Heathers

Over twenty years later, Heathers still feels bracingly modern: not the birth of foul-mouthed, mean-spirited snark, but a milestone in its evolution. The film casts Winona Ryder as a reluctant member of an evil clique of pretty, petty popular girls and Christian Slater as the loner who wins her heart. The couple embarks on a strategic killing spree targeting the school’s most loathsome students, pushing the fatalism inherent in so many teen movies to nihilistic extremes. Heathers suggests that the bowels of hell have nothing on the typical high school—nor do they harbor tongues as sharp as the ones belonging to Ryder and friends.

Updated 04/16/2012