![Heathers [1988]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/heathers-dvd-cover.jpg "Heathers [1988]")
Heathers [1988]
Director: Michael Lehmann
Genre: Comedy
Starring: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty
Runtime: 103 minutes
I was pleased to see Heathers selected as the LAMB Movie of the Month. This is a film that has been on my must-see list for a while now, and its nomination gave me validation to bump it up in the queue and finally sit down to tackle this cult hit / dark comedy.
The film gets its name from a high school clique of popular/rich girls that all share the first name of Heather. They are cruel to everyone in school, and despised by most. Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) is a classmate of theirs who associates with them to maintain her popular status. Veronica is generally more caring than her associates, but is forced to act like them in order to remain “friends”.
![Heathers [1988]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/heathers-88.jpg "Heathers [1988]")
Things get interesting at school when Jason Dean (Christian Slater) shows up. J.D. is a rebel, a new guy who doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything. Naturally, Veronica finds him to be fascinating, and the two hit it off. As Veronica is disgusted with her “friends”, she works with J.D. to concoct a plan to get rid of them one-by-one. This plan is taken to another level, however, when J.D. poisons the lead Heather (Kim Walker), killing her and leaving a note behind to frame it as a suicide. This is only the beginning of what soons become J.D.’s rampage, one that Veronica struggles to stay away from.
Going into Heathers, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew it was a dark comedy (which I generally love) and that it starred Christian Slater in his breakthrough role. What I didn’t expect was non-stop snappy dialogue that had me in hysterics, and the very dark suicide subject matter. In this regard, I loved what the film had to offer.
![Heathers [1988]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/heathers-1988.jpg "Heathers [1988]")
On the other hand, there was one thing that nearly ruined the movie for me: Christian f’n Slater. I am not too familiar with his work, having only seen him in True Romance, but he was beyond grating as James Dean. Slater’s godawful Jack Nicholson impression is just terrible, and I could not help thinking as such every time he appeared on screen. Based on this performance, it blows my mind that he was once considered a heartthrob.
If J.D.’s role were given to a more competent actor, I wholeheartedly believe that Heathers would rank among my favorite comedies. As such, while I enjoyed the film, I did not fall in love with it like I wanted to. There’s so much to like, especially the witty dialogue and Winona Ryder’s fun performance, but Slater really drags the film down. Still, it’s easy to see why this is a cult hit, and it’s worth seeing regardless.
The podcast goes up tomorrow morning, and yours truly is on it – be sure to check it out when you get the chance.
I may or may not agree with your opinion on the film
Haha well now I am curious. I’ll give it a listen as I catch up on everything.
I love Heathers! Without Heathers we’d have no Mean Girls although Heathers goes into territory Mean Girls would NEVER touch! The one-liners are priceless and who didn’t love Christian Slater as the romantic sociopath
Ah, I have never actually seen Mean Girls. I should probably fix that.
And you can count me in as someone who didn’t love Christian Slater in this movie.
HOMYGAD YOU’VE NEVER SEEN MEAN GIRLS? I love that movie. XD
So you’re saying I should include Mean Girls in my next project?
I’m saying sooner or later we’re just going to capture you and hold your eyes open Clockwork Orange style and show you films. …you’ve seen A Clockwork Orange, right? ;D
Haha yes, at least I have seen that one. I’m game for some movie watching… not sure prying the eyes open will be necessary though.
Woot! We don’t have the apparatus anyhow. ;D Now if only I could stop being sick. And busy. Preferably both. You free Sunday?
Haha ditto, I am just now getting over whatever infection I got last week. So lame. But Sunday works for me!
Haven’t seen it in a long while but I remember I used to really like Christian Slater in it. I’d be interested to see what you think of Pump up the Volume or Kuffs, two other Slater-starrers. But I guess you might give them a miss…
I might give them a chance someday. I must admit I am a little curious to see if I could handle Slater in other roles. It has been years since I saw True Romance, but I don’t remember being bothered by him in that. Perhaps Heathers was just him at his most extreme…?
Heathers wasn’t too bad, you get to watch Slater do his best Jack Nicholson impersonation throughout the film. I liked Gleaming The Cube and Beetlejuice more than this film.
If that was Slater’s best Nicholson impression, I would hate to see his worst.
The over-the-top Jack Nicholson impression was a choice made by both the director and Slater, and was done purposely. It also hurt Slater’s career because people couldn’t see past it for a while.
If you want to see a good Slater film where you see why he was considered a heartthrob and good actor, then take a look at “Pump Up the Volume”.
I figured the impression was too ridiculous to have not been done on purpose, but it was still painful to watch. Interesting how it ended up hurting Slater’s career. Thanks for the recommendation on Pump Up the Volume — that’s two suggestions for it already, so I will probably give it a shot.
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I saw this ages ago and I think I enjoyed it, can’t remember much of the details, ahah. Not much of a fan of Slater’s work either, though much to my surprise I actually enjoyed Untamed Heart and Bed of Roses, but maybe because of the female leads.
Is it bad that I haven’t heard of either one of those movies? I guess I just completely overlooked Slater’s work over the years.
Oh those movies aren’t *great* or anything, I just like the melancholy romance aspect of it
±Ha, Heathers… aw man this takes me back.
I have never been a fan of Slater. He has done one good film (True Romance) the rest have been very MEH for me anyway!
I’m with you on True Romance. Great film, and one I should revisit sometime soon.
Nice review. I agree with your thoughts about Slater’s choice of dialouge but still thought he put in a good performance. He had the right tone of being sarcastic and yet very menacing at the same time.
Hey Vern, thanks for the comment. Slater’s performance definitely was sarcastic, and he fit in well with the “bad boy” vibe. It’s too bad that he had to imp Jack Nicholson so much, as that was what killed it for me.
Great review! I haven’t seen this one yet, but I too don’t really like Slater, I think the only movie I liked him in was Very Bad Things.
Thanks Sati! Heathers is a fun watch, but yeah, Slater is a drag.
I have to agree with the rest here, this movie really takes me back
! A saw it a few times ages ago; what I loved most was the freaky and mean girls and the “evil” story. Slater’s never been a fav, except True Romance where he was lucky to have a script that suited him 
Haha, glad to hear I’m not alone on not caring for Slater. This is definitely a fun movie even with his ridiculous performance.
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