I walked with a zombie: 16 monster love interests that set hearts aflutter

Lisa Frankenstein isn’t the first to bring a zombie to prom. From Bride Of Frankenstein to Shape Of Water, we’re celebrating human-monster romances

By Matt Schimkowitz | February 9, 2024 | 3:00pm

Film Features Monster

I walked with a zombie: 16 monster love interests that set hearts aflutter

Frankenhooker, Gremlins 2, The Bride Of Frankenstein, The Fly, Beauty And The Beast Screenshot: Synapse

There’s something about monsters. Those drippy, growly, hairy freaks that challenge beauty standards and carry shrieking damsels to the depths. However, something strange happens in those depths where the creature’s captive inevitably learns that beauty is only skin deep. Monsters are weirdly and inherently sexy, at least in fairy tales, monster movies, and orc-based romance novels.

The tradition of hot, single monsters continues with Lisa Frankenstein. Directed by Zelda Williams and written by Diablo Cody, who is returning to teen horror comedies for the first time since 2009’s Jennifer’s Body, Lisa Frankenstein tells of a teen girl named Lisa (Kathryn Newton) and her undead beau (Cole Sprouse).

But Frankenstein’s crush isn’t the first Creature who’s single and ready to mingle. Many of cinema’s great monster movies are also love stories featuring a person willing to kiss the lips of a corpse, fish man, ghost, or Gremlin. In honor of these horrific hunks, we’re doing a pre-Valentine’s Day “Monster Mash” and celebrating those moments when monsters and humans enjoy each other’s company and keep their evil in check.

Bride Of Frankenstein: The Monster’s Mate

The Monster Meets His Bride - Bride of Frankenstein (10/10) Movie CLIP (1935) HD

One of the few love interests designed to interest a monster, The Monster’s Mate, a.k.a. The Bride (Elsa Lanchester), knows she’s more than a doctor’s plaything. With her electric Beefeater hairdo, The Bride hisses rejections at a beast who would rather die than spend an eternity without her, reminding us all that a straightforward rejection is all it takes to bring the world crashing down. It’s better than the treatment in Kenneth Bragnagh’s Harlequin-inspired take, which sees the Bride (Helena Bonham Carter) lit ablaze and defenstrated. But the Monster’s simping is entirely understandable. We all want a friend, and a scientist living in a crypt, playing with lilliputians and promising to build you a soulmate is still preferable to Tinder.

My Boyfriend’s Back: Johnny

My Boyfriend’s Back (1993) Scene: “You ate Chuck!”

Before Lisa Frankenstein sent a zombie to high school, dismembered teen tropes with a ghoulish comedic premise. Directed by Bob Balaban (yup, that one) and produced by luminary Sean S. Cunningham, the movie has a bizarre pedigree and a charming, self-sacrificing zombie suitor at the center. After a staged robbery he devised to impress his would-be prom date lands him in the grave, teenage dingus Johnny (Andrew Lowery) becomes a zombie driven by love not brains. Thankfully, he has enough mojo to woo his beloved away from the likes of pre-fame . A guy who would die for you and is impervious to that slings and arrows of mortal jocks? Why are all the good ones taken?

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The Shape Of Water: Amphibian Man

The Shape of Water : A secret love scene....

Among the strangest Best Picture winners in Academy history, was, somehow, the frontrunner. A testment to the power of monster-human romance, it’s not every day that a movie about a mute woman looking to bang an egg-hungry fishman would be the object of industrywide excitement, but that’s the Guillermo del Toro touch. His is a romance that can transcend species or the limitations of human breathing. In del Toro’s hands, ’s Gill-Man becomes a lithe, sinewy, and sexy fish mutant that any girl would be lucky to hold close. At least he and Elisa (Sally Hawkins) have something in common: breakfast.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch: Greta

Gremlins Forster meets his Bride

While Greta is hardly the most obvious suitor in the Gremlins films (Tony Randall’s Brain Gremlin is the best conversationalist), there’s no mistaking her allure. Sure, she’s green and horny and doesn’t take no for an answer, but some guys find that irresistible, which the film’s legendary novelization elaborates on in great detail (the words “roll over me with your hot love” are used). The film famously closes on his willingness to subject himself to Greta’s whims. But love across the human-mogwai divide makes for a stronger world. After all, nobody’s perfect. .

Casper: Casper

Casper | “Can I Keep You?”

Long believed simply a friendly ghost, also turned the specter into the stuff of sexual awakenings á la . Voiced by Devon Sawa, Casper’s kiss with Christina Ricci taught a generation of millennials that kissing a ghost feels like the tingling of a numb appendage. When he transforms into the butt-cut rocking Sawa by the film’s end, the ghoul has become an outright teen heartthrob. With four little words, “Can I keep you?” Casper convinced throngs of adolscents that he was a ghost with the most romance. He’s not the only one. is also quite the snack.

Beauty And The Beast: The Beast

Ending Scene of Beauty and the Beast (1991)

’s titular creature has disappointed admirers for generations. Look, the Beast is a big, furry boy, and . We get it. He’s the kind of guy whose arms you can make a whole nest in. Unfortunately, even Belle can’t hide her dismay at his transformation back into a boring old human. In , it’s even worse: He transforms into a weird hat guy. The horror, the horror. Ultimately, The Beast remains one of the few monster love interests whose bestial state is required.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Dracula

Dracula Encounters Mina | Bram Stoker’s Dracula | Creature Features

Vampires are kind of a cheat. If we really wanted to, we could slip a couple of Cullens, a few , and Catherine Devenue from on here, too. But Gary Oldman’s Dracula has that hair that looks like a butt and a resurrection romance with Winona Ryder’s Mina Harker that transcends time itself, returning to keep Mina from marrying a truly clueless Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves). Like many hopeless romantics, it’s our dream to have a vampire who will love us for eternity and protect us from marrying boring estate lawyers.

Edward Scissorhands: Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands (1990) - Edward Makes Snow Scene (3/5) | Movieclips

Winona Ryder became America’s goth It Girl with her one-two punch of teen misanthropes, ’s child bride Lydia Deets and ’ school shooter Veronica. With , director Tim Burton turned Ryder into the prom queen, dressing her in angel white garb and long blonde hair as if giving her screen persona a make over. Moving Ryder to the popular table gave the audience a reason to believe that these star-crossed lovers could connect across the high school caste that forbids prom queens from dating life-size toys with scissors for hands. Still, those puppy dog eyes and sheepish, wilting voice would have anyone forget that Edward (Johnny Depp) can’t touch without drawing blood. He may not be any good at passing pieces of meat, but he can turn ice into snow.

Let The Right One In: Eli

Let the Right One In (3/12) Movie CLIP - Do You Like Me? (2008) HD

Young love is always a tough conversation when vampires are involved. The delicate romance of this Swedish masterpiece (and its underrated ) is made all the more complicated when a 12-year-old boy (Kåre Hedebrant) develops a bond with a much older vampire in the body of a much younger one (Lina Leandersson). The drawbacks this creates in and should create in never present themselves here, though. Instead, like many monster romances, it’s replaced with the cold pang of a love that cannot be acted upon. A small Morse code kiss will have to do.

King Kong (2005): Kong

King Kong (2005) - ‘Central Park’ scene [1080]

Who wouldn’t want a 50-foot-tall gorilla to sweep them off their feet? While Fay Wray wouldn’t give Kong the time of day, Peter Jackson indulged his monster movie romanticism through a night in Central Park between the beast and his surprisingly game crush, played by Naomi Watts. There’s a lot of heat between these two in , certainly more than the smash-grab lunacy of . Jackson makes that romance palpable and emotional, which is surprising because this woman is attracted to a doomed giant ape.

Hellboy: Hellboy

Hellboy (2004) - Most Touching Scene HD

Guerillmo del Toro is the king of sexy monsters. From to that gilly egg fiend in Shape Of Water, del Toro’s knack for generating heat between supernatural beings and mutants is unparalleled. Hellboy (Ron Pearlman) is one of his most potent cinematic creations. Adapting Mike Mignola’s classic comic series , Red’s romance with Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) became a guiding arc for the films and the character’s humanity. Despite working with typically dark subject matter, del Toro is quite the softie. In his movies, love is what connects, no matter how monstrous the suitor.

Swamp Thing: Alec Holland

Swamp Thing (1982) - Swamp Romance Scene (7/10) | Movieclips

Few have it worse than Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise), a brilliant biochemist turned . As if being plugged into the psychedelic collective consciousness of every ecosystem on Earth wasn’t bad enough, he has the classic monster problem of scaring off his human girlfriend, Alice (Adrienne Barbeau). Luckily for her, sex with a Swamp Thing is a euphoric and otherworldly experience replete with fresh flowers. She’ll be well taken care of by this anthropomorphic spinach salad.

The Fly (1986): Seth Brundle

The Fly (1986) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers

It’s not easy being in a relationship with a partner that’s falling apart, and no one knows that better than ’s Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis). Throughout David Cronenberg’s masterful romantic remake, she watches as beautiful boyfriend Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) goes from a bouffant-sporting scientist into a dripping (not complimentary), decomposing insect man. Goldblum’s performance doesn’t skimp on empathy, and with Davis, they make the process of watching powerlessly as a loved one deteriorates from fly-related side effects a human one.

Possession: Whatever the hell is in Anna’s apartment

Possession (1981) - Official Trailer

They say marriage is hard work, but divorce is a nightmare, especially when your wife is in love with a festering mass of interpersonal resentment and Lovecraftian horror that’s slowly but surely sprouting tentacles. Andrzej Żuławski’s is by no means a simple romance, nor is it a traditional one. But the disintegrating relationship at its center, between a feckless Sam Neill and unpredictable Isabelle Adjani, fosters an atmosphere of psychosexual rage. Anyone in the throws of a complicated breakup will surely understand.

Frankenhooker: Elizabeth Shelly

Frankenhooker (1990) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]

Considering the prevalence of the trope, very few man-made love interests work out. Tracing a line from the Bride’s shrieking, “I do not,” to the pervs from to , one can see the faults of the practice. Frank Henenlotter’s bonkers horror-comedy dumps the trope into a SHARPS container. As in Frankenstein, Dr. Jeffrey Franken (James Lorenz) attempts to revive his fiancee, Elizabeth Shelly (Patty Mullen), after she’s dismembered by an automatic lawnmower. After spending much of the movie trading super-crack for body parts, Jeffrey learns that sex work is work in an ironic twist that rivals Poor Things in the field of ironic body swaps.

The Toxic Avenger: Toxie

‘Melvin & Sara’ The most earnestly romantic couple in schlock!

What happened to poor, 98-pound New Jerseyan Melvin Junko (Mark Torgl) is a shame. Being tossed into a vat of toxic waste did him no favors in terms of living an everyday life. His sex life, on the other hand, got quite a leg up. remains one of Troma’s most re-watchable perversions. Perhaps that’s due, in small part, to the surprisingly touching romance between Toxie (Mitch Cohen) and his blind suitor, Sara (Andree Maranda). The latter half of the 20th century’s most prolific schlockmeister, Lloyd Kaufman, eschews anything remotely approaching nuance and finds the heart of this trash heap of extreme violence and mayhem. Avenger may be a meanspirited superhero parody, but it gets the romantic side of Caped Crusaders better than most of the MCU.