Heathers (1988)
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Heathers Movie Review
Heathers is a 1988 teen dark comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann and starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. It’s such a weird, different genre film.
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“Whether to kill yourself or not is one of the most
important decisions a teenager can make“
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Veronica is part of the most popular clique at her high school, but she disapproves of the other girls’ cruel behavior. When Veronica and her new boyfriend, J.D. confront clique leader Heather Chandler and accidentally poison her, they make it appear a suicide. Soon she realizes that J.D. is intentionally killing students he does not like. She races to stop J.D.
I honestly did not expect this movie to be this dark. Yes, this is very much a thriller/maybe even horror take on the teen genre where a teenage couple begins a killing spree in school. Thus, the movie explores teenage apathy, nihilism and lack of compassion so well.
It portrays how awful human beings can be at this particular age if not unchecked, but I personally found the script just good enough, and never particularly sophisticated as these themes are only glanced upon and never fully explored which was disappointing.
Winona Ryder was a breakthrough star during this period as she also had ‘Beetlejuice’ in the same year. Here, she truly delivered and showcased how talented she was at such a young age. Her performance is easily the best one, a scene-stealer and her character is phenomenally developed, complex and very interesting to follow.
I also liked Christian Slater in the role of J.D. The character is a psychopath, and a rather creepy one when you get into account that such teenagers exist, especially in the US. I liked their relationship, and eventual clash. I also really liked the titular Heathers and that entire concept was first explored here to a great effect as we see how annoying that can truly be.
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Heathers is also a very funny movie at times as its black humor is really strong. It’s not funny throughout, but it can be funny in certain situations. The dialogue is also excellent, and very memorable in some lines being perfectly delivered by its cast. I loved the thriller elements and I wanted even more of them. The film is well made across the board, but a bit too odd to get accustomed to, though I truly appreciated its balls to be different and unique.
Heathers is such a weird movie. It’s difficult to get accustomed to at first, but it needs to be appreciated how unique it is for the teen genre as it’s a black comedy with strong thriller overtones. Winona Ryder is fantastic in what was her breakout year, and the dialogue and humor are both very strong. The film interestingly deals with adolescent apathy and nihilism, but it needed to have explored those themes a bit more in order to make a bigger impact.
