Imagine if Edward Scissorhands met Andie from Pretty in Pink and helped her transform into Veronica from Heathers, and you have an idea of the vibe Lisa Frankenstein gives off.

Lisa Frankenstein, the new film from director Zelda Williams from a script by Diablo Cody, but you’d be forgiven if the movie puts you more in mind of the works of John Hughes and Tim Burton, and not just because the film absolutely nails the time period its set in (1989.)

Lisa, played by Kathryn Newton (Freaky, the upcoming Abigail), is a moody, unpopular girl who is made to transfer schools after her newly widowed father Dale (John Chrest), remarries. His new bride, uptight nurse Janet (Carla Gugino), has a daughter Lisa’s age. Of course, Taffy (Liza Soberano), Lisa’s stepsister, couldn’t be more unlike Lisa: she’s sunny and popular, and a cheerleader. But there’s no animosity between the two; Taffy especially embraces her new sister.

Taffy is not above revealing Lisa’s tragic backstory though: the movie opens with a teen movie standard-issue party, and while Lisa is off getting into trouble, Taffy tells a rapt audience that Lisa’s mother was murdered by a masked intruder who broke into their house.

Elsewhere, Lisa, trying to fit in with her new peers (and impress a cute guy), takes a swig of a spiked drink, and instantly regrets it. Whatever was in the drink has her in a pyschedelic haze, leading first to a sexual assault, and then to her wandering through the cemetery where she spends all her free time.

Why does she spend all her free time there? Besides being the weird girl, who makes grave rubbings and reads propped up against tombstones, she also has a teeny crush on one of the dead: a young man, last name Frankenstein. He’s long dead, but left behind a handsome grave marker: a bust that bears an uncanny resemblance to Riverdale alum Cole Sprouse.

As the inebriated Lisa stumbles through the graveyard, she stops at her favorite monument, expressing her wish to be with the young man buried there. An eerily green lightning strike from the gathering storm grants that wish.

The creature, mute and musty from the tomb, finds his way to Lisa’s house, breaking in through a window in much the same way as the masked killer who butchered her mom. But this situation turns from emergency to opportunity awfully fast. Soon, Lisa and her newfound friend go through the requisite makeover montage, as Lisa tries to make the Creature a little less revolting.

But the young people’s passions turn, as they must, to murder, and the candy-colored fairytale atmosphere grows significantly darker. Lisa’s skills as a seamstress come in handy, and not because she’s making a dress for prom.

The tonal shift of the film isn’t exactly a surprise, but it does seem a bit jarring, and perhaps could have been handled with a bit more care; when characters we have just started to love behave badly with other characters we have grown fond of, we lose sympathy for our putative heroes. Still, the movie does manage to pull off an ending that makes up for that, at least a little.

What Lisa Frankenstein gets right are all the ’80s set dressings, hairstyles, costumes and other touches, that when punctuated with a slammin’ new-wave soundtrack, feel extremely authentic to anyone who actually made it through the decade. The fabric alone, resplendent jewel toned florals and jazzy abstract art patterns, had to be unearthed from some forgotten Joanne’s warehouse bin. Speaking of costuming, viewers should easily spot a tribute by first-time director Williams to her father, the late comic Robin Williams.

The movie is dark, but it’s a dark comedy, and has some very funny bits, even as it hammers home the reality of who is the true monster: Frankenstein or the Creation. Still, it has a lot to recommend it, so if you can take the sweet with the spoilt, Lisa Frankenstein is an enjoyable monster movie for our time – or at least for the 1980s.