Heathers (1988)

This film has become a teenage cult classic for good reason. It’s a great film! The story is a very black comedy about the pressures of being popular at high school. The story goes something like this…

The most popular clique at Westerberg High school consists of three girls named Heather (hence the title) and their hanger-on Veronica (Winona Ryder). Despite being popular, the three Heathers are bitchy, mean and nasty, even to Veronica. They are Heather Chandler, the leader (Kim Walker), Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty) and Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk). Veronica realises that her best friends are also her worst enemies.

Things soon change for her when she meets up with another student, Jason Dean, a.k.a. JD (Christian Slater). JD is psychotic to say the least, and conspires with Veronica to kill first Heather Chandler, and then others who JD feels deserve to die. JD appears to have no conscience when it comes to murder, unlike Veronica, who tries to break their relationship off. However, JD is unstoppable…

I must admit, I wasn’t expecting great things from this movie, but found it to be quite addictive – you just have to find out what happens next! The performances from all of the leading actors were stunning, and this draws you into the story. The storyline itself is very quirky and unpredictable, and I found it to be reminiscent of one of Christian Slater’s later movies “Very Bad Things”, which I also loved.

There was only one flaw in this film for me. Without giving too much away, one of the main characters to be murdered, turns up later in the film alive and well for some unexplained reason! I didn’t quite understand how this error could have been missed by everyone involved!

In conclusion though, Heathers is a very enjoyable movie and certainly worth a watch (at least once). I challenge anyone to watch this and be bored!