| Heathers | |
|---|---|
.png) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Lehmann |
| Written by | Daniel Waters |
| Produced by | Denise Di Novi |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Francis Kenny |
| Edited by | Norman Hollyn |
| Music by | David Newman |
Production company | Cinemarque Entertainment |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
Release dates | October 24, 1988 (1988-10-24) (Italy)[1] |
Running time | 103 minutes[4] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3 million[5] |
| Box office | $1.1 million[6] |
Heathers is a 1989 Americanteensatiricalblack comedycrime film written byDaniel Waters and directed byMichael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts.[7][8] The film starsWinona Ryder,Christian Slater,Shannen Doherty,Lisanne Falk,Kim Walker, andPenelope Milford. The plot revolves around four teenage girls—three of whom are named Heather—in aclique at anOhio high school, one of whose lives is disrupted by the arrival of amisanthrope intent on murdering the popular students and staging their deaths as suicides.[3]
Waters wroteHeathers as aspec script and originally wantedStanley Kubrick to direct the film, out of admiration for Kubrick's own black comedy filmDr. Strangelove. Waters intended the film to contrast the optimistic teen movies of the era, particularly those written byJohn Hughes, by presenting a cynical depiction of high school imbued with dark satire.[9]
Filmed in Los Angeles in July of 1988,Heathers premiered in Milan, Italy, in the fall of 1988[10] before making its way to theSundance Film Festival on January 21, 1989, thenNew World Pictures theatrically released the film in the United States on March 31, 1989. It went on to win theIndependent Spirit Award forBest First Feature, and for his screenplay, Waters received theEdgar Award forBest Motion Picture Screenplay.[11] It has since become popular and is regarded in polls as one of the greatestcoming-of-age films of all time.[12][13][14]Heathers has since been adapted into amusical and atelevision reboot.
At Westerburg High School, in Sherwood, Ohio,Veronica Sawyer is part of a popular-but-fearedclique that includes three wealthy and beautiful girls with the same first name: Heather Duke, Heather McNamara, and the ruthless queen bee, Heather Chandler. Tired of the clique abusing its power, Veronica longs for her old life with her kinder but less popular friends. She becomes fascinated with new student Jason "J.D." Dean after he pulls out a gun and firesblanks to scare football-player bullies, Kurt and Ram. Outsider J.D., whose mother committed suicide, has a strained relationship with his explosives-obsessed demolition mogul father.
Veronica goes with Chandler to a frat party at Remington University, where she refuses to have sex with one member, unlike Chandler, who is coerced into performingfellatio. When Veronica drunkenly vomits in front of Chandler, Chandler vows to destroy Veronica's reputation in retaliation. Later, J.D. breaks into Veronica's house through her bedroom window, and they have sex, expressing to each other their mutual hatred of Chandler's tyranny after.
The next morning, Veronica and J.D. break into Chandler's house, planning revenge by using a fake hangover cure to make Chandler vomit. Veronica mixes orange juice and milk into a mug, but mistakenly serves Chandler a mug full of drain cleaner poured by J.D., which kills her. Veronica is horrified by the accident, but J.D. urges her to forge a dramatic suicide note in Chandler's handwriting. The community regards Chandler's apparent suicide as a tragic decision made by a troubled teenager, making her even more respected in death than in life. Duke uses the attention surrounding Chandler's death to gain popularity by going to many different news stations, feeling the need to be the clique's new leader.
McNamara later convinces Veronica to go with her, Kurt, and Ram on a double date. J.D. finds the four teens that evening in a field, and Veronica leaves with him as Kurt passes out, while Ram rapes McNamara. The boys spread a false rumor about Veronica performing oral sex on them, ruining her reputation. J.D. proposes that he and Veronica lure the boys into the woods, shoot them with tranquilizers, and humiliate them by staging the scene to look like they were lovers participating in asuicide pact.
In the forest, J.D. shoots Ram, but Veronica's shot misses Kurt, who runs away. J.D. chases Kurt back toward Veronica, who, realizing that the bullets are in fact lethal, fatally shoots him in a panic. At their funeral, the boys are made intomartyrs tohomophobia. Realizing that J.D. is intentionally murdering students he dislikes, Veronica is horrified and breaks up with him.
J.D. blackmails Duke into getting every student to sign a petition that, unbeknownst to her, is intended to act as amass suicide note. Martha, an overweight girl who is a frequent target of bullying, attempts to kill herself by walking into traffic. She survives but is badly injured and mocked by her peers who believe she was attempting to copy the popular kids. McNamara calls a radio show to discuss her depression. Duke tells the entire school about the radio call, leading to McNamara being bullied. McNamara attempts suicide by overdosing in the girls' bathroom, but Veronica intervenes.
Veronica returns home, where her parents inform her that J.D. stopped by, proclaiming that he is worried she will attempt suicide. Realizing that J.D. plans to kill her, she fakes her own suicide by hanging. J.D. finds her and, assuming she is dead, gives a monologue revealing his plan to blow up the schoolpep rally and frame it as a suicide pact.
J.D. plants dynamite in the gymnasium equipped with remote detonators. He proceeds to the school's boiler room to place dynamite with acountdown detonator. Veronica confronts J.D. in the boiler room and shoots him, resulting in him accidentally cutting the wires to the detonator with his switchblade. Veronica goes outside, and J.D. follows her with a bomb strapped to his chest. He offers a personaleulogy and detonates the bomb, killing himself. As students and faculty rush to see what happened, Veronica walks back inside, disheveled and covered in soot from the explosion. She confronts and condemns Duke, then invites Martha to spend prom night watching movies together.
Daniel Waters began writing the screenplay in spring of 1986, while he was working at avideo store.[15] He wanted the film to be directed byStanley Kubrick,[16] not only out of admiration for him, but also from a perception that "Kubrick was the only person that could get away with a three-hour film". The cafeteria scene near the start ofHeathers was written as a homage to the barracks scene which opens Kubrick'sFull Metal Jacket. After a number of failed attempts to get the script to Kubrick, Waters approached director Michael Lehmann, whom he met through a mutual friend.[17] Lehmann agreed to helm the film with producerDenise Di Novi.
In the original version of the script, J.D. successfully blows up Westerburg High, and the final scene features a surreal prom gathering of all the students in heaven. Executives at New World Pictures agreed to finance the film, but they disliked the dark ending and insisted that it be changed.[18]
Some reviewers have discussed similarities betweenHeathers andMassacre at Central High, a low-budget 1976 film.[19][20] Daniel Waters has stated that he had not seenMassacre at Central High at the time he wroteHeathers but that he had read a review of it in aDanny Peary book aboutcult movies and that the earlier film may have been "rattling around somewhere in my subconscious".[21]
Many actors and actresses turned down the project because of its dark subject matter. Early choices for Veronica wereJustine Bateman andJennifer Connelly.[18] Winona Ryder, who was 16 at the time of filming and badly wanted the part, begged Waters to cast her as Veronica, even offering to work for free.[22] Waters at first did not think Ryder was pretty enough, and Ryder herself commented that "at the time, I didn't look that different from my character inBeetlejuice. I was very pale. I had blue-black dyed hair. I went toMacy's at theBeverly Center and had them do a makeover on me."[18]
Ryder'sagent was so opposed to her pursuing the role that she got down on her hands and knees to beg Ryder not to take it, warning her that it would ruin her career.[18][23] Eventually, she was given the role.Brad Pitt read for the role of J.D. but was rejected.[24][25] Christian Slater reports throwing a "big tantrum" and tossing his script in the trash after assuming he'd bombed his audition.[18] He was signed to play J.D. shortly after Ryder was cast, stating later that he channeledJack Nicholson in the film.[26]
Heather Graham, then 17, was offered the part of Heather Chandler but turned it down due to her parents' disapproval of the film.[18] Kim Walker, who was dating Slater at the time, was offered the role instead. Lisanne Falk, 23 years old at the time, lied and said she was in her late teens during the audition. It was only after she was cast that she revealed her true age.[18] 17-year-old Shannen Doherty wanted the role of Veronica, but Ryder had been cast, so the producers asked her to audition for Heather Chandler. Doherty was more interested in playing Heather Duke and ended up giving an "amazing" reading as Duke, which secured her the part. The producers wanted her to dye her hair blonde to match the other "Heathers", but Doherty refused, so they compromised on her having red hair.[18]
Principal photography took place over 33 days beginning in July 1988, on a budget of $3 million.[17][18][27][28] Although set in Ohio, filming was done entirely in Los Angeles. "Westerburg High School" is an amalgamation ofCorvallis High School, nowBridges Academy, in Studio City,Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga, andJohn Adams Middle School in Santa Monica.[29] The gymnasium scenes were shot at Verdugo Hills High, and the climactic scene on the stairs was filmed outside John Adams Middle School.[30] The funeral scenes were filmed at Church of the Angels in Pasadena, California, a location also used inBuffy the Vampire Slayer andJust Married.[29]
Michael Lehmann has called Doherty "a bit of a handful" on set, in part because she objected to the swearing in the script and refused to say some of the more explicit lines.[18] Falk stated that Doherty "didn't have much of a sense of humor, and she took herself a little seriously", and Di Novi said: "I don't think Shannen really got whatHeathers was. And that worked for us. She made that character real."[18] When the cast first viewed the film, Doherty ran out crying because she realized the film was a dark comedy and not the drama she was expecting.[18][31]
The film uses two versions of the song "Que Sera, Sera", the first by singerSyd Straw and another over the end credits bySly and the Family Stone.[32] On the film'sDVD commentary, Di Novi mentions that the filmmakers wanted to use the originalDoris Day version of the song, but Day would not lend her name to any project using profanity.
The song "Teenage Suicide (Don't Do It)" by the fictional band Big Fun was written and produced for the film by musicianDon Dixon, and performed by the ad hoc group "Big Fun", which consisted of Dixon,Mitch Easter, Angie Carlson, andMarti Jones.[33] The song is included on Dixon's 1992 greatest hits album(If) I'm a Ham, Well You're a Sausage.[34]
The film's electronic score was composed and performed byDavid Newman, and a soundtrack CD was subsequently released.[35]
Heathers premiered in Milan, Italy, in the fall of 1988,[36] then was screened at theSundance Film Festival on January 21, 1989,[2] and was released to the U.S. public in March 1989, at which time New World Pictures was going bankrupt.[18] The film was considered aflop when it was released, earning $177,247 in its opening weekend and ultimately grossing $1.1 million in the United States over five weeks.[37][38][6]
New World Video releasedHeathers onVHS andLaserDisc in 1989.[39] It developed acult following after being unsuccessful at the box office.[18] It was released again on LaserDisc in September 1996, as a widescreen edition digitally transferred fromTrans Atlantic Entertainment'sinterpositive print under the supervision of cinematographerFrancis Kenny. The sound was mastered from the magnetic sound elements. The film was released on DVD in March 1999, in a barebones edition.[40]
In 2001, a multi-region special editionTHX-certified DVD was released fromAnchor Bay Entertainment inDolby Digital 5.1.[40] The DVD contained an audio commentary with director Michael Lehmann, producer Denise Di Novi and writer Daniel Waters, as well as a 30-minute documentary titledSwatch Dogs and Diet Cokeheads, featuring interviews with Ryder, Slater, Doherty, Falk, Lehmann, Waters, Di Novi, director of photography Francis Kenny, and editorNorman Hollyn.[41] The DVD was released in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe, and achieved high sales. Each release included a different front cover featuring Veronica, J.D., Chandler, Duke, and McNamara.[41]
The Anchor Bay DVD was also released in a "Limited Edition Tin Set" of 15,000 copies.[16] The Tin Set included atheatrical trailer, screenplay excerpt, original ending, biographies, 10-page full-color fold-out with photos and liner notes, an 8-inch "Heathers Rules!" ruler, and a 48-page full-color yearbook style booklet with rare photos.[42] The film was then re-released on Blu-ray byImage Entertainment in 2011 as a barebones edition, two years after Anchor Bay.[40]
In July 2008, a new 20th anniversary special edition DVD set was released by Anchor Bay to coincide with the DVD of writer Waters' new filmSex and Death 101.[40] The DVD features a new documentary,Return to Westerburg High.[40] In November 2008, Anchor Bay released a Blu-ray with all the special features from the 20th anniversary DVD and a soundtrack in Dolby TrueHD 5.1.[43]
Arrow Films releasedHeathers in the United Kingdom onUltra HD Blu-ray on August 5, 2018, and in cinemas on September 10, based on a new4K restoration of the film.[44][45] In November 2019, Image Entertainment released a 30th anniversary steelbook edition on Blu-ray.[46] This release did not utilize Arrow Films' 4K restoration and featured new and previous special features.
Writing in April 1989 forThe Washington Post, journalistDesson Thomson wrote that it "may be the nastiest, cruelest fun you can have without actually having to study law or gird leather products. If movies were food,Heathers would be a cynic's chocolate binge."[47]Chicago Sun-Times film criticRoger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4 and wrote thatHeathers "is a morbid comedy about peer pressure in high school, about teenage suicide and about the deadliness of cliques that not only exclude but also maim and kill." While conceding its ability to provoke thought and shock, Ebert questioned how the mixed sensibility as a dark murder comedy and "cynicalmorality play" led to difficulty in understanding its point of view, while remarking that, "Adulthood could be defined as the process of learning to be shocked by things that do not shock teenagers, but that is not a notion that has occurred to Lehmann."[48]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 95% of 57 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "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."[49]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[50]
Academics have likenedHeathers to other films popular during the 1980s and early 1990s which characterized domestic youth narratives as part and parcel of the "culture war".[51][52]
Teen film scholarTimothy Shary positsHeathers as influential for the subsequent satirical engagement with the trope of popularity: "Heathers turns the otherwise serious high school business of popularity into a farce, and that is exactly what films of the '90s continued to do with the roles of popular female school characters.Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992),Clueless (1995),Jawbreaker andElection (both 1999) all feature popular school girls who are at once dedicated to maintaining their accepted image but who struggle (or fail) to recognize the contradictions and ironies of their position. The films thereby become parodies of popularity, although onlyClueless andElection offer the same wide social scope asHeathers."[53]
Waters created a specific set of slang and style of speech for the film, wanting to ensure that the language in the film would have "timeless" quality instead of just reflecting teen slang at the time.[54] As of 2014[update], the film was among the most cited in theOxford English Dictionary.[55]
Scholars have situatedHeathers within late-20th-century "culture war" depictions of youth, noting its role in reframing popularity as an object of satire rather than aspiration.[56][57] The film's decidedly stylized use of contemporaneousslang has also been recognized as a factor influencing the film's lasting cultural footprint; it is among the most frequently cited films in theOxford English Dictionary for first attestations of lines and idioms.[58]
On June 2, 2009,Entertainment Weekly reported that Ryder had claimed that there would be a sequel to the film, titledHeathers 2, with Slater coming back "as a kind ofObi-Wan character".[59] However, Lehmann denied development of a sequel, saying, "Winona's been talking about this for years—she brings it up every once in a while and Dan Waters and I will joke about it, but as far as I know there's no script and no plans to do the sequel."[60] In 2024, Daniel Waters revealed that he had concocted a story for the sequel where Veronica becomes a page for a presidential candidate named Heather, who would have been played byMeryl Streep. The film would have ended with Veronica assassinating her and getting away with it.[61]
In 2010,Heathers was adapted into a stage musical directed byAndy Fickman.[62] Fickman also worked on the musicalReefer Madness,[62] a parody of the anti-cannabis movieof the same name which was turned into afeature film.Heathers: The Musical, which opens with a number depicting Veronica's acceptance into the Heathers' clique, received several readings in workshops in Los Angeles and a three-show concert presentation atJoe's Pub in New York City on September 13–14, 2010. The cast of the Joe's Pub concert includedAnnaleigh Ashford as Veronica,Jenna Leigh Green as Heather Chandler, andJeremy Jordan as J.D.
The musical played atOff-Broadway'sNew World Stages with performances beginning March 15, 2014, and an opening night on March 31.[63] The original cast of the Off-Broadway production includedBarrett Wilbert Weed as Veronica Sawyer,Jessica Keenan Wynn as Heather Chandler,Ryan McCartan as J.D.,Alice Lee as Heather Duke, andElle McLemore as Heather McNamara.[64] It closed on August 4, 2014.[65]
AnOff West End production ofHeathers, directed by Andy Fickman, played at theOther Palace in London with performances between June 19 and August 4, 2018. Its cast includedCarrie Hope Fletcher as Veronica Sawyer,Jodie Steele as Heather Chandler,Jamie Muscato as J.D., T'Shan Williams as Heather Duke, andSophie Isaacs as Heather McNamara. It transferred to theWest End in September 2018, playing inTheatre Royal Haymarket, London. A high school production of the musical is the focus of the "Chapter Fifty-One: Big Fun" episode ofRiverdale.[66]In 2021,Heathers returned for a limited run at the Haymarket with Christina Bennington playing Veronica Sawyer andJordan Luke Gage as J.D. The three Heathers were played by Jodie Steele (Heather Chandler), Bobbi Little (Heather Duke), andFrances Mayli McCann (Heather McNamara). It then went on to play atThe Other Palace until 3 September 2023.
In 2025, it was announced that theOff-Broadway production ofHeathers would play June-September atNew World Stages inManhattan, New York.[67]
In March 2016,TV Land ordered a pilot script for ananthology dark comedy series, set in the present day, with a very different Veronica Sawyer dealing with a very different but equally vicious group of Heathers. The series was written by Jason Micallef andTom Rosenberg, andGary Lucchesi was the executive producer[68] In January 2017, theHeathers TV show was ordered to Series at TV Land.[69]Shannen Doherty, the movie's Heather Duke, makes acameo appearance in the pilot.[70]
Coverage at the time framed the postponement in relation to U.S. school-shooting sensitivities, with network statements citing theParkland context in explaining the scheduling decision.[71]
In March 2017, it was reported that the series was moved to the then upcomingParamount Network.[72]Selma Blair has a recurring role in the series.[73] A trailer for the rebooted series was released in August 2017.[74] The series starsGrace Victoria Cox as Veronica Sawyer,James Scully as J.D.,Melanie Field as Heather Chandler,Brendan Scannell as Heather Duke, Jasmine Mathews as Heather McNamara,[75] Birgundi Baker as Lizzy, andCameron Gellman as Kurt.[76] The series was set to premiere on March 7, 2018.[77] On February 28, 2018, it was announced that the premiere would be delayed in light of theStoneman Douglas High School shooting.[78]
We probably would have liked [Heathers] even better if we hadn't seen much the same story before as 1976'sMassacre at Central High... Heathers replacesMassacre's fascistic male clique with a femme one but otherwise clones the earlier flick pretty closely.
Heathers... spoofed the 1976 schlock horror classicMassacre at Central High... about a new student at a Southern California high school who doesn't like how other students are terrorized by a gang, so he decides to off the gang members one by one in gruesome fashion.
I [Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters] had most definitely not seen [Massacre at Central High], but I do remember reading about it in the beloved bookCult Movies byDanny Peary... so I guess it was rattling around somewhere in my subconscious.[permanent dead link] [Peary's review ofMassacre at Central High appears in hisCult Movies 2.]
According to 14 Sep 1988 DV production charts, principal photography began in Jul 1988.
Heathers is a brilliantly quotable cult film, but did you know it is also one of the most frequently cited films in the OED...
