During the 1980s, the Brat Pack dominated Hollywood, with movies like Sixteen Candles, Rumblefish, St Elmo’s Fire, and The Breakfast Club earning acclaim among adults and teens alike. These adolescent-oriented movies were a hit, marking a new wave of accessible (and often slightly risqué) movies about teenagers for teenagers. Proving to be a hugely profitable group, more teen movies began to emerge, although some had a slightly darker edge, like Heathers.

Released in 1988, the film was, in many ways, an antidote to the Brat Pack era’s take on teen culture, using themes of murder and a Bonnie and Clyde-esque relationship to satirise high school hierarchies and popularity. Leading the film was Winona Ryder, whose penchant for moodier roles, as demonstrated by her initial breakthrough in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, allowed her to portray protagonist Veronica Sawyer perfectly. The actor was still a teenager when she joined the cast of Heathers, but she delivered a career-defining performance as the high-schooler unsure of her identity and place in the world.

When we first meet Veronica, she has recently joined a popular clique, although she’s the only one without the first name Heather. It’s clear that Veronica doesn’t really fit in here, but her inclusion in the group is believable enough due to Ryder’s portrayal of Veronica as a witty and no-nonsense type. She might be unsure of her place in the world, but Veronica certainly isn’t one of the nerds, even if her hatred of her friends is much more akin to the mindset of a high school loner.