Do you ever feel like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster? Keke Palmer, the heart and soul of Jordan Peele’s Nope and star of Peacock’s The ‘Burbs, just admitted that she does. On Oct. 30, the Scream Queens alum dropped “Keke Frankenstein,” where she sings about moving out of survival mode and stitching herself back together after heartbreak.
“So when you witness this rebirth, know that it’s divine / I was cut apart and rebuilt, I was water redefined / Call it monstrous, call it holy, either way, the frame is mine / Behold the rise of (Keke) Frankenstein,” Palmer sings. Renaissance continues to be a theme in Palmer’s life. Following her very public breakup with ex-partner Darius Jackson, with whom she shares her son Leo, Palmer has been frank about her healing, in both her interviews and on her recent album, Just Keke.
In sharing her Halloween single, Palmer also teased a music video where she’ll play both the role of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. “Some girls are born. Others are MADE. ⚡️A little electricity, a little experimentation, and a whole lot of KEKE,” Palmer wrote on Instagram. “The monster has awakened.”
It’s clear that Palmer is a die-hard Universal Monsters fan. For her son’s first Halloween, Palmer nodded to The Bride of Frankenstein by dressing herself up as The Monster’s Mate and her son up as Dr. Frankenstein. Serving undead face from the operating table, Palmer quipped, “He gave me LIFE.”
This year’s track feels like a natural progression from Halloween 2023. To be fair, Dread Central has a soft spot for Palmer’s more macabre inclinations. She tapped into her inner horror host for Dread Manor, a Tales from the Crypt-style anthology series that debuted last spooky season — for which she was Dread Central’s September 2025 cover star. She gushed to Dread Central about all the horror that made her the fan she is today.
“It was definitely the original IT miniseries… Tim Curry is incredible. It changed how we felt about clowns in the same way that Jaws changed how people felt about sharks,” Palmer told Dread Central. She also confessed that Candyman left an indelible mark on her. “For us, just going in the bathroom and somebody forcing you to say Candyman a few times would literally give us nightmares.”
Palmer also said she loves A Nightmare on Elm Street, citing Freddy Krueger as one of her all-time favorite villains. In “Keke Frankenstein,” you can hear Palmer flirting with her villain era as she sings, “I ain’t running from the shadows, I’ll be dancing with the freaks / Let the trauma do a two-step while I rise above the peaks / All the pieces you call broken came back shining, came back sleek / Now the girl you thought was fragile could go terrorize the streets.”
Visuals aside, the lyrics of “Keke Frankenstein” are so evocative — enough to make Mary Shelley proud. Palmer also told Dread Central that she’s excited about the opportunity to develop more horror media through KeyTV, so this surely won’t be the last time you see something spine-tingling from this spooky queen.