Heathers (1989)

Veronica mingles with Heather I, II and III to be as popular as them, even though she hates them. She hates them enough to wish they were dead, but she would never want to be their cause of death though. When she starts dating Jason Dean, however, she finds herself involved in the murdering of most of her enemies, covered up as suicides. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Michael Lehmann
Written By: Daniel Waters
Starring: Christian Slater, Winona Ryder, Shannen Doherty, Glenn Shadix, Renée Estevez, Patrick Labyorteaux, Penelope Milford, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, Lance Fenton
Franchise: Heathers
Country: USA
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Heathers belongs to 43 collections
1. Psychotronic Film and Video Guides (collaborative: moderated by Gregzilla - 40 stars)
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Stars | User | Rating | |
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TimeCapsule | 73 70th |
While its impact on future high school films and its status as a cult classic are well supported, something about the movie just keeps me from really loving it, and I can't exactly put my finger on why. Despite being instantly quotable and fairly funny throughout, with an original dark comedic take on the social conditioning program known as high school, something about the writing and direction makes the overall thing kind of clunky. However, it's still well worth the watch.
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mattburgess | 78 83rd |
Clearly the best teen movie ever, a big "fuck you" to those obnoxious John Hughes protagonists. All the 80s excess doesn't merely date the film it adds a weird, dream like bent with the garish colours, high shoulder pads and cheesy synths at odds with its pitch black heart.
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Alex Watkins | 6 98th |
Manages to caustically satirize its assorted targets (jocks and queen bees, of course, but also disaffected teens, dime-store rebels, oblivious parents, et al) while avoiding the pitfall of cheap cynicism. It's like the proto-Fight Club in its portrait of misdirected angst, but with a feminine bent. Winona is a perfect unattainable everywoman, Slater pulls off a careful balance of creepy yet alluring, and the slang is the best around ("So very" needs to make a comeback yesterday).
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Pickpocket | 5 44th |
I was expecting better with all the good reviews I saw but it turns out this movie is just average. Winona is so hot in this movie but Christian Slater is such a douche bag that every scene he was in I was cringing.
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5 | ![]() |
janus | 80 77th |
Fast-paced, clever, dark teen comedy with oodles of quotables delivered by a great cast.
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mwgerb | 35 20th |
The message isn't as deep as it wants to be (it isn't really deep at all, actually), and the characters are all pretty unlikable, but the fact that this fully commits to its ridiculous black humor premise did win over some real laughs. Also, the reviews comparing Christian Slater to a young Jack Nicholson aren't complimentary; he literally seems like he's doing a weird mimic of Nicholson's cadence, and it's kind of off-putting.
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Yiannos | 48 19th |
Heathers' reputation as a smart teen satire is lost on me. It was a promising idea, but the script manages to somehow be simultaneously underwritten and overwritten. Plot and character development are seriously lacking, and the dialogue tries way too hard to be 'edgy' and 'cool'. Slater's angst filled monologues reek of pseudo-rebellion and are mostly cringeworthy, and Lehmann's tone is lazily misanthropic. It never feels truly subversive because it's all cartoon surface.
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Hawkins | 64 33rd |
I once attempted cow-tipping only to be dumbstruck upon finding that cows actually sleep lying down, which seems obvious in hindsight. Between that and quicksand I'm just not sure I can trust Hollywood anymore.
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juntakinte99 | 85 73rd |
After almost 10 years of sickly-sweet John Hughes movies involving high schoolers facing benign obstacles, this film was welcome. Slater really hit home his sullen, brooding teenager vibe and the dark humor has a great way of going from horror to acceptance--as best exemplified in the jock funeral sequence. Still, laughing at some jokes could make you feel bad once you think about it. Which, in a way, makes it exactly like high school. Well done, and a perfect double bill with Scream.
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Kojiless | 70 75th |
Ah, a movie from the days when Slater was still trying to be Jack Nicholson...
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BeardMilk | 79 39th |
Pretty adequate dark comedy whose statement isn't as meaningful as it thinks it is.
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Judge Holden | 5 69th |
"School's canceled today cause they killed themselves in a repressed, homosexual, suicide pact!"
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Paxton | 71 68th |
I don't patronize bunny rabbits!
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x-human | 80 66th |
Dark but not quite dark enough, leaving something to be desired. Too much cleverness was spent on the dialogue but not on the plot which is different but not necessarily better for it. Something that probably could have been a lot more.
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djross | 30 13th |
Completely uninteresting movie. People see qualities where there are none. One of many examples where over-praise of a debut feature leads to a thoroughly mediocre career.
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2 | nuotio | 60 67th |
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A lot darker than I remembered, and most likely it wouldn't get made these days. Films like "Mean Girls" are clearly inspired by it, but they are a lot nicer and only flirting with darker issues, while "Heathers" really goes deeper. The style reminds me of John Waters mixed with Tim Burton. Slater plays a charismatic sociopath and Ryder is fine as well. The film looses some steam before the ending, but it should still be counted as one of the most unique teen films of all time.
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Barthalen | 63 42nd |
A quirky and dark comedy with some interesting ideas and decent dialogue. Most concepts just didn't really gel together all that well. Goes from morbid to over the top too easily.
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Alon Reter | 65 57th |
Oddly paced and mean spirited. I'm really not sure what to think about it. I guess I tend to fall for highschool films, but there was something depressing here. It has some sort of sociopathic/moralistic charm, though, and the style is usually great. I still liked Clueless more - it's less "dark" and extreme but the characters are actually likable and the whole thing is enjoyable, while Heathers pretty much forces you to hate everyone and everything. Yes, it includes you, Winona and Christian.
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eCitizen | 30 18th |
Terrible stupid script. Ridiculous acting. Nonsensical plot. Asinine one liners are forced in and awkward. Christian Slater's psycho portrayal was unconvincing. All of the supporting cast are campy amateurs. Erratic pacing. Lame 80's music. Cheap special effects. Poor camera work. Laughable makeup. The directing was idiotic and childish. There is nothing much good about this except for seeing the beautiful young Winona Ryder, and the outdated commentary on high school social hierarchies.
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hsncrspywl | 86 79th |
It's great to see a film so ahead of it's time that when the modern-day equivalent (in the form of Mean Girls) was released it seems like a tame rehash of this. Incredibly dark but yet still very cynical and very funny, tied down by some good (and age-appropriate) performances from Ryder and Slater. Excellent use of colour and costume design too to designate roles and hierarchies, and fantastic direction and cinematography too - so much is said with small camera moves and repetition. Fantastic.
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Quintonjamin | 50 36th |
None of the characters were really compelling and the ending felt like it thought it was deep, but it really wasn't. It has a couple good laughs, though.
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1 | spoonerspot | 89 96th |
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Winona Ryder and Christian Slater live out every middle class high schooler's fantasy
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TheDenizen | 95 98th |
Best comedy about teen suicide ever. "I love my dead gay son" and "Fuck me gently with a chainsaw" are both immortal quotes.
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Ytadel | 8 93rd |
The darker and more violent mother of Mean Girls, this is a thrillingly jet-black high school comedy that would definitely not fly in these post-Columbine / Georgia Tech days, what with the school shooting being played for comedy and all. Love it. Also, teenage Winona Ryder makes me think the wrong thing.
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Vince Leo (Qwipster's Movie Reviews) | 72 65th |
Unlike previous teen films, this wasn't about trying to do whatever one could to become the popular girl or guy in school -- it was a complete rejection of the notion of popularity through conformity. [Full Review]
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Nathan S | 3 45th |
This movie wouldn't have a chance in hell of being made today. At least not with this absurdist inclination: a subversion of the Bonnie and Clyde ethos, and a dark satire of personality cults and high school cliques. It's all very funny, though I must say Christian Slater's cheap Jack Nicholson impersonation wears on my nerves.
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twincinema | 60 36th |
Christian Slater doing his best Jack Nicholson impression.
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caiman | 69 34th |
Nothing with this film clicked with me. I suppose the "ant-John Hughes" direction was interesting, but the motivations, the attitudes, the corny lingo and the overall message of the movie just didn't meld together to make me like this very much.
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vesupria | 8 88th |
Veronica is a prisoner of her own fantasy. She writes of death in her diary, but in reality all that remains is a perpetual stasis where she has no control. She's a passenger of someone else's desires. Life is a cruel mirror of what she wants. This is until JD arrives - together they possess a destructive chemistry against established order. Even so, she is still caged, this time by JD's rebellious social alienation. A great black comedy about the twilight zone between childhood and adulthood.
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Shephard | 60 53rd |
Snarky and fun. Very dated, but entertaining.
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JakeAesthete | 51 48th |
Stylized, ironic comedy about a beautiful Jewish high school girl who falls in love with a brooding outsider who wants to blow up buildings and has a strange relationship with his father... wait, wait, hold on a minute this isn't Trust?
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chemical404 | 59 55th |
High school comedy with a dark twist. One of those movies I knew of for ages but was saving watching them for the right time. I think I'm way too late with this one though. The sardonic satire about high school life would probably work better if it was still relevant for me. Enjoyable style, good acting, but the plot wasn't very interesting for me.
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Cinema_Asia | 70 56th |
It is often weighed down by its own heavy handed social satire. However, it is also prophetic in some ways when it comes to the dark descent of America's youth. The flaw of this film is that it doesn't delve into the issues much more than with standard depictions of 80's social cliques. Even though this film predicted the school blood bath what was to come it failed to understand the underlying reasons. Watching a young Ryder and Slater act is a treat but at face value it is a shallow film.
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redacted | 62 32nd |
Greetings and salutations, Heathers is a film that just keeps escalating and as it does, it stumbles further and further into absurdity until it rivals a 1989 - Hobo With a Shotgun (what's your damage?). We explore teen angst, cliques, popularity, bleach poisoning, gay-venge & extreme lack of consequence.
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Matthew Parkinson (CineMarter) | 70 77th |
A very dark comedy that deconstructs high school cliques in a way that is rarely seen. Heathers is a lot of fun and served as an inspiration to so many high school movies that followed.
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glumpy_99 | 51 10th |
Unpleasantly abrasive and nihilistic satire gets some points for turning the sensibilities of the typical John Hughes teen comedy on its head - but it's difficult to ascertain what the point of the film is, as Ryder's character never comes into focus, and the strange, stilted performances generally make it difficult to connect with the baseline "reality" of the situation. Slater is by far the highlight (doing his best Nicholson) and his spirited, charismatic performance is by far the highpoint.
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auhasarderik | 5 23rd |
Stupid, sick and wears "dark comedy" as fashionable makeup.
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guy piranha | 69 61st |
good and bad are pretty balanced, e.g. winona ryder is about as stunning as christian slater is irritating. the plot is appealing, but the pacing is off. the main characters are interesting, but lack depth. it feels more like a first draft of a movie that's going to be good. however, the underlying themes ring true, there's signature 80s flair and a sweet little message on top. and which geek didn't at one point picture shooting some jock in the face?
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SpikyCactus | 80 78th |
Top badass moment? As a gardener I was looking forward to a documentary about the UK's 6 native species of heather, but instead got confronted with a film about posh girls playing croquet. I switched off immediately, melted the DVD in my toaster, wrote a scathing review on Amazon about how crap the site is for not warning me about the content, and then ordered a new toaster from it to replace my recently broken one. No cats, chainsaws or decapitations, but a chainsaw does get a mention (winces).
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Hofschneider | 82 72nd |
Winona Ryder is such a bad actress and nobody (including me) cares.
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Trooth | 74 67th |
"Whether to kill yourself or not is one of the most important decisions a teenager can make." This movie was full of memorable dialogue, and having seen it for the first time 30 years after release, I'm realizing that several movies I've seen since have been weak imitations.
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1 | brandons | 88 86th |
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Dark, cynical, and subversive, Heathers gently applies a chainsaw to the conventions of the high school movie - changing the game for teen comedies to follow.
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JSchlansky | 74 64th |
The social commentary is laughable, but thankfully, so are the jokes
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amazedemon | 64 50th |
Heathers darkly amuses as it deconstructs high school stereotypes. Ryder is good as the aloof Veronica, who after getting her wish of eliminating certain classmates comes to the realisation that it's a pointless venture that is to no avail. There are insightful moments like her parents pointing out her hypocrisy over being treated like an adult; as well as silly ones surrounding the nature of the murders, and the film's ability to balance the two makes it enjoyable despite its many flaws.
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1 | simsorut | 0 0th |
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Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?
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nobamba | 70 76th |
So silly and teen angsty but I think that was the point. The social messaging was very blunt. Fav scene: happy ending
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shinySinger | 71 30th |
OG Mean Girls. I like more the musical tho.
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JPFerguson | 50 27th |
Not nearly as clever or transgressive as its fans claim it to be. However, there is no doubt that it is entertaining, mostly due to Waters' razor sharp writing (lots of memorable lines and zingers).
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Average Percentile 58.76% from 3548 Ratings | ![]() |