two halves of Lisa’s psyche – human and wolf. You can see the struggle for her to resist the urge to exact revenge in such a visceral way, right up until the moments when she caves. She does try and hold out for much longer than most in this predicament. We’re used to seeing that – once a character snaps the levee breaks – they’re just bad. Here, there’s more of an internal battle that remains right up until the very end. Vaganos portrays this inner turmoil beautifully, but it is in the moments when she switches that she really shines. In these moments, she becomes another being, her performance has echoes of Tatiana Maslany; she’s suddenly develops an aura of danger about her, and she laps up the camera focus.
A werewolf story told within the parameters of a rape/revenge story makes for an interesting premise, but I am Lisa fails to capitalise on the potential. Rea’s vision seems less realised than his previous offering Enclosure, but still manages to create atmosphere and drama, just at a slower pace.
I am Lisa was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2020.
I am Lisa
Summary
I am Lisa is accomplished at creating that otherworldly atmosphere that is needed for a werewolf film, but suffers from a lagging pace and under-developed characters.
