Heathers (1988)

"Extremely Very"

A late 1980s comedy that's deliciously quirky and dark, Michael Lehmann's HEATHERS gets a splendid dual format DVD & Blu-ray presentation from Arrow. The film is celebrating its 30th anniversary, but fans will be delighted to learn it has dated in all the right ways. 

Veronica (Winona Ryder) has achieved her aspiration to be in the top clique in her high school, the other three members of which are all named Heather. The girls specialise in playing practical jokes on those they deem beneath them (ie everyone), wearing fabulous clothes (for the late 1980s which means they are, indeed, fabulous) and, of course, behaving like supreme bitches whenever they can.

When Veronica hooks up with loner / Jack Nicholson impersonator Jason Dean (Christian Slater) and explains how she wants to stop one of the Heathers (Kim Chandler) from telling the school about an unfortunate incident at a recent party, it's the start of a run of murders dressed up to look like suicides. How the school reacts to the suicides forms a major part of HEATHERS' satire, culminating as it does in a plot to destroy the entire school.

Which is just one of the reasons HEATHERS wouldn't get made today. In fact, according to the interview with director Lehmann on this disc, it wasn't the kind of film to get made very easily back then, either. Now, however, this tale of American school kids shooting each other and taping dynamite to school buildings is far too close to the truth for the subject matter to be treated in such a wittily acerbic manner.

And HEATHERS is very witty indeed. Daniel Waters' script is eminently quotable, and even composer David Newman pays tribute to it in his interview on the disc, saying that he composed a more textural than thematic score because the dialogue was melody enough. Michael Lehmann's direction is extremely stylish, and I especially liked the use of different coloured lighting depending on which Heather we are with.  

Arrow's Blu-ray comes packed with extras. As well as the above we get a commentary track from Lehmann, Waters and producer Denise Di Novi. There are more interviews with production designer Jon Hutman, art director Kara Lindstrom, casting director Julie Selzer, and actress Lisanne Falk. There's a new appraisal from John Ross Bowie (Kripke in The Big Bang Theory), an archival making of featurette, trailers and a reversible sleeve. 

The transfer itself is a new restoration from a 4K scan and is presented in 1080p for Blu-ray. You also get sound options of original mono and 5.1 DTS-HD.

Michael Lehmann's HEATHERS is out on dual format from Arrow Films on Monday 10th September 2018