Plot summary

In 1989, Lisa Swallows is a lonely teenage girl still struggling to come to terms with the loss of her mother, who was killed by an axe murderer two years earlier. Lisa's father, Dale, remarries a horrid and narcissistic woman named Janet. From the remarriage, Lisa gains a popular, cheerful stepsister, Taffy. Lisa spends much of her time in the local Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, much to the chagrin of her family.After an unfortunate tanning bed electrocution, Lisa heads to a party with Taffy. She is then accidentally drugged and nearly sexually assaulted by a classmate, Doug. Lisa, disoriented and upset, returns to the cemetery and speaks to the grave of a young Victorian man who died in 1837, expressing her desire to be with him. The young man had been a musician who had fallen in love with a woman in his own time, before she had left him for another man. He was shortly killed after being struck by lightning, leaving him to be buried in the bachelor's cemetery. A bolt of green lightning strikes the grave after Lisa leaves, and the young man (referred to as "the Creature" in the film's credits) is brought back to life as a lovesick zombie.Janet berates Lisa for breaking a mirror prior. While Lisa is home alone, the Creature breaks into the house. Despite initially being terrified, Lisa realizes he is the young man whose grave she dotes on, and decides to hide the Creature in her bedroom closet. The Creature is mute, missing multiple body parts, and covered in dirt and debris, all attributes he is deeply ashamed of.After the break-in, Lisa claims that a burglar broke in to explain the mess made by the Creature, but Janet claims she is making it up for attention and to upset Dale, insisting that Lisa is either "crazy" or "inconsiderate". After The Creature leaves a worm in Janet's food, she chastises Lisa and threatens to send her to an asylum. The Creature kills Janet, cutting off her left ear, which Lisa sews onto his head. Prior, both dump Janet's body into the cemetery. Lisa figures out that, using electrocution, body parts can become one with him. She then uses Taffy's tanning bed to put in his ear. Lisa later lures Doug to the cemetery so that the Creature can cut off Doug's right hand. Doug, terrified, tries to run away, but the Creature kills him and hides his body with Janet's. With these new attachments, the Creature starts looking more like his old self, and he and Lisa start to bond further.The police start to investigate Janet's and Doug's disappearances. Taffy sulks over her disappearance while Lisa is unfazed. Lisa narrowly avoids being implicated before going to the home of her crush, Michael, resolving to lose her virginity to him. She finds him in bed with Taffy, despite the latter being aware of Lisa's interest in him, and is devastated. The Creature then enters, chopping off Michael's penis, causing him to bleed to death. He prepares to attack Taffy, but Lisa intervenes. He then drives to the cemetery, and Lisa, with a traumatized Taffy in tow, follows him. Before Lisa goes after the Creature to kill him, she gives Taffy her late mother's rosary as a token for her kindness and sympathy.Lisa confronts the Creature, who admits he loves her. They leave the cemetery after throwing a police officer into an open grave. Lisa attaches Michael's penis to the Creature so they can have sex. With the police zeroing in on Lisa, and now fully embracing death, she convinces the Creature to electrocute her in the tanning bed. The Creature turns on the tanning bed's highest setting, causing Lisa to burn to death.Some time later, Dale and Taffy visit Lisa and Janet's graves. The Creature, now fully alive and able to speak, sits on a park bench and reads Percy Shelley's To Mary to a resurrected and bandaged Lisa as she lies on his lap.