By Savannah McDade Posted November 2, 2010
“People will look at the ashes of Westerburg and say, ‘Now there’s a school that self-destructed, not because society didn’t care, but because the school was society.’ Now that’s deep.”- Christian Slater (“Heathers”)
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by a certain “clique” at school? “Heathers” (1989) written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann (imdb.com) is a dark comedy that depicts high school cliques and does so in a crude, overly-dramatic, uncensored manner which is what high school is generally like. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, and Shannen Doherty.
The plot consists of a group of three stereotypical popular, vulgar girls all named Heather. Veronica (Ryder) is accepted into the group of Heathers and though she likes the popularity, she cannot stand her superficial “friends”. As the plot digresses Veronica befriends the mysterious new boy at school, Jason Dean (Slater). It does not take long before Veronica realizes that Dean has issues with the social system at their high school and she finds herself in the midst of murders portrayed as suicides.
“Heathers” is comparable to the 2004 teen movie, “Mean Girls” only it goes further. Waters does a great job addressing the social inequalities often displayed in high school and the young actors do a fantastic job in this quirky, dark teen film.
