The Next Great Horror Cult Hit Arrived When No One Was Looking

A few years back, as streamers purged their libraries of films that "weren't performing well" for tax write-offs, I lamented a possible future without cult films. My love of cinema was forged in the fires of VHS tapes found at my local Mom & Pop video store, bizarre movies recommended to me by the teenager behind the rental counter, and box office flops that found their audiences when they could be consumed from the safety of a living room couch. I hypothesized that cult films will never die, and that "as long as people are making weird, subversive, and provocative films that were never meant to appeal to four-quadrant audiences, there will be those dedicating their time to finding them and making sure like-minded folks can enjoy them, even if it means putting the 'underground' back into underground cinema."

And if the newly minted cult following of director Zelda Williams and writer Diablo Cody's "Lisa Frankenstein" is any indicator, I was right.

"Lisa Frankenstein" is the weird girl movie for actual weird girls, a coming-of-rage film that centers on Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton), a teenage outcast who accidentally resurrects a corpse from the local cemetery (Cole Sprouse) and turns him into her boyfriend — going on a killing spree to give him new parts along the way. It's a vibrant, whimsical tale of love, finding your identity, and killing the jerk-offs who make your life suck. The film wasn't a runaway hit with critics, nor was it a box office smash, but for the people who resonated with "Lisa Frankenstein," the film is everything.

I spoke with Williams, Newton, and a handful of the film's biggest fans (including my 12-year-old niece) about the ever-growing fandom of "Lisa Frankenstein" and why so many have made this wonderful oddity a core part of their identity.

"Lisa Frankenstein" was released in the United States by Focus Features on February 9, 2024, and made its way to VOD only a few weeks later. Audience engagement exploded soon after, as evident by hilarious user reviews on Letterboxd, art, cosplay, a viral college theater program audition using a monologue from the film, and even a REO Speedwagon and peach ring candy-inspired proposal. "I literally ran into someone in a bar who had the Lisa lightning bolt tattoo on their hand," Zelda Williams tells me. "But then that happened again and it happened again, and I was like, 'Oh, okay, now I'm seeing a trend.'"

"It's tough to remember the first time [I noticed] because it's almost like you block it out, I think. I have trouble accepting that kind of love," Newton explains. "I was welcomed into the 'Supernatural' and Marvel fandom, and then it hit me ... we started our own." In the last year, Newton says that she and co-star Cole Sprouse alike have started seeing more fans dressed like Lisa and The Creature than any other characters they've ever played.

"A girl came up to me and she was dressed like Lisa, and she was like, 'It was the last movie I watched with my dad before he passed away,' and I started crying and she started crying, because she was so brave to tell me that, but she was like, 'The costume makes me feel safe,'" Newton says. "And it is, it's like armor, even though it's this girly princess gothic costume, clothes represent that to me. They represent who you want to be, who you could be, and who you might be trying to protect and hide. It's a very special movie."

Independent seller sites boast an embarrassment of "Lisa Frankenstein" riches. "I do end up buying little things on Etsy sometimes, and my name's not particularly subtle, so they usually figure it out," Williams jokes. "It's been very warm, very welcoming, and it hasn't been particularly invasive, which I also really appreciate." For artist Tess Givnish, the response to the work she's made inspired by the film has been wonderful. "I remember bringing the first illustration I made for the movie to a convention pretty fresh after the movie came out in theaters, and someone came up and went, 'Oh my god! I was not expecting to see 'Lisa Frankenstein' stuff here! I need it!' — and then slowly more and more people had the same response," she says. Her print sold out on the first day of the con.

"I think there's something special within a fandom when the cast and director are so involved in the community and in sharing the fan art," she says. "Every 'Lisa' work I've made and posted online has been acknowledged by either Kathryn or Zelda — there's this nice little 'your art inspires mine' moment that doesn't happen much with other films." The sentiment is echoed by Newton, who is also as much a part of the fandom as she is the main character.

Newton confesses to making stickers she gives away at conventions because "it's like going to a concert. "If I didn't know you and we met at a concert, it'd be easy to be friends with you immediately because I already know we like the same band. It's like that," she explains. "Anyone who likes this movie, I'm probably going to like them, and they're probably going to like me."

For superfans like my niece Roxie (last name omitted because she's a minor), the accessibility of art, merchandise, and clothing has been a way to signal their love to the world. "I have so much stuff," she says. "Hoodies, t-shirts, blankets ... I have Lisa's dress and accessories, and I wore it in my school's musical." She also permits me to say that she brings her "Lisa Frankenstein" blanket when she goes to the movies and keeps it with her when she sleeps at night. "I'll never stop buying Lisa stuff."

For Justin Herring and James Fry of the merchandising brand and podcast Creep-O-Rama, "Lisa Frankenstein" was a total game changer. "It's a horror comedy movie, but it's got such a cool, fun vibe that you don't really see that much anymore — but also from a design standpoint," Herring says. "I was just absolutely floored by the neon in it and the use of the colors and the lighting that as soon as I saw it I was like, 'James, we gotta do something.'" Once the brand introduced the "Lisa Frankenstein" line of products, it also opened up a door to tackle similar movies and cater to a new audience.

Fry tells me that by offering a horror shirt that went beyond the usual "black shirt with a horror movie character" on it, it put their brand in front of an audience they didn't have before. It also allowed them to do the same with similar movies like "Jennifer's Body" and "Ginger Snaps" along with the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," even if it initially did bring out some insecure commenters who don't want to wear pink, purple, or teal. "I will say, since we've been doing more feminine-forward stuff, those comments have gone away," Fry says.

And like all great pieces of merch, the "Lisa Frankenstein" shirts have become conversation pieces. "The following was built outside of a movie theater, so it's more personal, where people have reactions like, 'That person likes the same thing I do,' and it feels so obscure," Herring explains. "It inspires a need to start a conversation with someone about it, whereas with Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers, as much as I love them, they don't spark that same compulsion."

For professional cosplayer Cee Kay, she was planning out a "Lisa Frankenstein" look before she ever stepped foot in a theater. "Before I saw the film, I had seen advertisements for it online. I thought it looked cute, but then my partner and I started to get a few comments on my social media from our followers who thought we would make a good cosplay of it," she tells me. "After finally getting to see it opening weekend, I loved it so much more than I thought I would!" Connecting to the film on a deeper level only made her passion grow, so she didn't stop at just one look from the film. Cee and her partner Ava have cosplayed as the couple in their pajama dress attire, the classic black lace dress, the suspenders with a white button-up look from the poster, and the black and white dream sequence — complete with the Pabst Blue Ribbon gown and The Creature still as a headstone. "Even today, there are still a couple of looks left that I have yet to do, but they are on my list," Cee Kay says.

Putting together the cosplay means varying between the main black dress, which was a matter of sourcing screen-accurate pieces, and the dream sequence dress, which is a one-of-a-kind replica made by hand. "There was a lot of research put into that one where I religiously rewatched the dream scene as many times as I could, slowing it down and taking screenshots of any details I could decipher," she explains. "That dress, from sewing to painting, was made in about 10 days. Absolutely worth every second! It's definitely one of my favorite projects I have worked on so far."

And the feedback has been overwhelming. "I think the 'Lisa Frankenstein' fans have been by far some of the most passionate I've encountered both online and in person," she says, telling me that during an in-person guest appearance at MegaCon Orlando, "every other person" in the line she had all weekend at her booth wanted to talk to her about the character. "I even mentioned it to my partner at one point, just how shocked I was by the sheer number of times I got to speak about the film to people that weekend," Kay says. "Everyone was so nice and many of them mentioned that it was through our cosplays that they had watched the film in the first place."

For my niece Roxie, it's Lisa's outsider status that speaks to her. "I love my friends so much, but I definitely feel like I'm alone as the type of person I am and what I like," she says. "Lisa (the character) and 'Lisa' (the movie) let me know it's okay to be myself, because I can still be loved being myself." For Marsh, the artist behind Halloween Homemaker, it was a little bit of everything, but mainly Lisa: "This experience of not getting our flowers while we're still here, not being given or able to receive love while we're still here is such a common experience, especially in the queer community. The themes of hiding in the closet, chosen family, and Lisa coming into herself as she finds confidence are queer themes despite not being an explicitly queer movie." They continued:

"Lisa isn't a hero, so a lot of people review this film and say she is unlikable. This snapshot of a few days in the life of a teenage girl who has been put through the wringer of life isn't the redemption story a general audience may want, but she is the anti-hero underdog who snaps and goes out in a blaze so we can vicariously live through her without burning down our own lives. Not all stories have happy endings, but it's how we find our way forward from the sad endings that truly matters. Few of us will be heroes, but here we can still find hope that being our imperfect selves is enough when we find our people."

"Lisa Frankenstein" certainly found her people, which has been pleasantly unexpected for Zelda Williams. "The critical stuff doesn't really bug me as much as I thought it would because I think, especially when you're making stuff that is very female, very queer, camp — it's never really been about the critical acclaim thing," she tells me. "I didn't know what to expect. I just kept watching stuff happen quietly [...] There was someone who commented on my page, who was like, 'I've watched the movie 17 times,' and I remember doing the math and I was like, 'You've watched it twice a week since it came out!'" In talking to artists like Marsh and Tess Givnish, seeing the movie multiple times was a necessity to get the details right, with their love for the film only growing with every rewatch.

Perhaps one of the most die-hard examples of fandom resides with couples like Jazzy Rubero and Aaron "A.J." Jeffers, who had a "Lisa Frankenstein"-themed proposal at the historic Bob Baker Marionette Theater. Rubero was instantly smitten with the film and quickly made a closet cosplay of Lisa's final black gown. In the film, the creature treats a peach ring candy as a de facto wedding ring, which was something Jeffers incorporated into his eventual marriage proposal to Rubero, as well as REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling," the song the Creature plays on the piano while Lisa sings along. "I think A.J. instantly joked about proposing with a peach ring after the movie, so even seeing them in the store made me think of him and the movie," Rubero tells me. "It's such a small detail in the film, but it really did stick with both of us, and having that being part of our engagement was just so romantic and personal to me."

Rubero wasn't expecting the proposal when the pair visited the Bob Baker theater, but when they walked in and "Can't Fight This Feeling" started to play, her immediate thought was "Oh, our jam is on!" When she turned to hold Jeffers' hand, he was already on one knee and grabbing the peach ring. "We both definitely have a deeper connection to the song because of 'Lisa Frankenstein' and seeing the peach ring really made it real for me," she says. "Our hands were both shaking and covered in sugar — it was beautiful."

Jeffers even admitted that he wasn't 100% sold on the film from the trailer, but once he actually watched it, he was hooked. "It has the spirit of an '80s film without entirely relying on the aesthetic. It doesn't take itself too seriously or over-explain the lore, but it still resonates so hard emotionally," he says. "And somehow hits a tone that's fun the entire time while dealing with extremely dark subject matter." Rubero is a seamstress, and Jeffers is a musician, so Lisa and the Creature were easy to relate to. They even dressed as the couple for Halloween and have confessed to quoting it on the daily. "It's a comfort movie for us," Rubero says.

"I don't know if anyone purposefully makes someone's comfort movie," Williams says. "I think you accidentally make something that then people find very comforting, and that's been really lovely and very unexpected, at least for me, because I'm that way. I watch 'Death Becomes Her' quite often."

Kathryn Newton has been acting for quite some time and has been a part of critical and financial hits, but playing the titular "Lisa Frankenstein" has made the two-time Fangoria Chainsaw Award-nominated actor look at her future in a different light. "It's definitely made me reassess what I want to do next, because you're raised in this industry of, 'Oh, yeah, horror is not what you should do. You should never do horror if you want to be a real actor,' well, look at Mikey Madison! She was discovered from 'Scream!'" she says. At the time of our interview, Newton is getting ready for "Ready or Not 2" and jokes that she's been "bothering the costume person every day with ideas" because if she's learned anything from playing Lisa, "We got to give them something worth looking at, something a little bit of an identifier."

For my niece, who is still trying to make sense of herself in this weird world of ours, that identifier has been crucial. After seeing the film on opening day, in the time since, she estimates she's watched the movie over 30 times, made art of the title character and a friendship bracelet to give to Newton at a convention, and even wore her "Lisa Frankenstein" shirt in her yearbook photo. "It felt like I was meeting the most important person in the world to me," she explains. "I treasured that moment because Kathryn has my art of Lisa! I think about it all the time. She thought it was cool, and that made me feel cool."

And despite playing the character, Newton feels like she's also experiencing that identity shift because of the film. "Like, your niece is the one who loves Lisa in these movies. She's cool, and she knows she's cool, and it's little things that are putting her together, and I'm no different than her," she tells me. "I'm trying to put myself together like that, too, and I do hold on to things that I love. It's all we have, so we'll keep trying. Horror does that for people. It's weird. We're weird."

A cruel irony is that for writer Diablo Cody, this isn't the first time this has happened to her, as "Jennifer's Body" took nearly a decade to be rightfully understood as a true cult classic. Fortunately, "Lisa Frankenstein" is speed-running the process in an industry climate where risks are being avoided in favor of algorithmically determined "sure things" meant to appeal to as wide an audience as humanly possible to maximize profits. It's a climate where "Lisa Frankenstein" feels like the antithesis of the status quo ... and that's precisely what makes it so wonderful.

"I think in a lot of ways, films like 'Jennifer's Body' and 'Lisa Frankenstein' are such perfect examples of not having to perform smashingly well in theaters to be successful," says Justin Herring. "It's almost more culturally relevant that it didn't do that well and people had to find it, and then they end up with a stronger connection to it." For the 12-year-old superfan in my life, "Lisa Frankenstein" fundamentally changed her brain chemistry. "Please tell Zelda, Diablo, and Kathryn, thank you for making 'Lisa,' because it changed me and made me feel seen," Roxie pleads. " I love them all. Lisa helped me find myself, she's like my weird big sister."

"The glass half-full version of any of it, whatever genre I end up being in, 'Lisa' was the proof for me that people miss unhinged weirdos," Williams says. "And I've yet to find something I want to make that isn't about something, whether it's much darker, whether it's much lighter, but weirdos. I like them." It's the weirdness that connects the fans, myself included, because sometimes, it really can mean the world to not feel so alone. "Lisa Swallows is an icon for weird, quiet kids with trauma," says Marsh. "I felt so connected to her coming of rage."

"I think we have a really wonderful group of people already working, making things about normal people and poised people and successful people," says Zelda Williams. "So what about everybody else?"

"Lisa Frankenstein" is that movie, and she's not going anywhere.