Through directors like John Hughes, 80s teen movies became pop culture forever canon.
These optimistic movies sorted teens into nice-n-neat stereotypes and brought their angst to happy conclusions.
Emotional jocks, high-achieving nerds, and the under-pressure popular find common ground in The Breakfast Club; the poor but attractive girl next door wins the dreamy older rich male in Pretty in Pink.
But that’s not how high school works. Somebody needed to give these feel-good vibes a sucker punch.
Enter screenwriter Daniel Waters’s Heathers, a cynical, dark satire of the 80s teen genre.
Heathers isn’t a good-natured or raunchy spoof film getting a few needles in.
This is a semi-surreal high school experience where accidental murders plague its sweet protagonist and teen suicide gets trendy.
But only some were keen on the joke.
The film disappointed the box office, making back ~$1 million of its $~3 million budget.
But like many brave films, it hit the video market and found a fanbase that continues today.
So is Heathers a good movie?
The Plot of Heathers:
Westerburg High School student Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) has three frenemies and just one name to call them: Heather.
A member of the most popular clique at school, Veronica follows the orders of its leader, Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), whether she likes them or not. Two other members, Heathers Duke (Shannen Doherty) and McNamara (Lisanne Falk), fill out the numbers.
Missing her old friends and less-popular life, Veronica is ready to ditch the Heathers.
And when she starts a romance with the mysterious Jason “J.D.” Dean (Christian Slater), he offers her a sadistic way out.
When Veronica tries to prank Heather Chandler with a baloney hangover cure, J.D. knowingly causes a mixup, swapping Veronica’s milk and orange juice concoction for drain cleaner.
Veronica unknowingly delivers the poison to Heather Chandler, who drinks it and promptly dies.
Shocked at Heather Chandler’s death and fearing the consequences, J.D. convinces Veronica to cover it up as a suicide. Veronica writes a goodbye note in Heather Chandler’s handwriting.
As J.D. and Veronica’s relationship continues, more murders pile up, and suicide trends among Westerburg’s teens.
The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:
- Penelope Milford as Pauline Fleming
- Glenn Shadix as Father Ripper
- Lance Fenton as Kurt Kelly
- Patrick Labyorteaux as Ram Sweeney
- Jeremy Applegate as Peter Dawson
- Renee Estevez as Betty Finn
- Carrie Lynn as Martha “Dumptruck” Dunnstock
- John Ingle as Principal Gowan
- Kirk Scott as Big Bud Dean
- William Cort as Veronica’s Dad
- Jennifer Rhodes as Veronica’s Mom
Fun Fact: Screenwriter Daniel Waters is the brother of Mark Waters, director of teen genre classic Mean Girls. Making celebrated teen films must be a DNA thing.
The Good Things:
Surreal Tone, +4 Points
From the cinematography, props, and down to the dialogue, this film operates on a skewed frequency.
We don’t go full Log Lady from Twin Peaks, but the movie dances to an offbeat.
The colors are bright and saturated, like the vibrant red flowers in Heather Chandler’s funeral scene.
Veronica wears an old-timey monocle when she writes in her diary. It connects the audience to her wise-beyond-her-years, self-reflective persona.
In the opening scene (more on that in a bit), there’s a floating, otherworldly score and a bit of slow-motion as Heather McNamara plants a note on Heather Dumptruck’s tray.
And J.D. and his father, Big Bud, have an awkward dynamic where they converse in reverse.
Big Bud knocks at J.D.’s door and says, “Hey, Pop, I need some help with my homework.” J.D. replies, “Not right now, Tiger. I’m a little busy.”
The continuity holds together, as this collective oddness adds up to just Heathers.
How’s That for Introductions, +2 Points
The opening scenes glide at full storytelling quality, revealing information without heavy-handedness.
The film starts with Veronica’s dream. To a swooning, nostalgic song about young innocence, we see the tying of Heather Chandler’s all-powerful, symbolic red scrunchie.
And we zoom out to see we’re in a grandiose garden, the three Heathers like young royalty in colorful tights. They whack a croquet ball at Veronica’s head, buried in the grass.
It shows us everything about the dynamics of the group.
And we go straight to the cafeteria scene, the ferocious jungle of teen dynamics.
We’re introduced to punching bag Martha Dumptruck, the lewd jocks Kurt and Ram, and quiet J.D., who is clearly staring at Veronica.
And in writing a prank love note delivered to Martha, we learn about Veronica’s talent for forging handwriting and her reluctance to prey on people.
By six minutes into the film, the audience understands everything about the playing field. It’s an impressive piece of writing and cinematography.
Fun Fact: The cafeteria scene is an homage to Full Metal Jacket’s boot camp, as Waters wrote the script hoping Stanley Kubrick would direct.
Dialogue to Die For, +4 Points
Westerburg High School is a snarky shark pit only the sharp-tongued can navigate.
Rather than nuanced power plays or social strategizing, all the bite and harsh feelings of high school politics come roaring unfiltered from these teens’ mouths.
And Waters created original slang so the film could last generations. The movie sounds 80s but in a timeless way.
Things can be “very” (which seems a precursor to “extra” of today), and characters constantly ask, “What’s your damage?”
And all the Heathers call each other “Heather” instead of their last names or add last letters so they can be told apart, a choice that adds to the brattiness.
Dark Jokes Done Well, +6 Points
**Minor Spoilers Here**
This film’s jokes reveal human beings at their most raw.
The funeral scene where people pray next to a dead Heather and we hear their thoughts is outrageous.
Ram can only lament that God killed “such a hot piece of snatch.” All Peter can do is pray that suicide never happens to him as he’d be unable to take it and for fast acceptance to an Ivy League school. Heather Duke thanks God for answering her prayers. Veronica doesn’t want to deal with the responsibility of having a hand in Heather Chandler’s death.
And then there’s the savage meeting of Principal Gowan and the teachers debating whether to dismiss the students early because of Heather Chandler’s suicide.
Hippie Ms. Fleming begs them to “revel in this revealing moment,” hoping to have a talk-and-feel session on embracing the tragedy. She’s promptly shut down with eye rolls, and Principal Gowan asks her to “let him know when the shuttle lands.”
And Principal Gowan is disappointed to find out it’s not Heather McNamara that died, declaring he’d be happy to go half a day for a cheerleader.
It’s hilarious yet hints at a poignant commentary: These adults dismiss or flat-out don’t understand teens.
The Not-as-Good Things:
Endings to Please Executives, -1 Point
**Heavy Spoiler Alerts Here**
The original script ended the film with J.D. blowing up the school and all its students with it, followed by a prom in the afterlife.
But before agreeing to finance the film, New World Pictures executives wanted a change.
Other endings were written, some of them dark. But we ended up with Veronica thwarting J.D. and offering to get together with Martha Dumptruck for popcorn and movies.
It’s an OK ending, as Veronica resolves her conflict with the Heathers. With her slate now wiped clean, she can go about her wishes of connecting with those lower on the high school food chain.
But while it doesn’t ruin the film, it feels like a missed opportunity. Unlike the rest of the movie, there’s too much feel-good spin here.
School Violence Doesn’t Age Well, -0 Points
**Spoiler Alerts Here**
Oh boy. Back in 1989, you could release a movie where a white male with mental issues wears a long coat, fires a gun full of blanks at bullies, plots to murder and does murder classmates, and attempts to blow up the school.
It’s not a film that revels in violence, as the deaths only serve the plot.
But the school shooting associations in the post-Columbine and Sandy Hook era (as well as many other tragedies) feel uncomfortable.
I didn’t think a studio around would dare to green-light this movie now, though it has gone on to become a musical and TV series remake.
No points deduction here, but just an observation and a warning that this subject matter can get uncomfortable in our time.
Go Watch Heathers
Total Arbitrary Points Score: 15 Points
Heathers is a high school dark comedy masterpiece. It’s a swirling middle finger to a genre known for placating teenage angst.
Its surreal tone and outlandish jokes will have your jaw on the floor. And it’s a masterclass in dialogue.
Unappreciated on its release, rumor has it the film connected with college audiences over current high schoolers.
This makes sense as Heathers is a teen movie for adults – an ideal film for bitter graduates, able to look back with a mature and jaded perspective.
The scenes depicting school violence can get uncomfortable today, and it was nudged out of its original surreal ending.
But like many brave films that struggle to find an audience, Heathers is now a classic.
So if you haven’t seen it yet, what’s your damage?
The Legacy of Heathers:
Heathers left behind a lasting legacy.
We’ve already discussed how it is like a wacky mirror of the John Hughes teen films, but it’s worth a reminder here in this legacy section.
I can’t think of (though it may exist) a film before it that pushed biting satire onto the teen genre. There were 1980s teen sex comedies like Porky’s and high school comedies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Still, those films aren’t delivered in a tone and spirit like this.
Plenty of films came after it, though – for one, Mean Girls.
And what’s funny about Mean Girls is that it was directed by Mark Waters, screenwriter Daniel’s younger brother. I guess teen comedies run in the family.
But there are also teen-centered films like Alexander Payne’s high school satire Election, which you would imagine was aware of Heathers, and then Jawbreaker, which 100% has been said to partially have been inspired by it.
Back in 2009, there was sequel talk. Entertainment Weekly said Winona Ryder discussed a second installment, with Christian Slater also returning in some capacity. But this didn’t happen.
It’s also been said that, in 2024, Daniel Waters had written a story for a sequel where Veronica is a page for a presidential candidate named – you guessed it – Heather and ends up assassinating her. But this didn’t happen either.
But what did very much happen was a stage musical adaptation. The first performance began in the early 2010s, and it has played in different parts of the world all the way up to the time of publication.
There has also been a television adaptation. It premiered on Paramount Network and acted as a modern-day reboot. It followed a new Veronica Sawyer and her troubles with a clique of Heathers.
The show ran into trouble, though. In the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, also known as the Parkland High School Shooting, the premiere got delayed to July 2018. But then it got dropped entirely because of the 2018 Santa Fe High School Shooting.
Remember what I said about the subject matter being hard to deal with today?
Well, I didn’t mean there would be so many school shootings we couldn’t even release something that reminded us of constant current events. But this pathetic truth about our country’s unwillingness to meaningfully deal with gun violence continues.
So, yeah, no Heathers TV show was able to get through the door.
And if it’s not somehow obvious to you, I’m lamenting the school shootings here and that loss of life and trauma, not the loss of a TV show.
But not being able to release this show says something, doesn’t it?
Director Michael Lehmann, whom we haven’t touched on, remains most known for this movie.
He directed eight more films, and it seems like dark comedies or off-beat things are his thing.
He made the notable Bruce Willis vehicle Hudson Hawk, which was notorious for getting bashed critically and failing at the U.S. Box Office. But I didn’t know that movie made money because it was saved by its worldwide box office, hitting a grand total of $97 million against its $65 million budget.
Lehmann also directed 1994’s Airheads, which, if you’re a millennial like me, you might know ran on Comedy Central seemingly every week and has Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Steve Buscemi in it, among others.
Screenwriter Daniel Waters sounds like an interesting character. Apparently the guy had a popular column in his high school newspaper called “Troubled Waters,” where he wrote fake stories about his classmates.
Waters kept going after Heathers, and you can tell he likes less overtly commercial, often darkly comedic or satirical projects.
He co-wrote the screenplay for director Renny Harlin’s flop The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, AKA that movie that starred, of all people, comedian Andrew Dice Clay. But apparently that movie is a cult film for some. So okay.
Waters also teamed up with Lehmann again for Hudson Hawk, co-writing the screenplay with the famous Steven E. de Souza.
And he also has writing credits on the too-dark-for-parents Batman Returns, and Stallone’s Demolition Man, among others.
Winona Ryder’s agent begged her not to take the part in Heathers, saying it was going to ruin her career. But Ryder liked it so much that she did it and definitely didn’t ruin her career.
She had already starred in Beetlejuice, which came out the year before, and then Edward Scissorhands came out a year after Heathers, in 1990. So I don’t think the movie’s initial failure got her one bit, and looking back now, that’s quite a trio of memorable films for a three-year stretch.
Ryder’s career includes many movies like Little Women and The Age of Innocence and appearances on shows like Stranger Things. She’s got a Golden Globe and nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award.
Christian Slater thought that he bombed his audition but was cast as J.D. He said that he modeled his performance after Jack Nicholson in the movie, which is funny because I think some people have said he’s tried to do that in everything he’s in.
Slater has also, of course, had a long career that continues.
He’s been in big-budget movies like Young Guns II, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Broken Arrow.
And he’s been a voice actor with roles like Slater in Archer or Deadshot in the DC Animated movies.
He’s has a Golden Globe Award for TV show Mr. Robot and two nominations for the same role. He’s also got a Children’s and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Performer for The Spiderwick Chronicles.
Apologies to any cast members I did not highlight here.
Also, I think it’s badass that this was the first movie Daniel Waters wrote.
I was reading an interview he did in Nerdist about the film. He points out, ”The structure of screenplays is so laid out in books now that screenwriters just play a game of Mad Libs, where they think, ‘Okay, this is what’s gonna happen in the second act. This is what’s gonna happen in the middle of the third act.’ Instead of just going crazy and being a madman, which I was.”
Waters goes on to say that he wrote Heathers in complete naivete, which worked for him like a secret weapon.
So while this isn’t a more well-known legacy of the movie, I think how long Heathers has stood up and the free-wheeling nature of that is a good lesson in the creativity behind our films.
And, finally, with the movie coming out in 1989, Waters sees it, as he said in the same interview, a film that “helped turn the ‘80s into the ‘90s.” And that makes total sense when you consider the independent movies that came out in the ‘90s and the grunge revolution on its way to shake up music.
Well, that’s everything I have to say about Heathers.
For more films written by Daniel Waters, check out my review for Batman Returns.
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Disclaimer:
This review’s factual information was gathered through online sources, like Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.
Making art is hard. This is a fan’s blog. Any criticisms are meant to be constructive.
