Be Reel Blog: Heathers

       Heathers, directed by Michael Lehmann is an 80s classic based in a regular high school setting. Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) miraculously makes it in the most popular clique in school, "The Heathers." The leader of the three, Heather Chandler (Kim Walker) is a sociopathic tyrant who terrorizes everyone and claims to be teaching kids "real life." After Veronica gets fed up with Heather's cruel shenanigans, she seeks out help from the dark, but strangely attractive new guy, JD (Christian Slater). What starts out as innocent revenge quickly turns into a vile plot in offing the popular kids ans staging them as suicides.
     
     Me, and a lot of us being born into a post Columbine world, where stuff like this is no longer shocking, but on the rise thought to myself they can never make a movie like this again. During the 80s when this movie was being made, it was such an outlandish idea that something as crazy as students killing other students would ever happen. Viewing this movie then, as opposed to viewing this movie now are two completely different experiences.
   
      If a movie like Heathers was made today, it would be considerably made in poor taste, because of our country being number one in school shootings and mass murder, but for this movie to be made in the 1980s and be considered a funny teen satire then, goes to show how much we as a society have changed in the past 30 years.
 
     The movie itself is in a typically obnoxious 80s style. The characters themselves don't have too many layers or dynamics. It is very straight forward in that sense. Veronica sticks out from the rest, I believe this is 100% intentional. She had the option to graduate elementary school and go straight to college. She felt her incredible IQ was being wasted on "choosing what kind of gloss to wear" She later uses it in a terrible way, by forging suicide notes for a manipulative JD's agenda.

     Heathers was an instant staple in film history and became an 80s cult classic, but there will never be anything remotely similar again.

Recommended: The Lost Boys, Freaks and Geeks, 16 Candles