Heathers

Before there were Mean Girls, there were Heathers. Winona Ryder stars as the newest addition to the teenage clique, known as Heathers because the other three girls are all named Heather (Kim Walker, Lisanne Falk, and Shannen Doherty), that runs the Westerburg High School. Already struggling with the cruelty of the head Heather (Walker), Veronica (Ryder) meets new transfer student JD (Christian Slater) who is just reckless and dangerous enough (including shooting blanks at two high school jocks) to garner her attention.

Screenwriter Daniel Waters' script is a darkly cynical and comedic look at high school, targeting teachers and parents with its jabs at least as much as it does its students. JD helps Veronica get more revenge than she bargained for by killing the first Heather opening the door for the chaos and carnage to come. Staging it as a suicide, Veronica is troubled by how well regarded the queen bitch is in death while still being unaware how far JD's nihilistic outlook will go (leading to him pulling her into more murders, all of which they later stage as suicides).

Morbidly hilarious in all the best ways, the immensely quotable film (giving us such gifts as "Fuck me gently with a chainsaw" and "I love my dead gay son") was an immediate critical hit winning the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, although it took audiences longer to catch on. Although the film is seen as a box office failure, it gained popularity on home video through a wide variety of releases on VHS, LaserDisc, DVD, and Blu-ray over the years.

Ryder and Slater are the standouts here, with Doherty (who reportedly didn't understand the script was a comedy) giving one of her best performances playing things straight. And the film, its stars, and its zaniness all does all feel like high school (sure, a darkly-murderous version of one, but high school nonetheless). Had the film been released a couple of decades later the memes would have been insane, however its influence can be felt through a variety of projects over the years that picked up the baton of its dark satirical wit while exploring those dangerous high school years.

• Title: Heathers
• IMDb: link