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Heathers
Metascore
73 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    100
    It's shockingly funny - you don't sit there deciding to laugh. Your own laughter catches you by surprise. [14 Apr 1989]
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  2. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Brad Laidman
    100
    This is an amazing black satire filled with vicious biting words that snap like firecrackers.
  3. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    100
    Wickedly funny. In fact, Heathers 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.
  4. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Rita Kempley
    100
    More than just one of the best movies so far this year, it is a revolution in young-adult entertainment.
  5. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    90
    Lehmann isn't in perfect control - the movie gets off to a flat-footed start, and the conclusion is chaotic - but when Heathers hits its stride, it reaches wild and original comic heights. [2 April 1989]
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  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    90
    Daniel Waters' enormously clever screenplay blazes a trail of originality through the dead wood of the teen-comedy genre.
  7. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    89
    Director Michael Lehmann made a stunning debut with this sharp satire of teen cliques.
  8. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    88
    It's a tough entry into the tough black-comic genre; don't be surprised if it becomes a classic. [31 March 1989]
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  9. Empire
    Reviewed by: Emma Cochrane
    80
    Michael Lehmann’s feature debut introduced the world to Christian Slater at his Jack Nicholson, subversive best and gave Winona Ryder a career-high role.
  10. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Julie Salamon
    80
    Heathers gave me the creeps but it also made me laugh. This bizarre variation on that Hollywood staple, the teen movie, is one weird original. [30 Mar 1989 p.A12(E)]
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  11. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Dave Kehr
    75
    The sheer outrageousness of its attitude is enough to make Heathers a very welcome relief in a field dominated by sanctimonious and second-hand virtue. [31 March 1989]
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  12. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    70
    Dark, cynical, but deliciously funny, Heathers is a fascinating look not just at high school but at the way we look at high school.
  13. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Elvis Mitchell
    70
    As snappy and assured as it is mean-spirited. Its originality extends well beyond the limits of ordinary high school histrionics and into the realm of the genuinely perverse.
  14. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    70
    If Michael Lehmann's direction were a bit more astute, the movie could be the classic genre mutation it aims to be: Andy Hardy meets "Badlands." [17 April 1989]
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  15. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    63
    What sets Heathers apart from less intelligent teenage movies is that it has a point of view toward this subject matter - a bleak, macabre and bitingly satirical one.
  16. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    The flamboyantly filmed story makes some telling points about adolescent life. But despite its oh-so-cynical mannerisms, it falls all over itself to flatter an allegedly self-absorbed and self-pitying teen audience. [7 April 1989]
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  17. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Pauline Kael
    50
    Yes, it's a collection of barbs and sick jokes, but it's not fun, and it lacks a punch line...The young, inexperience director, Michael Lehmann, doesn't find the right mood for the gags. [17 Apr 1989]
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  18. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Sheila Benson
    40
    Unfortunately, director Michael Lehmann's point of view is swivel-mounted: He doesn't have the courage of his cynicism. [31 Mar 1989]
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  19. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    40
    Succeeds at least in being offbeat, but its inanities and glib pretensions are so thick that it mainly comes across as tacky and contrived.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. AwesomeReviewer
    8
    The movie starts simple enough, a bunch of high school girls in the cafeteria playing horrible pranks on innocent girls, just for laughs. However, it takes a quick dark turn, someone pulls a gun out and shoots two guys (luckily blanks) and quickly someone else gets killed. When it started off I thought maybe this was all in the head of the heroine, but boy am I wrong. As the movie progresses it becomes darker, but it retains it humor even in the more gruesome scenes. It becomes a movie about how society has one general leader and no matter how many times you kill this leader a new one grows in its place like a hydra. The film takes about the seriousness of suicide and pokes fun at how people react to it. It is a bold movie and the payoffs are well worth it. The film becomes a satire for our society in a high school setting. In the beginning I was a little disturbed when the movie took its dark turn, but when I caught on to what it was about, I was enjoying it very much. The director does a great job of creating the tension, but not forgetting the humor. The script is incredibly smart and it never feels as though as the movie is preachy or talking down to its audience. While it loses what its trying to in the middle and right before the climax, it rounds itself up fairly well near the end. I was creeped out by the movie towards the end and well after it was over. The characters are all lively and they poke fun at figures n society. From hippies, to rebels, to people who think they are better than everyone, to the average man, “Heathers” is filled relateable and colorful characters. Christian Slater steals the show though, JD, a psychotic rebel that only desires love. Fairly layered and his performance sent chills down my spine, even after the film was over. Winona Ryder does a good, job trying to match Slater. Overall, “Heathers” is a great societal satire. With colorful character and spine tingling moments. The director does a great job of creating eerie feel and the script is just fantastic. Music is well used and adds to the whole creepy vibe. I give it, a very strong 4/5, great script, well acted, and really deep. I highly recommend people check this movie out. It is a very good movie and it has so many layers that you wouldn’t expect. I was surprised by the twists and turns the movie took and that rarely happens for me where I don’t see something coming. Also if your a fan of “Fight Club” I couldn’t help, but notice the similarities in tone and theme. It felt as “Fight Club” borrowed a lot from “Heather.” Another movie that resembles and feels like it borrowed things from “Heathers” is “World’s Greatest Dad.” “Muy Caliente”… Full Review »
  2. j30
    8
    Here's an 80's gem that's very entertaining and has some great quotes. It 's almost a guilty pleasure of mine that's hard to ignore. I can't really recommend this to anyone that is easily offended.… Full Review »
  3. heybuddymovies
    8
    first saw Heather’s on my weekend routine of movie watching from the afternoon schedule on television stations in Bountiful, Utah. I’m pretty confident I came in a few minutes into it the first time and was just hooked right away. Heather’s is an off-key film starring Christian Slater and Winona Ryder as a high school couple who starts offing the cool kids in their school and making them look like suicides and then dealing with the oddly weird interest of the media and the grownups around them as well as their own reactions. This film seemed different from most I had seen at the time and it was intriguing as its setting hit home for me. I was shunned pretty much in the second half of ninth grade from someone I thought was a friend through a rumor that now is so mind numbingly ridiculous I can’t fathom how anyone could have believed it, but they did. So I started my high school career with zero friends and what had become the usual taunt of name calling and the like. During the time I first saw this movie I had also been in a group who were often designated as part of the popular bunch. The thing is; I was kind of their punching bag when it came to taunts and such. I stuck around because, at the time, it seemed like that was better than going back to not having friends. Eventually I told them off, got a new set of “friends” and then those friends started a rumor and I was alone again. Needless to say, I felt a connection to the two main characters, with the exception of hurting anyone. I recently watched a documentary on this film and had never realized before watching it that this was a controversial film at the time because of its plot focusing on teen suicide, teen murder and bullying. It was thought to be too ahead of its time and that came to fruition as Columbine started an almost yearly news story of teen murder at a school. For me, at the time I was first watching it, it was just a dark comedy. At its heart it was supposed to be a commentary on how teens react to the pressures of high school and trying to fit in somewhere. I tried many times to fit in when we would move to a new town, always telling myself I would change my personality to be more confident and outgoing, only to fold minutes into the first day of a new school and be my usual quiet and shy self. Heather’s is one of those films I would stop and watch a bit of when switching through the channels (before DVR of course). I still love the film. Its dialogue is still unique, its look is as well and Christian Slater is still creepy charismatic. Is it a movie that leads to any real comfortable ending, not really. Its main character gets away with murder, but at least she has learned to be nice to the fat girl. If you like the “cult classic” type movies, this one is for you.… Full Review »
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