Review of Heathers (1989) by Gareth M — 15 Apr 2009

I can't believe I put this one off for so long. I'm going to blame the people who recommended this to me over the past ten years because most of them were overly angsty unemployed people who spent way to much of their time making serious plans for when they become vampires. Sigh.

Not saying that those people were right - I'm sure the enjoyed it for very different reasons than me - Heathers is an awesome film. Starting with the most popular clique in a high school, made up of Heather, Heather, Heather and Veronica, we're presented with a strangely accurate representation of high school clique culture. This topic has been covered in films plenty of times over the past couple of decades, but the furthest things go is for the protagonist to pull so revenge pranks on the popular kid leading to them being humiliated. Heathers takes a different tack showing the downright nastiness that comes with this playground structure, and the truly dark thoughts that teens carry around with them.

The realism stops there as we get into the blisteringly dark comedy with the entrance of J.D., Christian Slater's outward rebel who internally is a sociopath born out of trauma, and his relationship with Veronica as she sets out to right the wrongs of the school with murder and suicides.

Themes of teen suicide, violence, absent parents and abusive school cliques hardly sounds like comedic material, but it's presented in such a dark and stylish manner that it works a treat. Highly entertaining from start to finish with moments of disbelief blended with hysterical comedy.