She's lonely. He's perfect. …Give or take a few pieces.
Lisa Frankenstein is a 2024 romantic black comedy horror film written by Diablo Cody and directed by Zelda Williams in her feature-length directorial debut. It stars Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Joe Chrest, and Carla Gugino.
Newton plays Lisa, a lonely, troubled girl who falls in love with a reanimated corpse (Sprouse) and embarks with him on a murderous misadventure of romance and missing body parts. The film was released February 9, 2024.
Lisa Frankenstein includes examples of the following:
- The '60s: While the film is set in the 80s, Janet and Dale's personalities and the design of their home gives off 60s vibes.
- The '80s: The movie takes place in 1989, and has a lot of shout-outs to 80's pop culture.
- '80s Hair: Lisa in particular, has very long curly hair with a lot of volume
- Abusive Parent: Janet is a horrible stepmother to Lisa, undermining the girl's mental state, chalking her up to being a disturbed individual. This is not the case with her biological daughter, who she practically dotes on- though she does repeatedly sharply ask Taffy not to interfere with her lecturing of Lisa.
- Adrenaline Makeover: Witnessing the deaths committed by the Creature, as well as his liking for darker clothes akin to his era, Lisa starts to give herself a more gothic, punk makeover to match the Creature's appearance.
- Advertising by Association: The trailer proclaims the film as being from Diablo Cody, “Acclaimed writer of Jennifer's Body”.
- All the Other Reindeer: Lisa gets no respect or sympathy from anyone, either adults or peers, even those that learn why she behaves the way she does. At one point, Taffy asks her friends if one of them can drive Lisa home after school, and they all go so dead silent that Lisa has to volunteer making her own way home.
- The Aloner: Taffy has to drag Lisa to come out to a house party with her because Lisa would rather stay at home and not interact with anyone.
- An Arm and a Leg: Doug gets his right arm severed by The Creature before getting killed altogether.
- Animated Credits Opening: The opening credits feature silhouette 2D animation telling the origin story of The Creature and how he initially died.
- Asshole Victim:
- Janet was extremely nasty and condescending to Lisa, and also threatened to send her to reform school after striking her in the face. Unsurprisingly, Janet is The Creature's first victim.
- Lisa's classmate Doug, who groped her while she was inebriated and attempted to date rape her, loses his right arm before he is murdered by The Creature with Lisa's aid.
- Back from the Dead: The Creature, though he's missing a few parts. He gets progressively better with additional trips to the tanning bed. The same happens to Lisa in the end.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: During her drugged state, Lisa comes to the cemetery and goes to the creature's tombstone, where she says that she wishes she was with him. Her wish comes true when a lightning storm resurrects the Creature who then comes looking for her. When he indicates that this is what brought him back, she quickly explains that she didn't mean it like that, but rather that she wished she could die after all the humiliation she had just endured.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Lisa tells Taffy that she genuinely appreciates the efforts she made to be close to her and look after her, even if Lisa didn't always respond like she did.
- Berserk Button: Lisa snaps when a mean girl brings up the rumor that she had killed her own mother.
- Betty and Veronica: A popular but generally sweet Taffy is Betty and aloof goth Lisa is Veronica for Michael.
- Betty and Veronica Switch: Gender Inverted. Michael and the Creature can simultaneously fill the roles of Betty and Veronica. At first Michael seems like a safe option in contrast to the undead serial killer, but aside from that the Creature acts like a perfect gentleman towards Lisa. While Michael, despite flirting with Lisa, ends up having secret romance with Taffy.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Doug is a pleasant nerdy film buff who comes to Lisa's aid when she accidentally takes a hallucinogen so he can grope and attempt to date rape her.
- Bitch Slap: Janet gives one to Lisa for talking back to her after the the woman kept insulting her.
- Bittersweet Ending: Lisa has The Creature fry her to death in the broken tanning bed where she conducts her experiments on him after the police come close to implicating her in the murders. Dale and Taffy mourn Lisa, but The Creature is shown to have resurrected her so that they may continue their romance.
- Black Comedy: Loads of it.
- B-Movie: An 80's themed one at that.
- Blaming the Victim: Janet, a nurse who works at a psych ward, blames Lisa's apparent behavior as wanting attention after being put in the spotlight during her mother's death.
- Bluffing the Authorities: Once the Creature's kills start to pile up, Lisa is inevitably questioned by the authorities about the murders.
- The Body Parts That Must Not Be Named: When Lisa realizes the Creature doesn't have a penis, it's clear what she's talking about but she doesn't address it by name.
- Boy Meets Ghoul: The film is about a girl romancing a zombie boy.
- Brick Joke: When the Creature finds a vibrator in the closet, Lisa tells him it’s a back massager. It’s not long before they use it for exactly that.
- Broken Bird: Lisa at the beginning of the film. Witnessing her mother's death, being ostracized at her new school and enduring Janet's vebal abuse have turned her into a withdrawn and deeply unhappy person. She starts to get better as she befriends The Creature and confronts her fear of death.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Averted. At her job, Lisa's boss brings up how she is always being able to work on Saturdays. He chalks this up to the girl not being able to get a date, before making a comment about her being flat-chested.
- Bystander Syndrome: Crossing over with Adults Are Useless:
- Some neighbors who are sitting on their lawn reading while Lisa is screaming bloody murder as the Creature chases her across their lawn don't even bother to look up to see what is going on.
- Later, Taffy is on the side of the road covered in blood and clearly traumatized but a man driving by slow enough to clearly see her doesn't even give her a glance and keeps driving.
- Chekhov's Gun: It's established early on that Lisa has a tanning bed that's faulty and electrocutes anyone put in it. She figures out how to use this to reanimate body parts sewn onto the Creature, as well as immolate herself at the climax.
- Chekhov's Skill: Lisa's skills as a seamstress comes in handy when it comes to attaching new body parts to the Creature.
- Condescending Compassion: Janet, who is a pysch nurse of all things, treats her stepdaughter with contempt in light of the girl's past trauma of losing her mother.
- Confidentiality Betrayal: Played for Laughs toward the beginning of the movie in the service of exposition. Lisa and her new stepsister Taffy go to a Wild Teen Party, and one of Taffy's fellow cheerleaders asks why Lisa has been so reclusive and shy. Taffy remarks that she not only "pinkie swore" that she wouldn't talk about Lisa's Dark and Troubled Past, but that she's legally forbidden from discussing it...and then goes ahead and blabs the secret anyway (Lisa's mother was murdered by an axe-wielding maniac during a home invasion, and Lisa was Forced to Watch as she hid in a closet). The flashbacks to that night are intercut with shots of more and more people gathering to listen to Taffy share the story.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Lisa gets progressively desencitized to murder the more time she spends with the Creature. However, after he kills Michael, Lisa considers killing him for brief time but can't bring herself to actually do that. And instead they use the little time they have left (before the police gets to Lisa) to consumate their "marriage".
- Covert Pervert: Lisa of all people. When woken up by Taffy, she is embarrassed to find her hand in her pants, though Taffy assures her that everybody does that some point. Later, when the Creature finds a back massager in her closet, Lisa tells her he probably wouldn't want to touch that. Later, when he uses it to massage her back, she tells him that he can use it somewhere else, implying that she regularly uses it to pleasure herself.
- Cramming the Coffin: Downplayed. Lisa and the Creature dispose of Janet's body (and possibly of Doug's) by placing them in his grave, which opened during the storm.
- Creepy Loner Girl: Lisa plays this in the beginning starting out as a secluded young woman that is drawn to macabre and dark stuff.
- Cute and Psycho: Lisa becomes this as she and the Creature start getting closer, as she begins taking a liking to wearing dark and gothic clothing and more comfortable with the killing he commits, even luring a victim to him.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Not that she was mean, but Lisa was very cold and distant towards those around her even her own family. Her interactions with the Creature has her begin to open up, sharing her love for music, movies, and shows.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Averted for the most part, interestingly. Although it's set in 1980s America, the film takes a color-blind and generally identity-blind approach to things. For example, Taffy is played by a mixed-race actress from Southeast Asia, but there's no acknowledgment at all of Taffy being non-white or whatever struggles she might face because of it. The blonde, white, skinny Lisa is bullied by people of various types, such as a Black girl and a plus-sized girl.
- Disposing of a Body: After the Creature unintentionally kills Janet and takes her ear, Lisa tells him that they have to hide her body, otherwise they will be caught by the authorities. They end up putting the body in the an empty plot in the cemetary. It is implied that they do this to Doug.
- Disproportionate Retribution: All Lisa has apparently done is break a mirror and some figurines, acting out to be sure but at least understandable given it's only been half a year since the gruesome murder of her mother. Janet however has no sympathy and vilifies her as an ungrateful psycho that needs to be institutionalized, and struck for protesting.
- Drives Like Crazy: Since he is from the Victorian era, it takes a while for the Creature to operate a car.
- Ear Ache: The Creature's body is intact, but among its missing appendages is its left ear, which it is ashamed of not having. Later, after spontaneously killing Janet to protect Lisa, the Creature makes use of the body by cutting of Janet's ear and has Lisa reattach it for him.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The Creature, especially once he starts to look more human. By the very end of the film, however, he regains a normal human skintone.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: While Janet was indeed a horrible and nasty woman, she was able to get remarried to Lisa's father. Taffy, her daughter, was absolutely worried sick about her disappearance, making clear that she did love her, despite how the woman treated Lisa.
- Everyone Has Standards: While she did indeed love her mother and was distraught about her disappearance/death, Taffy would at least try to stand up to her for Lisa's sake, and openly said that the woman is indeed a stuck-up bitch.
- Evil Makeover: Lisa slowly starts to wear more black and darker themed clothes. She's also implied to get much more attractive as she embarks on a killing spree.
- Evil Matriarch: Well, evil might be pushing it, but Janet was an absolute horrible stepmother to Lisa.
- Faking the Dead: A strange case as they did die, but Lisa immolates herself in her faulty tanning bed to escape being arrested, but also reanimated by the same process to be with the Creature.
- Failed a Spot Check: While they successfully managed to get Janet's dead body out of the home and into the cemetary, Lisa and the creature forgot to clean up her blood from the carpet in Lisa's bedroom. Lisa has to keep a concerned Taffy from spotting it when she comes into her room to tell her about Janet's disappearance.
- Final Girl: Subverted with Taffy. Mainly because they tend to be the the protagonists, and Taffy herself isn't one. Although Taffy does have sex and one morally questionable thing towards Lisa, she was never targeted by Lisa (the Creature made an attempt to kill her but was stopped by Lisa). Mainly because Lisa acknowledged her well-meaning intentions.
- The Finicky One: Janet is this.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Lisa arrives at Michael’s house, she charges inside too quickly to notice something that the Creature does: Taffy’s car is parked outside. Sure enough, they’re upstairs in bed together.
- For Your Own Good:
- Taffy takes it upon herself to bring Lisa to the party with her, reminding her stepsister that her doctor advised her to engage in social situations.
- In a negative light, Janet uses this justification to try to get Lisa placed in an asylum when the girl's alleged acts destroy a few of her cherished belongings.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Janet says that she refuses to coddle Lisa, because her father didn't coddle her. Subverted in that Janet is transparently rationalizing her callous behavior towards Lisa.
- Friendless Background: Lisa doesn't appear to have any friends outside of her adoptive sister. She mentions how moving to her current home when her dad married Janet, forcing her to leave her school and friends behind.
- Friendlessness Insult: A few people make jabs at Lisa's lack of social life or friends. Her own boss even jokes how she is always available on Saturday and is surprised when a guy that comes into his shop knows her.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Used frequently, most memorably Doug's death and The Creature severing Michael's penis.
- Groin Attack: The Creature severs Michael’s genitalia with the axe and has Lisa attach it to his own body so that they can have sex.
- Henpecked Husband: Lisa's Father never had a chance against a harridan like Janet.
- Hourglass Plot: As The Creature becomes more human, Lisa becomes more violent and ruthless, culminating in The Creature becoming completely alive-looking again and regaining his voice around the time he resurrects a monstrous, voiceless Lisa.
- Hypocrite: Janet is a nurse in a psych ward but is repeatedly shown to be callous and dismissive of Lisa's trauma, all the while presenting herself as an "intuitive person" that's full of empathy.
- Insane Troll Logic: Janet thinking that Lisa put a worm in her food makes zero sense considering the girl was at school, and Janet even prepared the food for herself.
- It's All About Me: Janet's entire screentime focuses on things about her, down to blaming Lisa for own distress. When Lisa explains that an intruder attacked her in the home while they were gone, Janet was more focused on her broken knick-knacks than Lisa's current state. She's shown at one point listening to a tape during the day that preaches about how empathic people like her feel so much and need to be on the look out for "emotional vampires" that will exploit their empathy, an obvious self-centered mindset there.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Janet is a horrid and conceited woman, her statements about Lisa's behavior does have weight, considering some of Lisa's actions has caused some damage to the home.
- Karma Houdini: Although Lisa (and possibly the Creature) is targeted by the police for the murders, she never really faces any punishment as she is presumed dead by the end of the film.
- Karmic Death: All the victims of Lisa and the Creature lose the body parts with which they mistreated Lisa.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Taffy and Lisa, respectively. The former is a bubbly, popular cheerleader, and the latter is a moody social outcast who loves horror movies and hangs out in a cemetery.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: The Creature was reanimated by a freak strike of green ball lightning to his grave. Further, body parts sewn onto him as he's electrified by Lisa's faulty tanning bed also reanimate and work perfectly.
- Looks Like Cesare: The Creature in the middle stages of his revitalisation: raven black hair, dark circles around the eyes and pale skin.
- Love Triangle: The Creature is in love with Lisa, who has a crush on Michael instead. Additionally, Lisa and Taffy have both been vying for the affections of Michael, who begins a secret relationship with the latter. This all ends with Lisa choosing The Creature after he kills Michael for her.
- Missing Mom: Lisa's biological mother was murdered by an unknown killer a year before the events of the movie.
- Must Not Die a Virgin: Lisa bonds with the Creature one night about the concept of dying on this subject. She states that she herself is not afraid of death, but dreads the idea of dying without having had sex with someone she loves. Once it becomes clear that it will only be a matter of time before the police piece them together with Janet's death, she decides to throw caution to the wind, and go to meet her crush to have sex with him.
- Never Trust a Title: As the title of Frankenstein came from Victor Frankenstein, the title implies that Frankenstein is Lisa's surname. It's not; in-universe, it's The Creature's surname, though in the end, she becomes his wife.
- Never Trust a Trailer:
- Trailers and posters for the film imply that Lisa falls for The Creature instantly and is trying to "build a perfect boyfriend" by killing people and stealing their body parts to attach them to him. While The Creature is in love with her from the moment of resurrection, she is justifiably disgusted with the idea of being romantically involved with a rotten, smelly corpse. The "killing and stealing the body parts" plot has little to do with romantic attachment and more to do with disposing of people who have wronged her while also making The Creature she has befriended whole. They do eventually fall in love, but only after additional trips to the tanning bed result in him becoming much closer to a traditional human in terms of looks and mannerisms.
- The trailers also make it seem like it's simply an oddball rom-com. In fact, it's a horror movie. A quirky one with a somewhat lighthearted tone, but still very much a horror movie in which the protagonist and her Love Interest kill a bunch of people, and it is shown as genuinely horrifying. It even culminates in the titular Lisa letting herself be fried to death because the police are looking for her after she's murdered/helped murder several people.
- Taffy's role is severely underplayed in the trailers.
- Nice Girl: Lisa's stepsister Taffy. Despite being the daughter of the uptight and narcissistic Janet, Taffy is a down-to-earth, friendly, and kind young girl who avoids falling into all classic 80s cliches in young teenagers. Lisa gives her a note saying that upon meeting her, she thought Taffy was going to be one of these, and was glad that she was wrong.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Lisa witnesses The Creature brutally kill Michael, her crush who's been in a Secret Relationship with her sister Taffy. She's horrified, but only because she didn't want The Creature to hurt Taffy. After she makes sure that Taffy is physically safe, Lisa expresses how much she loves what The Creature did and shares her first kiss with him.
- No Name Given: "The Creature" is only ever credited as such, and Lisa never finds out his name or gives him one. His gravestone at the beginning of the film only shows "-ein" as the last few letters of his surname.
- No Sympathy: Janet acts indignant at the thought of showing any compassion towards Lisa, who was victim of a home invasion that left her overhearing her mother's gruesome murder, calling it coddling while becoming increasingly hostile when it seems like Lisa is acting out. She acts more distraught that her figurines got smashed than Lisa relived her trauma during another home invasion. This culminates in her irrationally blaming Lisa after finding a worm in her food and planning to have her committed, striking her when Lisa protests.
- Not Afraid to Die: Lisa brings up that she is actually not afraid of death. She is however afraid of the idea of dying without experiencing the chance at having sex with someone she loves. the end of the film shows her having sex with the creature, before getting into the tanning bed and instructing him to put on the high setting so that it kills her. She does not scream or make any sound as she burnt alive by the flaming tanning bed.
- Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: When Janet isn't acting put upon for dealing with Lisa and her job at the psych ward, she spends her afternoons listening to affirmations on her headphones, working out, and eating health products. She acts haughty towards door-to-door salesmen for even suggesting she needs their products to improve her household, as she believes she does an excellent job all by herself.
- Off to Boarding School: Janet wants to send Lisa off to boarding school, and wants to have her committed after the worm incident.
- Only Friend: Lisa's only real friend is her stepsister, Taffy.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Nowadays it's quite rare to see a zombie resurected by electricity. The biggest differences are that the Creature doesn't need to eat human flesh (although he uses it in some other ways) and that his mind is adequate. Not to mention that by the end of the film he regains his human appearence.
- Outlaw Couple: Of a sort. Lisa and The Creature are ultimately responsible for three murders, although Lisa is only an active participant in one of them. In any case, she doesn't seem to mind too much.
- Paranormal Romance: Played with. While The Creature is interested in Lisa from the moment of resurrection, she insists that she doesn't reciprocate his feelings and has eyes for Michael. She comes around to him eventually.
- Parental Favoritism: Janet does not show any love towards Lisa, even mocking her for her job as a seamstress, while doting on her biological daughter Taffy for being an accomplished cheerleader.
- Parental Neglect: Lisa's father does very little to stick up for Lisa when Janet is trying to undermine the girl.
- Perky Goth: Even after undergoing a darker outlook and appearance, Lisa remains very perky and cheery girl.
- Playing the Victim Card: Janet accuses Lisa of this for seemingly acting out over her mother's death, but it's clear that all her whining about how she has to suffer from Lisa's behavior is her framing herself as sympathetic while she's cruelly being callous.
- Pom-Pom Girl: Taffy is a member of the high school cheer squad.
- Progressively Prettier: The Creature starts out looking and moving exactly like you'd expect a corpse that's been buried for a very long time to do so, if relatively well preserved. As he gets more grafts and has them reanimated by Lisa's tanning bed, he develops a livelier appearance and more agility until he looks almost indistinguishable from the living.
- Pun-Based Title: While the title does refer to Lisa and her Frankenstein-adjacent escapades, it's also a portmanteau of Frankenstein and Lisa Frank, an artist known for her hyper-cutesy aesthetic in the late 1980s and mid 1990s.
- The Quiet One: Lisa is this, having become shy and quiet following her mother's murder. She is actually aware that she is this, as she notices that she has said more in her conversation with the Creature than with anyone else.
- Rage Against the Reflection: Making it home after feeling humiliated at the party, Lisa smashes her reflection in the bathroom. She gets it from Janet for it in the morning.
- Resentful Guardian: Janet makes it very clear that she does not like having Lisa as a stepdaughter due to the girl's trauma of losing her biological mother having a lasting effect on her behavior.
- Rule of Three: Lisa helps The Creature obtain three new body parts over the course of the film: an ear from Janet, a hand from Doug and a penis + testicles from Michael.
- Sealed with a Kiss: Intending to lure Doug into the cemetary so she and the Creature can take his hand, Lisa writes a love letter to ask if he likes her before leaving a Lipstick Mark at the top of the letter.
- Secret Relationship: Taffy and Michael. It doesn't go well when they're finally discovered by Lisa and The Creature.
- Shared Universe: Diablo Cody declared that Lisa Frankenstein is set in the same universe as Jennifer's Body, although the two films don't overlap in any way.
- Shout-Out:
- When Lisa's stepmother comes home early, she shouts "Dammit! Janet!"
- Multiple usage of the Moon with a face from A Trip to the Moon, most often it can be seen on the closet in Lisa's room.
- Lisa's haircut in her dream sequence look's somewhat reminiscent to Bride of Frankenstein.
- Speaking of Frankenstein, Lisa is a short form of Elisabeth/Elizabeth, which is the name of Victor Frankenstein's fiancée in Mary Shelley's novel.
- Lisa is watching Day of the Dead (1985), when the Creature breaks into her house.
According to Zelda Williams the Creature himself is an homage to Bub (who can be seen on the TV screen), one of the most well-known sympathetic portrayals of zombie. - The only words pronounced by the Creature are the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley "To Mary".
- The way Lisa and the Creature are seated on the bench at the end is reminiscent of the last shot of Notting Hill.
- The Shut-In: In the first half, it is clear that Lisa only leaves the house to go to school or work. She even turns down on the offer to go see a movie with Taffy and their parents.
- Spoiled Sweet: Taffy, while a tad bit condescending, is otherwise incredibly sweet and is excited to have a new father and sister in her life, going out of her way to help and protect the latter. Even after the climax of the film which leaves her traumatized, she still mourns Lisa and brings flowers to her grave.
- Suddenly Voiced: The Creature is shown in the final scene reading a poem to a resurrected Lisa, as well as appearing fully human again.
- Starving Artist: It's implied that in his original life, The Creature was an impoverished pianist.
- Stink Snub: Lisa is utterly disgusted whenever the Creature cries, as apparently his tears smell like "a hot toilet at a carnival".
- Textile Work Is Feminine: Lisa has a part time job as a seamstress.
- Together in Death: Literally. After getting into the tanning bed at a high setting, Lisa roasts herself alive so she can be with the Creature forever. The final scene shows her now a resurrected zombie like the creature, wrapped in bandages while he reads to her.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Lisa becomes progressively meaner as the film progresses.
- Tragic Keepsake: Lisa carries her mother's rosary beads but finds it too morbid to wear them. She places them in the bust of the Creature's gravestone, and him returning them to her is how she recognizes him. She later gifts them to Taffy when she goes to confront the Creature after he castrated Michael. Taffy is still wearing them after Lisa's apparent death.
- The Unfavorite: Lisa is this to her stepmother Janet, who looks down on her as a problem that belongs in a reform school.
- Unsuspectingly Soused: In an attempt to fit in at a party, Lisa downs an entire cup of beer she didn't know was spiked. She spends the rest of the night disoriented and hallucinating her travel between locations, after almost getting date raped at the party, but manages to make it home alright.
- Wicked Stepmother: Janet, who married Lisa's father after the murder of her mother, is nothing but rotten to Lisa and sees her as the cause of many problems.
- Wild Teen Party: The film opens with Taffy bringing a reluctant Lisa to a party at one of their classmates. In terms of wildness, it is pretty low-key, though there is drinks spiked with drugs that Lisa accidentally drinks, and she almost gets date raped while impaired.
- Would Harm a Child: Janet gets violent with Lisa when the girl finally starts standing up to her, going as far to slap her across the face for talking back to her.
- Yandere: The Creature is a Dogged Nice Guy through out most of the film. Although he is not super jealous or possessive, he never hesitates to kill those who wronged Lisa (including his romantic rivals).
