Heathers (1988) Review

 

Heathers (1988)

Heathers follows Veronica, a member of the most popular clique in school. After her and new boyfriend J.D. accidentally kill the leader of said clique however, they stage it to look like a suicide, springing a trend of follow-up suicides that aren’t really what they seem.

There’s a reason Heathers has had such an enduring legacy and that’s because it took the cute and romanticized teen films, of the likes of John Hughes, and drove a stake through them. It shows the dark, more realistic elements of high school life and painfully satirizes them to point where you’re left wondering “How the hell did this ever get made?”. It’s a precursor to the misunderstood and bracingly nihilistic views of the youth of the 90s, with a strong correlation being drawn between society and mortality. It’s one of those films that is unforgettably funny, yet morose in the reality of what’s happening. There’s a guilt you feel in laughing at how outrageous some of it comes off as, but then again, not everything is like Twin Peaks. We all process death in strange ways and for the unpopular crowd, you’d be lying if thoughts like those hadn’t crossed your minds before.

It’s such common place that it’s almost trendy and without shock, making movies like Rivers Edge seem, well...real. Suicide deifies these horrible individuals, where you look at them as human in retrospect (which makes their elaborate murders at the hands of J.D. and Veronica feel somewhat poetic). They strived for popularity in life, but only truly achieved it in death. Which proves to the insane irony when the unpopular kid attempts to kill herself, fails, and is further reduced to ridicule. It’s such an unruly comment on teen suicide.

The cast is phenomenal, featuring Kim Walker, Shannen Doherty, Christian Slater, and Winona Ryder. Slater and Ryder steal every scene they’re in, with his deeply disturbing portrayal of a psychopath balancing well against her morally grey heroine with a heart.

Heathers, directed by Michael Lehman, is a shockingly funny but morbid satire that nonchalantly treats suicide as a means to an end, somehow being even more relevant over 30 years on.

8.9/10