Review of Heathers (1989) by Tyler M — 31 Mar 2012

Chaos is what killed the dinosaurs, darling.

It's a black comedy that will take you back to a simpler time... And by simpler time I mean, a time where you could make a great comedy about high school murder and not be "politically incorrect", or be taken too seriously by groups of parents that all want to blame the media for the fact that their children are morally corrupt and mentally unstable, just because they can't admit that maybe, just maybe they weren't great parents and role models, and maybe they're to blame just a little... Remember those days? Ah, what joy the 80's were...

The Story: Two troubled teens, Veronica and Jason inadvertently turn suicide into something cool when they start murdering the popular students in school... It's got a lot of great dark humor to it, a little bit of blood, and an excessive use of lame "cool" phrases like "what's your damage?" or "I gotta motor if I want to get to the party on time". It moves along at a swift pace, it'll be over before you know it, and even though it's not the most stylish film in the world it doesn't look too bad. There's a few moments where the lighting is nothing but great, there's just something about seeing Christian Slater lit with a blue light to make him look all that more creepy. An interesting story told in an interesting way. My biggest problem with it was the ending, I won't spoil anything for you but it just seemed a little overblown to me.

The Cast: Kim Walker, Winona Ryder, Christian Slater... Kim Walker is one of the three Heathers, the leader of the most popular group in high school. She's not in the entire film, but the part that she is in, is done with the perfect touch of evil. Winona Ryder is Veronica, a troubled teen with the soul of a poet. Torn between wanting to be popular and wanting to be free of all the social anguish that it causes her. I think this is probably one of my favorite roles of hers, as she plays the part with ease. Christian Slater is Jason, you're average manipulative psychopath. It works for him, I don't think anyone even today could pull this role off as well as he does. The characters are all great if not only slightly over exaggerated, and the performances are great (even if they are from the 80's...Ha-ha).

One to Five Scale: 4.

It's great dark humor meant for anyone that wasn't sitting at the cool table in high school. It's definitely worth a look back.

Tyler.