Heathers - A Horror Story ?
Dear Readers,
Recently, I was talking with “E” and “J” about a family movie night - we have been hooked on the Only Murders in the Building and had caught up with the most recent viewing.
S: “What do you want to watch ?”
J: “Look - Heathers is on.”
E: “Yeah, I like that musical.”
S: “Never have seen it.”
J&E : “Whaaaa ?”
Okay, Heathers came out in 1989, which was my Senior year in high school, so I missed out on seeing it. I think my taste in movies of that era was alternating between the cool Batman with Michael Keaton, Dead Poet’s Society, and (maybe) Say Anything. I think I was wrapped in to the very subject matter that Heathers seeks to make fun of - High School peer pressure - something I really didn’1 pay attention to. Not that my taste in movies at the time portrayed the burgeoning horror aficionado I would later become, but to me this didn’t rate high on the scale of something I’d spend my Friday night’s going to see. So, I watched it with J&E.
I think it’s a horror story. In the fullest sense. Not sure how I missed seeing this.
So, let’s look at what Horror “is” in the entertainment sense : the use of topics and effects to elicit fear and disgust from an audience for entertainment.
Now, back in 1989, the idea that someone would murder their way through a high school to topple the popular hierarchy was, in a sense, “new”. Well, maybe to the fresh-faced Generation X’ers at the time. A similar film had been made back in 1976 - Massacre at Central High , but it was low budget and lacked the star power of Winona Ryder and Christian Slater would bring to the Pretty in Pink crowd. Then, there was Stephen King’s Rage published in 1977 which explored a school shooting where the antagonist and his fellow students explore their own psychosis. Rage, and to an extent Heathers, have both been cited as influencers as part of the Columbine Massacre - albeit, in retrospect. King has even pulled Rage from the shelves due to the nature of how close the story is to reality.
I would even go so far as to say that there is a paranormal aspect to this. There’s the scene where J.D. appears in Veroinica’s window and basically says what’s she is journaling. Then there’s the fact that J.D. is expelled after the first shooting in the cafeteria with a Colt Python…but the gun is never taken away as it reappears in the shooting of Ram where it is lost as part of the scene set-up, again in his dad’s house where he shoots the TV, and yet again at the end of the , movie (arguably, the same gun in these 2 scenes). So- J.D. had an endless supply of Colts ? Then there is the weird relationship with Dad - like they had this strange communication about destruction…and it’s not like J.D. got busted for carrying a gun in school. Heck, my own dad would have escorted me to the Sheriff’s office personally. For me - there was too much willing sense of disbelief to put J.D. anywhere near “normal”…he has to be a paranormal creature.
The movie was enjoyable. Did it beat out John Hersh’s movies of the time ( Sixteen Candles (1984), Weird Science (1985), The Breakfast Club (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Pretty in Pink (1986), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)) ? In the box office, no. With the exception of the Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller, and (possibly) Weird Science - it is a contender. Definitely a contender in the field of Horror.
-S
