Bring Back Black Comedies

Heathers (1989) centres around Veronika played by the wonderful, Winona Ryder writing a series of diary entries about her horrible power hungry friends. It was a teen high school picture with an edge, a very dark edgy namely due to Christan Slater playing the new kid at school. He is the mysterious, murderous and intellectual, JD.

So we have four friends; Heather, Heather, Heather and Veronika. Yes, they're all called Heather apart from the fourth one, it was not merely a typing error. They go to parties, carry out school surveys each lunch time, make fun of the fat, ugly and disabled. They partake in other school rituals that so called popular girls are supposed to do in this strange and dark representation of a High School.

The film is a black comedy because quite frankly it is random in a lot of ways, scenes and conversations seems just placed in as if from the directors subconscious. However much random the set out of this particular black comedy is, it seems to work perfectly and there are a hundred different moral messages left open to the audience to discover and contemplate.

There is the book by Herman Menville, ' Moby Dick' for example, the repetitive use of the work 'Eskimo' and the stark colours of Blue, Red and Green that seem to stand out in the midst of this smokey and peculiar film.

It works perfectly and ultimately projects film as a medium of art which is very rare these days. It has also been an inspiration to other teen movies with an 'edge' such as Mean Girls and Jawbreaker. I urge you to watch Heathers and then watch the other two films.

Another reason it's so dark is due to the screenplay by Daniel Waters, he revolutionised the way we see teen films. With lines such as "You are such a pillow case" and "Well, fuck me slowly with a chainsaw", the film clearly is hitting back at teen movies from the past. These teens are real or are they? It suggests that teen characters have been stereotyped so much they have lost the sense of identity, this is a major theme of the film.

What has happened? We are now subjected to The House Bunny (2008) an awful film about an ex playboy bunny who finds a new job at a Sobriety house of 'losers'. These losers are not celebrated for their eccentricities, oh no. They are laughed at and then changed into stereotypical images of what is 'sexy' and 'cool' by American standards. Its terrible. Films are no longer art, they are moral messages.

You either appreciate black comedies or you don't. Beyond the brutal humour and random'ness lies a philosophical essence, so I encourage you to watch closer next time you watch a teen movie with an 'edge' or any movie with an dark side that is frankly, funny.

Here are a few Black Comedies to watch;

A Clockwork Orange
8 Women
Ruthless People
Shallow Grave
The Secretary
The Stepford Wives (1975) and (2004 re-make)Beetlejuice
Mean Girls
Serial Mom
Jaw Breaker
Death Becomes Her
and the wonderful HEATHERS.