LISA FRANKENSTEIN

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film starts with an animated sequence depicting a young man during the Victorian era. He is first seen married and in love with a woman, until she lays eyes on another man. The man spends the rest of his days alone and heartbroken, buried in a cemetery in a grave alongside other lonely souls.

1989 – Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) frequently visits the cemetery and goes to the young man’s grave, developing an attachment to him. Her father Dale (Joe Chrest) has remarried a rotten and condescending woman named Janet (Carla Gugino), and Lisa has been spending time with Janet’s daughter Taffy (Liza Soberano) after starting her senior year at Brookview High School. Janet treats Lisa like a nuisance and suggests that she be sent to a reform school.

Taffy brings Lisa to a party to try and help her meet people. On the way there, Lisa tells Taffy she has a crush on a boy at school named Michael Trent (Henry Eikenberry), who is the editor of the school newspaper that Lisa submits her poems to. Lisa also mentions writing poetry to the statue of the young man’s grave, which Taffy thinks is weird. At the party, Lisa runs into Michael, who says he likes her poetry. He is approached by another girl named Tamara (Joey Bree Harris), who is holding a cup with what Lisa thinks is alcohol. She drinks a big gulp from it and starts to hallucinate. Meanwhile, Taffy tells her friends how Lisa’s mother was axe-murdered by a home intruder, which deeply traumatized Lisa and kept her from speaking for months until Dale married Janet.

An inebriated Lisa is found by her classmate Doug (Bryce Romero), who seems to be trying to help Lisa up. He guides her to a bedroom where he starts to grope her and tries to have her touch his groin. She leaves in disgust just as a storm starts brewing outside. Lisa goes to the cemetery and speaks to the young man’s statue, saying she wishes she were with him. Lisa then goes home in a fit of anger, and green lightning strikes the young man’s grave. Lisa then dreams of herself in a romantic scenario with the young man.

The next day, Janet chastises Lisa for breaking the mirror in the bathroom after she came home the night before. Afterwards, Lisa goes to her job at a sewing shop where she stitches up clothing and is disrespected by her boss. Michael stops in and has something for her to patch up, while Tamara also walks in and acts snobby towards Lisa.

Later, the family goes to a movie while Lisa decides to stay home. She hears a noise and finds a zombie (Cole Sprouse) breaking into the house. While she runs away in terror at first, she soon sees that The Creature (as he is credited) is harmless. He explains through grunts (he has no tongue) and pointing that he is the same young man whose grave Lisa visits and writes poetry to, even bringing her her mother’s rosary that she had previously left. Lisa determines that the lightning strike brought him to life after she said she wished she was with him, but she meant that she wished she was dead. Lisa keeps The Creature hidden until she can figure out what to do with him.

While Lisa is at school, The Creature walks through the house while Janet is getting ready to go on a trip to Milwaukee. After witnessing how she treats Lisa, The Creature leaves a worm in Janet’s food. When Lisa returns home, Janet berates her and accuses her of putting the worm in there because she is troubled. Janet takes it further by mocking Lisa’s mother’s murder and saying that she has arranged for Lisa to be sent to the reform school. The Creature emerges from Lisa’s closet and brains Janet with a sewing machine, killing her. He then cuts off Janet’s ear so that Lisa may attach it to his head as a replacement. She is at first horrified but then helps The Creature carry Janet’s body to his old grave.

Lisa stitches the ear onto The Creature’s head and puts him in the broken tanning bed to give it life. She continues to keep him hidden while also making Dale and Taffy think Janet is still in Milwaukee. At school, Lisa slips a note into Doug’s locker and convinces him to meet her in the woods after school. Lisa lures him to the cemetery where she makes him think that she wants to finish hooking up after the party. The Creature emerges with an axe and chops off Doug’s right hand. He starts to make a run for it, but The Creature hurls the axe at Doug, killing him. They dump his body in another open grave, and Lisa attaches Doug’s hands to The Creature.

After putting him back in the tanning bed, The Creature emerges looking slightly less decayed. He and Lisa start to bond more, with Lisa talking about her mom and also saying how she doesn’t want to die a virgin. The Creature also brings up how he has only ever been with one woman that he did genuinely love. They also bond when she learns that he can play the piano, and she sings “Can’t Fight This Feeling” while he plays.

Taffy and Dale soon start to grow concerned when they learn that Janet never made it to Milwaukee. Police also show up at school when Doug is reported missing. Lisa is called to the principal’s office because Tamara told authorities that she saw Lisa slip a note into Doug’s locker telling him to meet her after school, and eyewitnesses saw them walking together. Lisa makes up excuses and throws a fit against Tamara before being let go.

Lisa starts making her way to Michael’s house since he wasn’t at school. The Creature kills a bigoted man who thought he was gay and steals his clothes and car before picking Lisa up and driving her to Michael’s house. Lisa walks upstairs and is shocked to find Michael in bed with Taffy. Lisa confronts them angrily since Taffy knew about her crush on Michael, but Michael gently tells Lisa that he simply did not share the same feelings for her. The Creature runs into the room with the axe and chops off Michael’s whole groin, leaving him to bleed out while Taffy screams in horror.

The two make their way back to the cemetery after Lisa tries to comfort Taffy and thank her for being a good stepsister and friend to her. The Creature more or less asks Lisa to attach Michael’s groin to his own since he lost his penis ages ago. An officer finds them and tries to tell them to leave until she sees the severed penis in The Creature’s hand, forcing him to grab the officer and throw her into an open grave (it’s unclear if she’s dead or not) before Lisa and The Creature run back home.

Fearing that they don’t have much time left together, Lisa sews Michael’s groin onto The Creature so that they can have sex. They soon hear police sirens approaching, so Lisa has The Creature electrocute her in the tanning bed after they share one last kiss. He sets it to the highest setting, which causes the bed to catch fire and engulf the whole garage in flames. Dale comes home too late as he witnesses the scene with neighbors.

Lisa is later buried, with Dale and Taffy bringing flowers to her grave. Taffy notices the words “beloved wife” carved into Lisa’s tombstone. She joins her stepfather as they go to Janet’s grave, promising to honor her and Lisa.

Elsewhere, The Creature is now shown looking fully alive and capable of speech as he is seen reading poetry. Laying on his lap is a resurrected Lisa, wrapped in bandages and listening to him read.

In 1989, Lisa Swallows is a lonely weird girl still reeling from her mother's gruesome murder. Her father Dale remarries a horrid woman named Janet, while Lisa gains a stepsister named Taffy. After spending a night at a party where she is drugged and sexually assaulted, Lisa goes to a cemetery that she frequently visits and speaks to the grave of a young Victorian man, saying she wishes she were with him. A bolt of green lightning strikes the grave, bringing the young man back to life as a lovesick zombie.

While Lisa is creeped out at first, she hides The Creature and tries to keep him safe. After Janet antagonizes Lisa and threatens to send her to a reform school, The Creature kills Janet and cuts off her ear so Lisa can attach it to his head. Lisa later lures her classmate Doug, the one who assaulted her, so that The Creature can cut off Doug's hand, but he ends up killing Doug anyway. With every new attachment, The Creature starts looking more like his old self, and he and Lisa start to bond.

Police start to investigate Janet and Doug's disappearances. Lisa narrowly avoids being implicated before going to the home of her crush, Michael, only to find him in bed with Taffy even though she knew Lisa liked him. The Creature chops off Michael's groin and makes him bleed out, in addition to killing an old bigoted man and possibly a police officer. Lisa attaches Michael's groin to The Creature so that they can have sex.

With the police zeroing in on Lisa, she has The Creature electrocute her in the tanning bed where she conducts her experiments on him after he puts it on the highest setting and causes Lisa to burn to death. Dale and Taffy mourn her (and Janet for some reason), but The Creature is shown to have resurrected Lisa while he looks fully alive again.