Heathers

=== Retrospective responses ===

=== Retrospective responses ===

{{RT prose|{{RT data|score}}|{{RT data|average}}|{{RT data|count}}|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.|ref=yes|access-date={{RT data|access date}}}} {{MC film|72|20|ref=yes|access-date=2024-08-06}}

{{RT prose|{{RT data|score}}|{{RT data|average}}|{{RT data|count}}|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.|ref=yes|access-date={{RT data|access date}}}} {{MC film|72|20|ref=yes|access-date=2024-08-06}}

Academics have likened ''Heathers'' to other films popular during the 1980s and early 1990s which characterized domestic youth narratives as part and parcel of the "[[culture war]]".{{cite thesis|last=Connors|first=Clare|title=The Hollywood Youth Narrative and the Family Values Campaign, 1980–1992|date=2005|chapter=Heathers, High School and the Conflict Between Democratic Values and Consumer Culture|degree=Ph.D.|page=201|chapter-url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/305453239|publisher=[[University of Pittsburgh]]|id=Document No. 3192936}}{{cite thesis|last=Hubbard|first=Christine Karen Reeves|title=Rebellion and Reconciliation: Social Psychology, Genre, and the Teen Film, 1980–1989|date=December 1996|chapter=The Teen Lifestyle Film|degree=Ph.D.|page=23|chapter-url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/304269863|location=Denton, Texas|publisher=[[University of North Texas]]|id=Document No. 9714032}}

Teen film scholar [[Timothy Shary]] posits ''Heathers'' 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 (film)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' (1992), ''[[Clueless]]'' (1995), ''[[Jawbreaker (film)|Jawbreaker]]'' and ''[[Election (1999 film)|Election]]'' (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 only ''Clueless'' and ''Election'' offer the same wide social scope as ''Heathers''."{{Cite book |last=Shary |first=Timothy |year=2002 |title=Generation multiplex: the image of youth in contemporary American cinema |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |isbn=978-0-292-77752-1 |edition=1st |location=Austin |page=65 }}

Teen film scholar [[Timothy Shary]] posits ''Heathers'' 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 (film)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' (1992), ''[[Clueless]]'' (1995), ''[[Jawbreaker (film)|Jawbreaker]]'' and ''[[Election (1999 film)|Election]]'' (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 only ''Clueless'' and ''Election'' offer the same wide social scope as ''Heathers''."{{Cite book |last=Shary |first=Timothy |year=2002 |title=Generation multiplex: the image of youth in contemporary American cinema |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |isbn=978-0-292-77752-1 |edition=1st |location=Austin |page=65 }}