Heathers
20th High School High School Reunion Edition
It made overnight stars of Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, shocked uncool film critics everywhere and became one of the biggest cult classics of the '80s. Twenty years later, Heathers remains the only brilliantly black comedy about peer pressure, malicious croquet and having a brain tumor for breakfast. At Westerburg High where cliques rules, jerk jocks dominate and the most popular girls are all named Heather, it's going to take a Veronica (Ryder) and the mysterious - and possibly psychotic - new J.D. (Slater) to give teen angst a body count. Shannen Doherty co-stars in the most cruelly hilarious high school movie ever made, featuring a new, high quality tranfer. The extreme always seems to make an impression: Heathers is back like you've never seen or heard it before!
Member Reviews
Better the 20th time! - mizzy
I have watched and re-watched this movie for years, and everytime I ask myself "would this movie ever have been made today?" The answer, of course, is no and that is what makes it so fantastic. Sarcasm abounds with every frame and I find myself fully engaged in the 1980s pre-PC dialogue. I highly recommend this film. It only gets better with age.Realistically dark and unabashedly candid about the comedy and horrors of high school - napierslogs
Popular girls are so annoying, especially when they are all named Heather. Veronica (Winona Ryder) is like them, except she isn't a Heather and wishes she could be popular without being friends with them. Enter J.D. (Christian Slater), he's one of those bad guys with whispers about the kind of trouble he has gotten into. You know the kind of guy from other films, with rumours about what he did to get kicked out of school. Those rumours are always so exaggerated, except in this case, J.D. may actually be worse than the rumours about him.
After introducing Veronica and J.D., "Heathers" takes some very shocking, disturbing, pitch-black turns. And that's why this film is so brilliant. They took an unflinching look at the maliciousness of high school students and then presented it to us as a comedy. Today, the high school comedies have the popular kids take a girl in a ponytail and glasses and turn her into a hot chick and then the cliques live happily ever after with each other, but "Heathers" has realistically superficial girls and there's a good chance that nobody will be living happily ever after.
The only place this film fails is in their catchy dialogue pretending to be trendy and cool, like "Did you have a brain tumour for breakfast?" It's better written than that. It also teaches a lesson on what happens when you pretend to be trendy and cool. Trust me, it's not pretty. I wouldn't recommend watching "Heathers" before you enter high school, but if you manage to get out of it alive, then this film will show you one of the more fascinating tales.
Follow my blog Napierslogs' Movie Expositions at http://napierslogs.blogspot.comA+ teenager-comedy - eyewitness
I think what I love most about this movie is that it dared to show teenagers doing bad things such as poisoning someone, blowing up the school and attempting to commit suicide. This movie is just as relevant today as when it was made (1988), and teenagers will totally relate to how true-to-life the depictions of daily highschool power-plays are.
If this movie was made now there would be a huge outcry from all kinds of people saying it glorifies teenagers becoming violent criminals -when really it is just a very clever dark comedy. ‘Heathers’ is certainly not an epic movie, but it’s very funny the way it depicts stereotyped high-school personalities and rebellion. When I was a teenager I would have given this movie 5 stars; now (in my 30’s) I give it 4 stars... so my 5-star rating is a compromise to highlight that in our teenage years our sense of humour is a little more wicked.
Member Reviews
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Better the 20th time! - mizzy
I have watched and re-watched this movie for years, and everytime I ask myself "would this movie ever have been made today?" The answer, of course, is no and that is what makes it so fantastic. Sarcasm abounds with every frame and I find myself fully engaged ...Realistically dark and unabashedly candid about the comedy and horrors of high school - napierslogs
Popular girls are so annoying, especially when they are all named Heather. Veronica (Winona Ryder) is like them, except she isn't a Heather and wishes she could be popular without being friends with them. Enter J.D. (Christian Slater), he's one of those bad ...A+ teenager-comedy - eyewitness
I think what I love most about this movie is that it dared to show teenagers doing bad things such as poisoning someone, blowing up the school and attempting to commit suicide. This movie is just as relevant today as when it was made (1988), and teenagers ...