10 Best Movies Like Lisa Frankenstein

Zelda Williams’ 2024 Lisa Frankenstein was a genre-blending horror-romance-comedy that left many viewers looking for something similar to watch next. Written by award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody and starring modern horror sweetheart Kathryn Newton, Lisa Frankenstein is the story of Lisa Swallows (Newton), a high school outcast who finds love in the form of a zombie. Joining Newton in Lisa Frankenstein’s cast is Cole Sprouse, who plays The Creature. Together, they attempt to collect new body parts for The Creature by hacking up a few of Lisa’s classmates and family members.

The movie features campy costumes and sets, a bubbly plot, a compelling love story, and quite a few murders. Lisa Frankenstein balances horror and comedy in a modern way that pays homage to the scary films of the 1980s. Though critical reviews of Lisa Frankenstein were generally negative, many audiences fell in love with the movie’s camp and tone. The film reminisces many cult horror comedies from the past 40 years. Here are some of the best movies to follow up Lisa Frankenstein.

10

Totally Killer (2023)

Directed By Nahnatchka Khan

Totally Killer is a time-travel horror comedy that mainly takes place in the 1980s. In the film, Jamie Hughes (Kiernan Shipka) travels back to 1987 and tries to stop her high school-aged mom’s friend group from being murdered by the Sweet 16 Killer. Totally Killer is violent, with comedic elements. The film is more of a slasher than a creature feature, but the sci-fi and timeline similarities to Lisa Frankenstein are important. Like most time travel movies, Totally Killer creates its own time travel rules, though even those get convoluted at times.

Like Lisa Frankenstein and many other teen horror comedies, Totally Killer is filled with high school murders and bullies. Produced by Amazon MGM, It had a limited theatrical release, instead moving directly to Prime Video. Because of this, the movie was less known than it could have been, especially given its engaging plot and graphic kills.

Totally Killer

Totally Killer is a 2023 comedy horror film by director Nahnatchka Khan (Always Be My Maybe) created for Prime Video. Jamie, a seventeen-year-old, plans to head out for Halloween night thirty-five years after the murder of her mother’s three friends by a serial killer. When Jamie ignores her mother’s pleas and heads out for the night, she becomes targeted by the infamous “Sweet Sixteen Killer.” However, the chase ends with her being sent back in time to the year it all began- and now Jamie will have to team up with her teenage mother to stop the killer and return home before it’s too late.

Director

Nahnatchka Khan

Release Date

October 6, 2023

Cast

Kiernan Shipka
, Olivia Holt
, Julie Bowen
, Randall Park
, Lochlyn Munro
, Charlie Gillespie
, Liana Liberato

Runtime

106 Minutes

Studio(s)

Blumhouse Television
, Divide/Conquer

Distributor(s)

Prime Video

Writers

David Matalon
, Sasha Perl-Raver
, Jen D’Angelo

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9

Re-Animator (1985)

Directed By Stuart Gordon

Re-Animator is a notable film in the undead zombie subgenre of horror. The movie focuses on Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), who has figured out how to resurrect the dead, though not without vicious and deadly side effects. The zombies in the film are explained with science rather than magic electricity, as in Lisa Frankenstein. The movie was based on a 1922 H.P. Lovecraft serial novelette titled “Herbert West–Reanimator.”

The film also includes many kills in the name of creating a stronger monster. However, Re-Animator is known for being one of the more gruesome films in the genre, with its initial cut being too gory for even an R rating. Despite this, the film is classified as a horror comedy, with jokes and absurd scenarios sprinkled in. After edits, Re-Animator was initially well-received and has since become a cult classic.

Re-Animator

1985’s Re-Animator is a feature-length film based on H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, Herbert West–Reanimator. The Horror and Comedy release follows a man that spends time attempting to create a reagent that will reanimate the dead.

Director

Stuart Gordon

Release Date

October 18, 1985

Cast

Jeffrey Combs
, Bruce Abbott
, Robert Sampson
, David Gale
, Barbara Crampton

Runtime

84 minutes

Writers

Stuart Gordon
, William Norris
, Dennis Paoli

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8

Spontaneous (2020)

Directed By Brian Duffield

Another coming-of-age horror comedy, Spontaneous, takes place at a school where students begin to combust mysteriously. The movie is also a love story, as Mara Carlyle (Katherine Langford) and Dylan Hovemeyer (Charlie Plummer) begin a romance on a timeline, as, just like Lisa and The Creature, they don’t know when their time together will be over. Like Lisa Frankenstein, Spontaneous also ends with the death of a main character, though this movie doesn’t allow for zombie resurrections.

However, similar to Lisa Frankenstein’s optimistic final note about love, Spontaneous also has a hopeful ending. Spontaneous hammers home its moral to live life to the fullest. The movie is set apart from many others in the genre because there isn’t necessarily a villain, just a mysterious ailment that kills people. Spontaneous is more of an apocalyptic film than a high school slasher or creature feature, but it shares similar thematic elements.

Spontaneous

Spontaneous is a dark comedy film directed by Brian Duffield. Starring Katherine Langford and Charlie Plummer, the film centers on high school students who face an unexpected crisis when their classmates begin to spontaneously combust. As chaos ensues, the protagonists grapple with the fragility of life and the urgency of their feelings.

Director

Brian Duffield

Release Date

October 2, 2020

Writers

Brian Duffield

Runtime

97 minutes

Cast

Payton Lepinski
, Katherine Langford
, Yvonne Orji
, Chelah Horsdal
, Dolores Drake
, Kaitlyn Bernard
, Charlie Plummer
, Piper Perabo
, Laine MacNeil
, Rob Huebel
, Hayley Law

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7

Jawbreaker (1999)

Directed By Darren Stein

Jawbreaker is a black comedy crime film filled with poppy colors and campy outfits. It follows a popular high school girl clique (Rose McGowan, Rebecca Gayheart, and Julie Benz,) who accidentally kill the fourth member of their group and scramble to cover it up. Like Lisa Frankenstein, the film was inspired by Heathers, which also looks at the high school social hierarchy and how easy it is to cover up a death.

Jawbreaker is not technically a horror movie, but instead, it focuses on high school politics and life’s fleetingness. Much like Lisa Frankenstein, Jawbreaker thematically represents the sweet innocence of high school girls in contrast with the darkness of death. Initial reception of the film was poor, but it has since become a cult classic.

Jawbreaker

A high school prank goes wrong when three popular girls accidentally kill their friend with a jawbreaker candy. To cover up the crime, they manipulate an innocent classmate, Fern, into silence by transforming her into one of them. The situation spirals out of control, leading to dark secrets and revelations.

Director

Darren Stein

Release Date

January 30, 1999

Writers

Darren Stein

Runtime

86 Minutes

Cast

Alexandra Adi
, Tatyana Ali
, Joni Allen
, Charlotte Ayanna
, Julie Benz
, Marita Black
, Rose McGowan

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6

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Directed By Karyn Kusama

Jennifer’s Body is another high school creature feature written by Diablo Cody. The film follows Jennifer Check (Megan Fox), who becomes a succubus, much to the chagrin of her best friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried). Jennifer spends the movie seducing and killing their male classmates to feed on them. Apart from their writer, the movies share enough similarities that a theorized Jennifer’s Body and Lisa Frankenstein’s shared universe exists.

Both movies focus on a monster-human friendship with romantic undertones. The main characters in each film are young women who mature and gain a sense of self during supernatural and gory circumstances. Apart from having a female-led cast and a shared writer, both films also have female directors.

Jennifer’s Body

Directed by Karyn Kusama and written by Diablo Cody, Jennifer’s Body is a horror-comedy film starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. When a newly possessed high school cheerleader (Fox) turns into a succubus specializing in seducing and killing her male classmates, her best friend (Seyfried) is the only thing that stands in the way of her sultry killing spree.

Director

Karyn Kusama

Release Date

September 18, 2009

Writers

Diablo Cody

Cast

Megan Fox
, Adam Brody​
, J. K. Simmons
, Johnny Simmons
, Amanda Seyfried

Runtime

102 minutes

Distributor(s)

20th Century

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5

The Final Girls (2015)

Directed By Todd Strauss-Schulson

The Final Girls takes a satirical look at the horror genre as it transports a group of high schoolers into a slasher film called “Camp Bloodbath.” Stuck in a time loop, the friends and actors, led by Max Cartwright (Taissa Farmiga), try to survive against a machete-wielding killer. As the characters realize they are in a horror film, they follow the rules they have learned from watching movies over the years.

Like Lisa Frankenstein’s satirical take on zombies and ’80s movies, The Final Girls plays with horror tropes, creating comedy and absurdity. The film is packed with comedy actors. Both The Final Girls and Lisa Frankenstein are homages to 1980s horror films, honoring traditional movie elements while lampooning the clichés. The Final Girls received generally positive reviews from critics in 2015, though the film remains relatively unknown.

The Final Girls (2015)

Three years after the death of her actress sister, Amanda, Max Cartwright  and her friends find themselves trapped in a bizarre time loop after attending a screening of Amanda’s cult classic film. Transported into the movie world, they must navigate the slasher flick’s deadly tropes to survive and find a way back home.

Director

Todd Strauss-Schulson

Release Date

October 9, 2015

Cast

Taissa Farmiga
, Alexander Ludwig
, Malin Akerman
, Adam Levine
, Thomas MIddleditch
, Alia Shawkat
, Nina Dobrev

Runtime

91 Mins

Distributor(s)

Stage 6 Films

Writers

M.A. Fortin
, Joshua John Miller

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4

My Boyfriend’s Back (1993)

Directed By Bob Balaban

Like Lisa Frankenstein, My Boyfriend’s Back is a horror comedy about a zombie boyfriend. In the film, Johnny Dingle (Andrew Lowery) returns from the dead to try to get together with his crush, Missy McCloud (Traci Lind). Though initially justifiably skeptical, Missy agrees to a date with zombie Johnny. The movie is more about Johnny’s experience than Missy’s, but the underlying themes are reminiscent of those in Lisa Frankenstein.

My Boyfriend’s Back received negative reviews at the time, with many claiming that the movie couldn’t settle on the right tone. The concept was initially several sketches that were later combined to create a full-length film. Like Lisa Frankenstein, it is one of the few romances between a zombie-boyfriend and a human-girlfriend. Plus, with its early 1990s release, the films are set in the same era. My Boyfriend’s Back also has appearances from several notable actors, including Cloris Leachman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Matthew McConaughey in his first role.

3

Freaky (2020)

Directed By Christopher Landon

Kathryn Newton has proven herself a modern scream queen in many horror roles. Newton starred in the 2020 horror comedy Freaky. The movie is an homage to Freaky Friday, where Newton’s Millie Kessler switches bodies with the local serial killer, the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn). The movie follows Millie as she has to convince her friends to believe in body swapping and the Butcher, who finds murdering is much easier in the body of a teenage girl.

Like Lisa Frankenstein, Freaky combines horror with comedy. The kills are gruesome, while the plot is absurd, amplified by Vaughn and Newton’s comedic yet scary performances. Newton nails the role of a ruthless murderer, conducting a plethora of fantastic kills, including in a cryogenic chamber and with a table saw.

Freaky

Freaky is a film directed by Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day 2U) and centers around a young girl in high school that swaps bodies with a deranged serial killer. When four teenagers are found dead, the Blissfield Butcher’s re-emergence has made the town somewhat on alert. While waiting for her ride home at the end of a football game, Millie Kessler is attacked by the butcher with a mysterious dagger called La Dola, which then swaps the two into one another’s bodies in a Freaky Friday-like fashion. Millie discovers that to get back to her original body, she needs to get her friends and family to believe that their bodies have swapped – and she needs to reverse the ritual in twenty-four hours, or the switch will remain permanent.

Director

Christopher Landon

Release Date

November 13, 2020

Cast

Misha Osherovich
, Vince Vaughn
, Celeste O’Connor
, Kathryn Newton
, Uriah Shelton
, Dana Drori
, Alan Ruck
, Katie Finneran

Runtime

102 Minutes

Distributor(s)

Universal Pictures

Writers

Michael Kennedy
, Christopher Landon

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2

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Directed By Tim Burton

Like Lisa Frankenstein, Edward Scissorhands tells the story of a (relatively) normal girl who falls in love with a monster. The movie focuses on Edward (Johnny Depp), who joins the Boggs family despite his gruesome and monstrous appearance. There, he and Kim (Winona Ryder) begin to see each other in a romantic light, both feeling understood by the other. Edward is caring and introverted in a similar style to Lisa Frankenstein’s monster. There is an undeniable connection between the characters, as both movies tell the story of loving an outcast and feeling lost as a teenager.

Both movies are also similar in their levels of campiness. In Burton’s classic fashion, the world of Edward Scissorhands is uncanny and relatively perfect, making it unnerving. Lisa Frankenstein and Edward Scissorhands both use bright, unnatural colors to add a fantastical element to a seemingly ordinary world in which monsters exist.

Edward Scissorhands

From director Tim Burton, Edward Scissorhands follows the titular character, an artificial human created by an inventor, who has scissor blades instead of fingers. After his creator’s death, Edward is taken in by a normal suburban family and becomes attracted to the family’s teenage daughter, Kim Boggs. Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder star as Edward and Kim. 

Release Date

December 14, 1990

Runtime

105 minutes

Distributor(s)

20th Century

Writers

Caroline Thompson

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1

Heathers (1989)

Dirceted By Michael Lehmann

Heathers is a black comedy that shifted the tone from the light-hearted coming-of-age movies of the 1980s. It follows Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) as she teams up with brooding JD (Christian Slater), who is on a crusade to end the suffering of high schoolers, namely by ending their lives. The similarities between Heathers and Lisa Frankenstein are vast, but a main one is the romantic element between a macabre girl and her morbid boyfriend.

Heathers has the 1980s vibe that Lisa Frankenstein tries to emulate, complete with big, poofy hair and retro phrases. Lisa’s over-the-top wardrobe borders on a parody of the late 1980s style, but it only adds to the movie’s camp. Lisa Frankenstein is a great companion film for Heathers, as they both tell similar stories in similar settings but were created in vastly different contexts.

Heathers

Heathers is a dark comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann, featuring Winona Ryder as Veronica Sawyer and Christian Slater as J.D. Released in 1989, the story delves into high school social hierarchies and the consequences of rebelling against popular cliques. The film addresses themes of teen angst, peer pressure, and the impact of destructive behavior within a satirical framework.

Director

Michael Lehmann

Release Date

March 31, 1989

Cast

Winona Ryder
, Christian Slater
, Shannen Doherty
, Lisanne Falk
, Kim Walker
, Penelope Milford

Runtime

103 minutes

Writers

Daniel Waters

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

Lisa Frankenstein is a comedic fantasy-horror film by first-time director Zelda Williams and is a twist on the classic Frankenstein formula. Set in 1989, a high school outcast named Lisa accidentally revives a handsome corpse from the Victorian era and resolves to rebuild him into the perfect man. 

Director

Zelda Williams

Release Date

February 9, 2024

Runtime

101 Minutes

Distributor(s)

Focus Features

Writers

Diablo Cody

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