“Lisa Frankenstein”: Diablo Cody returns with 1980s-set horror comedy
Kathryn Newton plays a goth girl who puts a Victorian corpse (Cole Sprouse) back together in Oscar-winning writer Diablo Cody’s “Lisa Frankenstein.”
Spoiler alert! We’re discussing important plot plots and the ending of “Lisa Frankenstein” (in theaters now), so beware if you haven’t seen it yet.
“Lisa Frankenstein” puts a 1980s goth twist on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” mythos, complete with young love, rampant murder, reattached body parts, broken tanning machines and even a happy ending. (Well, kind of, depending on how you look at it.)
Written by Oscar winner Diablo Cody, the horror comedy follows social misfit Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) as she meets her Mr. Right, a Victorian-era corpse (Cole Sprouse) who emerges from his grave missing some key appendages. (Lisa uttering, “I wish I was with you” at his tombstone and a well-timed lightning strike are enough to make a little freaky rom-com magic.)
She takes care of him and gains self-confidence, and he kills some folks – including Lisa’s wicked stepmom (Carla Gugino), her handsy lab partner and her high school lit-mag crush. They use the aforementioned tanning bed, which electrocutes you if you get in it, to attach a new ear, hand and, yes, male sex organ in his much-needed makeover.
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Lisa finds love with this caring cadaver but pays the price. After losing her virginity to her undead beau – and with the police closing in on her because of all the murder – Lisa decides it’s time to fulfill her original wish and join her man permanently in death. She gets in the tanning bed and turns it up to “Max Bronze” level, killing her and also torching the shed it’s in.
Lisa’s dad (Joe Chrest) and traumatized stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano) are seen mourning at her gravesite, where Taffy notices “beloved wife” strangely inscribed on the tombstone. The scene quickly switches to a park bench where the Creature, looking totally normal and dapper now, reads from a book of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley – specifically “To Mary,” dedicated to his wife – as a bandaged Lisa listens wordlessly.
The film “always ended with Lisa’s demise,” Cody says. “After the events of the movie, there was really no way to exonerate Lisa and return her to the land of the living. I knew where it was headed: self-immolation in the tanning bed.”
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Does ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ have a post-credit scene?
Nope! But Cody reveals that the original “Lisa Frankenstein” ending was a little different: Initially, the final moments were supposed to have another young person tending to Lisa’s grave and taking the same role for her that Lisa had with the Creature. “This sort of continuing cycle of grief and resurrection is what I implied,” Cody says.
Director Zelda Williams instead suggested that audiences “would want to see Lisa and the Creature reunited at the end,” Cody recalls. “She had the beautiful idea for him to be reciting the poem.”
Whether Lisa and the Creature have their happily ever in the real world or the afterlife is up for interpretation. “I love leaving things ambiguous. That’s so much fun,” Cody says. “That’s what dialogue around movies is all about.”
Laura Davis is an entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to Broadway, she offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
