- Directed by Zelda Williams
- Written by Diablo Cody
- Stars Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Henry Eikenberry, Carla Gugino
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POOeA3zCuUY
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was a lot of fun with good lines and dark humor blending with the horror. Teenage love is awkward enough without complicating things with a holdover from Dr. Frankenstein’s experiments. The casting is perfect, and while the script was a hair predictable, we liked pretty much everything about it.
Spoilery Synopsis
After a very Tim-Burtonesque credit sequence, we open on Lisa and her step-sister Taffy getting ready for a “rager” party. We quickly see that Lisa doesn’t have very good luck, and she’s not very popular at high school either; she’s a goth girl who’s into dark poetry. She mentions that she’s got a crush on Michael Trent, who is “cerebral.” She likes to visit the cemetery, where she does wax rubbings of tombstones. She’s infatuated with a cemetery statue of a guy who died young with the name Frankenstein on the stone.
At the party, Michael introduces himself, and Lisa is surprised that he knows who she is. Taffy tells friends the story about how Lisa’s mother was killed by an ax murderer who got away. Lisa has one drink, and she gets quickly messed up because it was laced. Doug helps her find a trash can to puke in; he clearly likes her, but she runs when he tries to get romantic.
Somehow, she wanders from the party to the cemetery just as a thunderstorm springs up. She soon finds her favorite statue before going home. Back in the cemetery, lightning strikes the statue. Lisa has a very cool dream about the statue-man, all in black-and-white.
In the morning, Lisa’s stepmother, Janet, blames her for breaking the mirror in the bathroom. Michael comes to Lisa’s work to apologize for accidentally getting her high. That night, while everyone else is out, someone breaks into her house; it’s some kind of undead monster!
After some of the dirt washes off, she recognizes the creature as her statue-man. She hides him in her bedroom. She makes him cry. She gets him into the shower, which helps a lot, but he’s still not going to pass for alive. She puts on clean clothes and combs his hair. When the family gets home, there’s mud and filth everywhere, along with a lot of furniture damage. Janet is not pleased; she says Lisa is either crazy or just very inconsiderate.
The next day, Lisa goes to school, while the creature wanders around the house avoiding Janet. When he barfs up a worm into Janet’s breakfast, Lisa gets the blame. Janet wants Lisa admitted to the mental hospital. The creature knocks her out from behind. He cuts off Janet’s ear to replace the one he’s missing. They bury Janet in the cemetery that night. The ear doesn’t work, but Lisa finds a way to “charge” it up using a faulty tanning bed.
Since Janet was supposed to be going out of town anyway, the family doesn’t realize she’s dead. Lisa stops being all nerdy and gets very stylish and assertive, finding some confidence in herself. She writes Doug a love note, and they go for a walk together out in the cemetery. We can see that she’s up to something, and then they end up in the cemetery. She and the creature gang up on Doug and cut his hand off to put on the monster’s stump.
She sews the hand on later, and it’s time for another tanning bed boost. We notice that every time the creature gets shocked, he looks more normal and alive. After getting his hand replaced, he wants to dance and play piano for her. She still complains that his tears smell terrible.
Taffy and Dale figure out that Janet never got to the hotel. While they report the missing woman to the police, Lisa and the creature experiment with her vibrator. They lay in bed and she’s still talking about Michael Trent; the creature is clearly not happy to hear that.
At school, Lisa and Taffy hear that Doug has gone missing. Lisa is questioned about Doug’s disappearance. She plays dumb, but there were witnesses. The creature goes for a drive and finds Lisa after school. They both drive over to Michael’s house and she finds Michael there– in bed with Taffy! The creature comes in with an ax and cuts off Michael’s penis, which he takes with him…
Taffy’s in shock, so Lisa tries to explain things, sorta. Then she goes to the cemetery to tell the creature to make love to her. He can’t because that’s his last missing part. Fortunately, he’s got a spare now. They go home, and she sews that on too.
After an electrical recharge, he looks perfectly alive now, and the two have sex. Except he’s still dropping worms around the place.
Knowing that the police are closing in, Lisa gets into the faulty tanning bed for a tragic and poetic ending. They crank it up, and it electrocutes her. As the creature sits with resignation watching the fire spread, he reads a note that she left saying she loves him and death is only temporary. Which seems to give him a realization. A while later, emergency services are there helping Taffy. Dad Dale and bystanders are watching the tanning booth shed totally engulfed in flames.
We cut to Lisa’s grave in the cemetery, where Dale and Taffy are visiting. Taffy notices that there are a lot of flowers there. We then cut to the creature on a bench somewhere, reading poetry to Lisa, who’s all bandaged up, but clearly not as dead as she was a little while ago…
Commentary
We got the “Tim Burton vibe” from the opening credits, and it never really goes away. The creature, played by Cole Sprouse, even resembles Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd.” Burton was clearly a heavy influence on first-time director Zelda Williams, Robin Williams’s daughter.
The soundtrack immediately stands out, as does the dream sequence. The concept is very close to 2013’s “Warm Bodies,” but different enough to be interesting. Taffy, the stepsister, goes against type by being nice and supportive, not the “evil” type.
It’s got a lot of funny lines and situations. It looks great, and the pacing moves right along. It was predictable all the way, but it was still very good!