Heathers (1989) – A Review

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Heathers (1989)Directed by Michael LehmannShown: Christian Slater (as Jason ‘J.D.’ Dean), Winona Ryder (as Veronica Sawyer)

Heathers is a 1989 dark comedy about a high school girl named Veronica Sawyer. Veronica had finally gotten into the high school clique of her dreams, “The Heathers” which consists of three girls, all named Heather (I will be referring to the Heathers by the last name for easier understanding of Chandler, Duke, MacNamara) and now Veronica. The Heathers are the popular girls of the school, but Veronica is starting to regret joining the clique when she realizes how mean they are to everyone. At one point in the movie, the Heathers forge a note from the high school quarterback to “the loser” Martha Dunstok, who is Veronica’s childhood friend. A new student comes to the school ✨Jason Dean ✨ (aka JD). This student is psychotic and will do anything to get what he wants.

As all high school girls do, Veronica instantly falls for “the bad boy” not knowing that he is a psycho. JD and Veronica start dating and slowly JD manipulates Veronica into killing the popular kids. Chandler was poisoned (in a very sneaky way, points to JD on that one), and two jocks, Kurt and Ram, who were thought to have been killed in a suicide pact, “to hide their gay forbiden love from a missaproving world.”After the murder of Kurt and Ram, Veronica realizes what JD is doing. JD defends himself saying she is so much better off now with Chandler and the jocks were gone. He goes on and on with his reasoning. Veronica breaks up with him, as one does to the murderer of a boyfriend.

JD comes up with a new plan which in his mind is the greatest plan of all–to blow up the school! Because teenage angst and a horrible childhood mixed together to make people want to blow things up. But before he blows the school up, he blackmails Duke into getting the whole school to sign a paper, telling her that it’s to get a popular band to play at the prom. Duke, being a manipulative human being, tells everyone it’s for something different, everyone is told a lie tailored to their interests. Veronica confronts Duke about the signatures and how wrong it is to lie to people. Duke tells Veronica that JD put her up to it..

This makes Veronica upset, leading to her eventual suicide JD sneaks into her room after that and tells Veronica’s dead body his plan to blow up the school during a pep rally because that’s when everyone will be all together in one spot. He also reveals that the paper he had Duke get everyone to sign was a suicide note that would end up being from the whole school.
If you were to ask me, I would say this movie is fantastic. It’s a cult classic, the lead actors (Winona Ryder and Christian Slater) both do an amazing job and easily pass as angsty teenagers. Many teens of this generation even find comfort in the movie and its characters when it came out in theaters 32 years ago. Movies, in general, are a comforting thing and I think it’s fantastic when people can see someone in a similar environment and how they deal with it, though it’s not always in the right way.