A variation on a theme of “Poor Things,” “Lisa Frankenstein” is another Frankenstein-evoking fantasia, in this case a tale of Goth teen angst from the oracle known as Diablo Cody, screenwriter and producer. There’s something wrong with our heroine Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton). She been traumatized and likes languishing in the woodsy Bachelor Grove Cemetery, reading poetry about doomed love, making gravestone rubbings and dreaming about Michael Trent (Henry Eikenberry), the handsome editor of the high school literary magazine. Lisa also longs to know the long-dead young man whose stone bust decorates his grave. She even leaves a string of colored rosary beads for the dearly departed.

Set in 1989, a time when a sickly world, Lisa included, was serenaded by a band called The Cure, Lisa was left unable to speak for months after her mother (Jennifer Pierce Mathus) had her head cleaved by an ax murderer (Luke Sexton). Soon after her mother’s grisly death, Lisa’s father Dale (Joe Chrest) married a real-life Stepford Wife named Janet (a quite funny Carla Gugino). Lisa lives in Janet’s house with her dad and Janet’s sex-crazed cheerleader daughter Taffy (a fun Liza Soberano).

While not quite of-the-moment as Cody’s screenplay for “Juno” (2007), “Lisa Frankenstein” is a Tim Burton-like examination of the female Goth mentality and what happens when “Corpse Bride” becomes “Corpse Groom.” On an eve of a big storm, a fireball descends upon the grave of the long dead young man, resurrecting him in very bad shape. He is covered in mud and vines and sheds worms. He cannot speak, has no right hand and his left ear is also missing. His tears stink.

But when Lisa, a seamstress, resews a fresh ear (don’t ask) on to the fellow’s head and lowers him into a malfunctioning tanning bed (so Valley Girl), for a lack of the crackling, electric machines provided to the 1931 Universal film by Kenneth Strickfaden, he becomes slightly less dead. Lisa, who works at a local tailor shop, has posters of the 1932 Boris Karloff version of “The Mummy” and of Georges Melies’ moon man with the rocket in his eye on the walls of her room. At the head of her bed is a string of pink lights and morbid drawings by her own hand, including a pair of staring eyes.

Director Zelda Williams (“The Legend of Korra”), daughter of the late Robin Williams, has looked into her lead actor’s face and seen the Gish sisters (Dorothy and Lillian) with their big hair, big eyes and glowing moon faces. She also sees Elsa Lanchester of “The Bride of Frankenstein,” of course. Former child actor Newton has been in a lot of films, including an “Ant-Man” atrocity. But no one has made her look the way she does in “Lisa Frankenstein.”

Credit also goes to make-up artist Jonny Bullard (TV’s The Walking Dead”) and hair stylist Natalie Shea Rose (“The Iron Claw”). Newton, the “Bride” of Gish-Lanchester, delivers a star-making turn in this small, but smart ode to Goth and gore, giving each and every muttered wisecrack and offhand remark a wry lilt. Eikenberry also has a nice way with Cody’s lines. But our film’s true leading man is too dead to speak, so he gets no one liners, but grunts amusingly and can play Mozart after he gets his new right hand. Plus, the idea of a mad lass making the man of her dreams out of the sewn-on parts of the recently murdered is a neatly gory metaphor. And, as Lisa evolves from nerd to Goth goddess, her wardrobe just gets better and better. Can’t fight this feeling any more.

(“Lisa Frankenstein” contains extreme violence and sexually suggestive scenes and language)

“Lisa Frankenstein”

Rated PG-13. At AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay, AMC Causeway and suburban theaters.

Grade: B+

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