Ahead of its February 9 theatrical release, highly anticipated horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein held its premiere Monday in Los Angeles.

Penned by Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body, Juno) and directed by Zelda Williams, the film is a “coming of rage story” about misunderstood teenage girl Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) who resurrects a handsome corpse (Cole Sprouse). Together, the two embark on a “murderous journey to find love, happiness… and a few missing body parts along the way.”

Additional cast members include Liza Soberano, Carla Gugino, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, Jenna Davis, Joey Harris, Sylvia Grace Crim, and Paola Andino. Cody and Mason Novick serve as co-producers; Jeffrey Lampert is an executive producer. It also marks Williams’ feature film directorial debut.

To celebrate the upcoming release, The Nerds of Color attended the red carpet and special screening. We chatted with Zelda Williams, Liza Soberano, Cole Sprouse, and costume designer Meagan Mclaughlin Luster. Read on below to see what they had to say!

Williams spoke about embracing the campiness and fun of the premise. “It’s meant to be kind of a very silly romp of a film,” she said of Lisa Frankenstein. “So many things these days are very measured, and they want things to be very reality based. And when you’re leaving reality, I think you have to go as far as everyone will let you.”

The director, who’s long-time close friends with star Cole Sprouse, described the ease of working with him. “The nice thing when you have a built in trust is that that shorthand becomes very easy and second nature,” she explained. “Him and I already talk all the time. And I think, you know, if that communication is there, that’s half the battle of any director. Especially when he’s doing something as weird as being a bumbling, wordless zombie. So it worked very seamlessly for us.”

Soberano, who plays Lisa’s step-sister Taffy, admitted that attending her first Hollywood premiere felt a bit nerve-wracking. Although the actress is already incredibly accomplished in the Philippines, Lisa Frankenstein is her US debut.

“I’m finally starting to feel nervous,” she told NOC. “A couple of days leading up to the premiere, I was like, ‘I feel nothing. I feel chill; it’s gonna be a chill time.’ [Then] I get here and my legs are shaking.”

Soberano also reflected on the “funny and relatable” sister relationship between Taffy and Lisa. “My favorite part about Taffy and Lisa’s relationship is [that] I think there’s an imbalance in the way that they see their relationship,” she said. “Taffy totally thinks that like they see eye-to-eye, that they’re on the same page [and] feel the same way about each other while Lisa is kind of like aloof around taffy. She’s like, ‘I’m not so sure about you.’ I think that’s so funny and so relatable actually. I’m an older sister to nine younger siblings — sometimes I feel like I’m overstepping some boundaries in my efforts to like become closer to them, and they’re just, like, annoyed out of their mind. I think it’s funny and endearing.”

Next, we chatted with Sprouse. When asked how he thinks his Riverdale character, Jughead Jones, would get along with his Lisa Frankenstein character, The Creature, he answered, “I think they’d probably be pretty close friends as long as he could get past the idea that The Creature was dead. I feel like [after] seven seasons of the show, much [more] insane things [have] happened than a dead zombie Frankenstein walking around.”

Finally, we caught up with costume designer Mclaughlin Luster. She described the ’80s aesthetic as a trip down “memory lane,” and also revealed that most of the wardrobe items came from her own storage unit.

If she had to pick one outfit she was most proud of from the film, it would be the “dream sequence,” hands down. “It’s described as an 1847 dress [with] Pabt’s Blue Ribbon logo on it,” she said, referring to the outfit Lisa wears in the scene. “So I did my research and just went with that when I started to sketch it. It’s a lot of fun when people let you be creative.”

Lisa Frankenstein hits theaters February 9. Stay tuned for more coverage and interviews!