Disc Reviews

Heathers 4K Review

• 27th Jul 2024

Heathers came out in 1989.  Hard to believe that after 35 years it has grown into a Teen-Black Comedy cult favourite. It will be interesting to see if the current generation of young adults take to the film. It’s very hard to predict, especially with what seems to be popular these days.

Heathers stars Winona Ryder as high school teen Veronica Sawyer. She’s part of a clique of popular girls at school who run the establishment like it’s their own. They poll the other kids at school lunches, date the jocks, make fun of the nerds and generally are all round disgusting teens.  Oh, did I mention the other 3 girls in Veronica’s group are all called Heather?

During a lunchtime poll, Veronica takes an interest in the new kid in town with his black-clad attire and even darker attitude, Jason Dean (or just JD) (an overflowing-the-brim turn from Christian Slater). The two strike up a quick romance and after Veronica suddenly finds herself on the short end of the Heathers’ whipping stick, the two concoct the idea (and then the concation) of poisoning the lead Heather.

One dead blonde popular girl later (dressed up to be a suicide) and the school faculty is acting out in wild abandon!  Parents fear for their children’s lives, the teens react with a variety of outpourings over life and what it is to them and Veronic and JD suddenly find themselves with the power going to their heads.

Teenage suicide is no joke, but Heathers crafts a very fine line with its satire. The joke is apparently on everyone: The gloomy teens, the out-of-touch parents, and the even more out-of-touch teachers. Heathers highlights the pomposity of modern living, the irrational behaviour of social groups and the irrefutable denial brought forth by all ages of human existence.

Slater and Ryder stand out with pitch-perfect performances. They were both already working hard, but Heathers is a true gold star on both of their report cards. Michael Lehman delivers a surreal composition for the film, helped by some colourful decor and often soft focus to give the film a more dreamlike feel.  The supporting cast all do sterling work. The adults (both parents and teachers) are often overlooked in the film but stand out with moments of true laugh-out-loud hilarity.  The teachers’ conferences (of which there are only a couple) are a riot of dialogue exchange. Veronica’s parents deliver a great repeated dialogue scene with her to show just how fake and yet comfortable the whole family set-up can seem. And then there is JD’s dad – a batshit crazy construction king obsessed with blowing up buildings. Nothing in this film is sane, or safe.

This set is filled with great extras. The director, producer and writer all team up for a commentary track that delves deep on detail.  There are a couple of retrospective documentaries made some time ago now by Anchor Bay (over two decades ago!), but one “Swatch Dogs and Diet Coke Heads” does feature Ryder and Slater as well as other members of the main cast and crew.  There are more recent updated interviews from Arrow Video with the likes of the director, composer (David Newman – who did a very cool and stylised score for the film), the art team discuss the look of the film, and the casting is looked at more thoroughly. Daniel Waters has a sit down with a couple of other screenwriters who talk about their journey as screenwriters in Hollywood. Aside from perhaps wanting to hear from even more of the supporting cast, or just to get a fresh perspective from the leads, you can’t really expect much more than this right now. For a film that made no noise upon release to thirty-five years later getting the 4K treatment with a tone of extra material – then you are simply laughing as a consumer.

This title is another in Arrow’s recent long slewth of re-releases slapping a 4K restoration in the box.  Everything else that came before on the previous Arrow set is correct and present. But, there is the added bonus here of one of the “making of” documentaries (The previously mentioned “Swatch Dogs…”) that was not pulled over to Arrow’s Blu-ray release of this previously.  Something has happened and now Arrow have access to it and it is on this set – And thank god because it is probably the highlight extra.

This is a solid recommendation to anyone who doesn’t own it or even hasn’t taken the Blu-ray plunge yet with this film. It’s definitely worth upgrading from a vastly inferior edition.  But if you already own the Arrow Blu-ray then you might want to put it lower down on your buy list, cause that Blu-ray was already damn special. And that’s advice coming from someone who has this film listed in their Top 10 films of all time!

Steven Hurst

Full contents:

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• New restoration from a 4K scan of the original camera negative by Arrow Films
• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original 1.0 mono, and optional stereo 2.0 and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sound
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by director Michael Lehmann, producer Denise Di Novi and writer Daniel Waters
• Lehmann’s Terms, an interview with director Michael Lehmann
• Pizzicato Croquet, composer David Newman and director Michael Lehmann discuss the music of Heathers
• How Very: The Art and Design of Heathers, production designer Jon Hutman, art director Kara Lindstrom and director Michael Lehmann discuss the look of Heathers
• Casting Westerberg High, casting director Julie Selzer discusses the casting process for Heathers
• Poor Little Heather, an interview with actress Lisanne Falk
• Scott and Larry and Dan and Heathers, an interview between screenwriting team Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, The People vs Larry Flint), and Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters
• The Big Bowie Theory, an appreciation by the writer, actor and comedian John Ross Bowie
• Return to Westerberg High, an archival featurette providing further insight into the film’s production
• Swatch Dogs and Diet Coke Heads, an archival featurette with the cast and crew featuring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and writer Daniel Waters
• The Beaver Gets a Boner, Michael Lehmann’s student film from 1985 made at the USC School of Cinematic Arts
• Original trailers
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Robert Sammelin

Heathers is out on 5^th August