FILM · 2024 · USA
Lisa Frankenstein
37 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (37)
- #001
In the final scene, the Creature is reading from Percy Shelley's "Posthumous Poems" collection, specifically "To Mary." Percy's wife, Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein, collected her husband's unpublished poems and published them two years after his death.
- #002
Lisa Frankenstein is Zelda Williams's first feature-length directorial effort.
- #003
In one scene, Lisa mentions her "aunt Shelley," a clear nod to Mary Shelley, the author of the novel Frankenstein.
- #004
When her stepmother Janet returns home, Lisa shouts "Dammit! Janet!" — the title of a song from The Rocky Horror Show stage musical, which is itself based on Frankenstein.
- #005
In the opening title sequence, young Lisa rubs a gravestone bearing the name "Frankenstein," a method of tracing the engraving on a headstone. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, famously taught herself to write her own name by tracing the engraving on her mother's gravestone.
- #006
The film was initially shot with an R rating in mind, but it was decided that a PG-13 rating would reach a wider audience. As a result, many scenes had to be edited or reshot. Originally, Lisa smoked a joint at the party instead of drinking PCP-laced beer. Lisa and the Creature also originally smoked weed in bed instead of drinking milk. Michael's death was much more graphic, with the walls covered in blood, and Taffy had to be digitally removed. Taffy's blood also had to be removed from later scenes in the car with Lisa, since Lisa was originally drenched in it inside the car. The impact of the axe hitting Doug's back also had to be removed.
- #007
Lisa says her favorite film director is "Pabst." Georg Wilhelm Pabst was an Austrian film director active between 1923 and 1956.
- #008
To prepare for the role of the Creature, Cole Sprouse trained for several months in Los Angeles with movement and mime coach Lorin Eric Salm. Because the character does not speak in the film, Salm used mime techniques to help Sprouse learn to express his thoughts, feelings and personality without words.
- #009
Taffy's wardrobe was inspired by the late-1980s styles of Cindy Crawford and Phoebe Cates.
- #010
In the final scene, a character wears rainbow-colored suspenders like Mork from Mork & Mindy (1978). Director Zelda Williams is Robin Williams's daughter.
- #011
The film features two police officers, Officer John and Officer Waters, an obvious reference to John Waters, the king of camp.
- #012
Zelda Williams provides the voice heard on Janet's self-help tape.
- #013
According to Diablo Cody, the film takes place in the same universe as her earlier film Jennifer's Body (2009). The soundtracks of both films include covers of the song "I Can See Clearly Now."
- #014
The poster on Lisa's closet door shows a moon face with a ship moving through its eye. Georges Méliès wrote, directed and produced "Le voyage dans la lune" in 1902, and it is often cited as the first film.
- #015
Lisa's doll is named after actress Kathryn Newton's dog, "Starlight Rosebud Hella Good Boy Gonna Need a Big Bank."
- #016
When the main characters interact for the first time, a Robin Williams album, Throbbing Python of Love, is on the floor as a hidden reference.
- #017
According to her gravestone, Lisa was born in 1971 and died in 1989 at the age of 18. The Creature's gravestone gives only a year of death, 1837, so his age at the time of death is unknown.
- #018
In the first scene after the opening credits, as the camera zooms in on Lisa, a gravestone is shown bearing the name "Frances Owens," the same name as a character in Practical Magic (1998).
- #019
In the United States, where the film is set, there is no tradition of burying single people or those who died unmarried in separate sections of a cemetery. Outside Chicago, Illinois, there is a famous Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, founded in 1844. However, the cemetery contains both married and unmarried deceased of both sexes, and its name derives from a German surname: Batchelder.
- #020
The reanimated corpse is named "The Creature," the name given to the being in Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein novel. Popular culture has called it "Frankenstein's monster," or simply "Frankenstein," a name the novel never applies to it.
- #021
Lisa was initially meant to be portrayed more as a hardcore film buff, but this particular trait of the character had to be downplayed due to rights issues.
- #022
In Cole Sprouse's first film, Big Daddy (1999), he plays a child who chooses to call himself Frankenstein.
- #023
In some of the later scenes, the Creature and Lisa resemble Edward Scissorhands and Kim Boggs from Edward Scissorhands (1990).
- #024
When the Creature kills Janet and takes her ear, a tiny diamond stud is found in her earlobe. Soon afterward the Creature is wearing the diamond stud. Taffy later mentions the studs because her mother had said they would be a gift for Taffy if she perfected a difficult cheerleading move.
- #025
The film is set in 1989.
- #026
Set in 1989, the film takes place in the same year director Zelda Williams was born.
- #027
The song playing when the Creature first enters the house is "Strange" by Galaxie 500.
- #028
On the bookshelf in Lisa's bedroom is LOST SOULS, written by 1990s Southern Gothic horror icon Poppy Z. Brite. It was first published in 1992.
- #029
Taffy says she can't walk to the nearby party because she is "wearing jellies." Jellies are a type of shoe made of clear or glittery PVC plastic, popularized in the 1980s by the Jelly Shoes brand. Because the plastic does not conform to the shape of the foot and molded shoes can have sharp edges, jellies are notorious for causing excessive sweating, blisters and even cuts on the feet.
- #030
It is Henry Eikenberry's first film.
- #031
Kathryn Newton is known as a scratch golfer. When Lisa first encounters the Creature, she defends herself with a golf club.
- #032
When Tamara gives Lisa alcohol and Taffy keeps defending Lisa, Michael Trent says, "Just say no." "Just Say No" was an anti-drug campaign championed by Nancy Reagan in the 1980s. Launched as part of the broader U.S. "War on Drugs," its aim was to teach children and teenagers to refuse drugs by giving them a simple, memorable phrase to use when facing peer pressure. Nancy Reagan promoted the message through school visits, public appearances and media campaigns, making it the central theme of her work as First Lady. Although widely known and culturally influential, the campaign was criticized for oversimplifying the complex social problems tied to drug use, such as poverty, addiction and the lack of treatment resources.
- #033
On the wall of Lisa's bedroom are posters of the 80s band Bauhaus and of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), among others.
- #034
Andrew Levitt, known as the drag queen Nina West, released a song titled "Lisa Frankenstein" in 2019. It is not known whether the film's title was inspired by that song.
- #035
Cole Sprouse played Jughead Jones on Riverdale (2017), adapted from Archie Comics. Since 2013, Archie has published a series of Archie Horror titles in which Jughead and other characters turn into zombies, vampires and werewolves.
- #036
Michael Trent's name may have been inspired by the birth name of Trent Reznor, the musician behind the industrial/electronic/gothic rock group Nine Inch Nails.
- #037
The tanning bed was originally going to be found in a garage. This was eventually changed to a shed instead.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work