Everyone in my inner and outer circles knows how much Lisa Frankenstein means to me as a film.
The story of a goth teenage girl, othered by her peers, finding kinship with an undead Victorian man was really the stuff of dreams when I was in high school. I never had a lot of friends, and in turn I always found the idea of someone loving me from beyond the grave exceptionally desirable. It could justify why I didn’t fit in, I could write off no one asking me to dance at prom as being because I was too tortured, too beautiful, too wonderful for mere mortal men (or women). And while I can, and have, sung the praises of this movie time and time again, from the characters to the narrative to the direction, all the way to the colouring, I feel one character is deserving of a bit more loving attention. Far from your typical 80’s bitch in a movie, and anything but a wicked stepsister, the character of Taffy is one of the most special characters in the film. She is unwaveringly kind, incredibly human, and the most unique take on a final girl I have seen for quite some time.
For starters, director Zelda Williams noted that the role of Taffy was difficult to cast as she didn’t want her to just be a mean girl, but instead be a sisterly figure to Lisa, and Liza Soberano fits that bill perfectly. After her mother, Janet, marries Lisa’s father, Dale, Taffy seems to be the only member of either family excited and happy that they are all coming together. She is excited to be a sister, and immediately feels comfortable referring to Dale as ‘Dad’. Soberano has a natural charm to her and is quickly endeared to the audience through her attempts to bond with Lisa. Taffy is beautiful, she is popular, she is a cheerleader, and she is liked by pretty much everyone she meets instantly – and while she is confident, she is hardly cocky. During their very first interaction as they both prepare to go to a party, Taffy gives Lisa make up tips and offers up her tanning bed to try and make Lisa feel good in her skin, a tanning bed she won as one of her many prizes from the many beauty pageants she has won. From there, they are driving to the party and she asks questions about how Lisa is doing fitting in at school, if there are any boys she likes, the usual things you would see an earnest step-parent do in order to bond with their new child. However, it is not the parent in this scene, it’s Taffy, the only person (besides the Creature, who isn’t even reanimated yet) that has any love in their heart for Lisa.
And that’s what makes Taffy’s journey such a unique one – like the Creature, many of Taffy’s motivations are spurred on by her love for Lisa. She gives Lisa the outfits that start to earn her more attention at school, as well as trying to encourage Lisa to aim higher than her current school crush, Michael Trent. Taffy, also like the Creature, is protective over Lisa but to a much lesser degree. Janet is Lisa’s biggest critic if not her biggest bully, and while her own father allows Janet to torment his daughter, an unafraid Taffy is quick to shut her mother down. Everything bizarre or off putting about Lisa Taffy just doesn’t see or writes off as her adjusting to life with them. When Janet and the other kids at school react negatively to Lisa, Taffy just can’t fathom as to why as she truly loves her sister. Taffy is such a special character because she does truly love everyone, from Lisa to Janet to the kids at school, Taffy’s character is one solely motivated by her need to help. This is the biggest and most obvious way she is a a subversion of the ‘step sister’ trope that was so especially prevalent in 80’s films. Taffy truly believes everyone has the best intentions, such as sharing secrets she should keep but only because she believes her friends won’t tell, or believing a teenage boy’s lies when he is clearly just using her for sex. It makes sense to the audience that Taffy believes these things because she assumes everyone would be like her, and only have good intentions. Taffy is such a good person in a film that is so filled with chaos that you can’t help but to love her and hope that she perseveres.
Like the Creature, Taffy is incredibly protective over Lisa. Taffy also not only encourages Lisa to go to the party we see at the beginning of the film, but adamantly defends her when someone gives her a spiked drink – a friend of Michael Trent. We then see her give the cold shoulder to Michael throughout most of the film, even telling Lisa that she could do way better than him. Whereas the Creature’s love and protection for Lisa is (mostly) incredibly selfless, Taffy’s protectiveness shifts from selfless to selfish as the film progresses. While it is revealed later that Taffy has been secretly dating Michael since confronting him at the party, she tries to hide it from Lisa throughout most of the film in order to protect her and, selfishly, likely to allow herself to continue dating him. Her encouraging Lisa to pursue other guys is her justifying doing something she knows will hurt Lisa, something she is clearly very uncomfortable with. However, this all comes crumbling down after the disappearance of Janet.
After her mother goes missing (unbeknownst to her, killed by Lisa and the Creature), Taffy goes into somewhat of a spiral, trying to find some sense of normalcy and love in the chaos. While she is still tremendously kind to Lisa, that kindness is never fully reciprocated, especially as Lisa is going on a mild power trip as she and Creature are on their kick ass, feel good, killing spree. As Lisa feels better about herself, she does not use that confidence to try and build up Taffy, who the film implies always has had good intentions and seemingly never struggled in her life. This loneliness manifests itself in her only being able to turn to Michael, someone who seemingly liked her for ‘more than her body’ (I fucking hate Michael Trent. When Creature cut his dick off, I cheered. We all know a Michael Trent and we all hate him), only for it to be revealed that Michael apparently thought she was dumb, and dating her allowed him to be the cool and intelligent one. Before even being able to process this, Creature comes in and in one of the best scenes ever, cuts Michael’s dick off as no one stops him. Because Taffy is there in bed with Michael, whom Lisa told him she had a crush on, she is almost next to die because she hurt Lisa. Fortunately, Lisa is able to protect Taffy, and the two temporarily split up, leaving a blood soaked, traumatized Taffy with one of the most non-empathetic people in the world, Lisa Swallows.
Taffy can barely walk to the car in the next scene, traumatized from what has happened, only communicating in screams and whimpers, elevating her from loving sister to final girl status. Covered in blood, with her mom and boyfriend dead, now it’s just her and the killer – while most would not look at Taffy and see the final girl trope, that is exactly what it is. However unlike the final girl in every other horror comedy, or horror movie, ever, it is not learning to overpower your enemies that saves her, but the unconditional love she has for others throughout the film. Lisa confronts Taffy not with bloodshed, but an apology, noting that though she never showed it to Taffy’s face, she did notice how kind Taffy was to her. To me, this was like the Sixth Sense reveal, where everything came together – suddenly we remember all the times Lisa cited Taffy’s advice as gospel truth, or how Taffy’s compliments meant a lot to her. While she could never be happy in the way Taffy wanted her to be, by being, from Taffy’s perspective, the less hot, little sister version of herself, Lisa did love her sister. And it’s this bond that saves Taffy. Lisa goes to confront Creature, leaving Taffy with a hug and the rosary her mother gave to her, something meant to protect her. Alone, Taffy walks to the side of the road, silent, stumbling, and covered in blood – like every Laurie and Sydney before her. However unlike those films, there are no police there to whisk her away or to get her hero’s journey. We even see a car drive right past her, not even stopping to check in. Love was enough to save Taffy, but now that she’s not her perfect self, no one is able to reciprocate besides Lisa, who truly sees Taffy as she is.
While this ending is powerful enough, we then cut to the second of three endings, months after Lisa has died. Dale and Taffy, the only two remaining people in the family, are going to visit her and Janet’s graves. When we see Taffy, she is not angry or scornful, wishing to be anywhere else. Instead, she is wearing the rosary Lisa gave her, gently placing down flowers at her sister’s grave. Despite everything she has been through, everyone she has lost, Taffy has not lost herself. She is still the loving, kind person she was at the beginning, if not just maybe more world wary than before. While she doesn’t know the specifics of Lisa’s boyfriend being an undead zombie, or what exactly happened, Taffy is a final girl who has not become a cynic from her trauma, but just a more mature version, one who can love her sister while still being horrified at the carnage in her wake.
There are no final girls like Taffy, and I doubt there will be again. Lisa Frankenstein is a special film, and only here could a character like Taffy exist. Liza Soberano is truly one of the best actors I have ever seen, and I cannot wait to see her in more Hollywood productions. There’s a fine line to walk between being likeable and being too much, and Soberano walks that line with all of the skill of a professional tightrope walker. Taffy is a character I truly love with my whole heart, just like she loved everyone around her, and she is a character I hope to emulate in my own creative works. While every single character in this movie is the fictional love of my life, Taffy’s character was the surprise dark horse that really earned her spot as my absolute favourite final girl.