Sunday, April 8, 2012

H is for Heathers

I’m narrowing the H category down to one film. It’s Easter Sunday and I’m sure most of us have more important things to do like relaxing with our families rather than reading blog posts. Besides, for the H films I came up with only a few that went in this category at all: Hackers (worth seeing for the 90s, pre-internet movie idea of computer hacking), Half Baked (Dave Chappelle is hilarious), Howard the Duck (the movie that made me want a crimping iron) and Heavenly Creatures (which is a weird, disturbing film that I do highly recommend.)

Heathers: There’s been plenty of discussion about the comparison between this film and Mean Girls. Which film is really more like high school? Three popular girls are horrible in every way and one rebel, here, Veronica, comes up with a gruesome way to solve the school’s problems. With the help of her twisted boyfriend, J.D., they start killing the preps and the jocks to make it look like a suicide. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Well, within the construct of the movie, it’s funny. The dark comedy makes you laugh when you see Veronica being tormented by the idea of how she’s killed one of the Heathers. She even goes as far as to shoot J.D. and stop him from blowing up the school. She’s a heroine but in a far-out way and by seeing how vicious and outrageous the Heathers act, you understand why Veronica and J.D. are okay with a plot to kill. Veronica does save the innocent in the end though and J.D. dies so everything is okay again. Not very funny until you actually see it and understand how it’s presented. The disturbing factor is made ridiculous and it ends up being a cult classic for all us gals who grew up with Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty (students may still think 90210 isn’t a remake.)  Again, it’s all in the way the movie is shot with over-the-top costumes, dialogue and scenery. The teens act awful and you love every minute of it because it’s so beyond reality.

Veronica Sawyer: What is your damage, Heather?

4 comments:

  1. That was a remarkable film. And this post is supposed to go up on Monday---cos we take Sundays off throughout the challenge---26 letters-26 days.

    ---Damyanti, Co-host A to Z Challenge April 2012

    Twitter: @AprilA2Z
    #atozchallenge

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    1. Thanks so much. I had no idea we had days off. I was in NaNoWriMo mode. I'll skip today then and get back on Tuesday. :-)

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  2. I was a teen in the 80's and I loved Heathers! I was so not a "Heather," though. I was more like "Sam" from "Sixteen Candles" except Jake Ryan never showed up on my birthday:(

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    1. I was not a "Heather" either. Sam was so much more identifiable. I noticed yesterday that the new Sony Experia advert has a kid named Jake Ryan on it. That kid must have very cool parents.

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