High School Movie Showdown: The Mean Girls

Welcome to the High School Movie Showdown, a new Friday FabOoolousness series here at The Ooo Factor!  At least once a month, we’ll take two popular movies in the teenage genre and pit them against one another.  We’ll feature the classics (like Grease), some popular Generation Xers (like Cluelesss), and some that are a bit more recent to the scene (like Project X).

First up, the mean girls…

Pretty much everyone is familiar with or has lived through high school cliques and mean girls.  And for the most part, we all survived or are in the process of surviving.  But no matter how hard we try, these two obstacles will live on and continue to haunt teens for generations to come.

Not long ago, as I flipped through the channels, I happened upon Heathers.  Like I do with a handful of the ‘80s classics I have seen numerous times, I sat down and watched the film again from start to finish. I say again because it had to be at least the twentieth time…  And while the movie might be a tad dated, from the outfits, to the actual clarity of the frames, it reminded me why it will forever be one of my favorite movies about high school.

Then again last night, as I was waiting for a new flick to begin, the particular movie channel I happened to be watching aired a commercial for their current features—Heathers being one of them.  The sound bite called the film, “the original mean girls.”

Which got me to thinking, when paired up side-by-side, which of these films would win—Heathers or Mean Girls?

Both films do share a few similarities: both are loaded with popular young actors from that particular generation (Heathers stars Christian Slater, Winona Ryder, and Shannen Doherty… and Mean Girls stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, and Amanda Seyfried), and the overall messages of the two movies are not all that different—in high school, everyone wants to fit in; no one wants to be a pariah; yet, everyone is awkward and insecure in one way or another; and more times than not, there’s always that one obstacle preventing them from shining, making them feel inferior… and often times, this obstacle can only be described in one way (well, two ways)—the Heathers and the Mean Girls.

Heather, Heather, Heather, and Veronica.

However, the two films are really nothing alike, the most important element being the fact that Heathers is a dark comedy and Mean Girls is a flat-out, laugh-out-loud comedy.  For instance, the main characters in Heathers play murderous games with their classmates, whereas the “Plastics” in Mean Girls are just plain mean.  Say what you will, but poisoning a friend, staging the said friend’s suicide, shooting classmates, and planning a bombing at a school function goes way beyond mean.  What did the girls in Mean Girls do again?  Oh yeah, they spread rumors, secrets, and gossip (although they do this as well in Heathers), and played tricks on one another.

Cady, Karen, Gretchen, and Regina.

Bottom line, both films were popular in their day.  And both will achieve cult classic success and live on through their fans year after year.  But which one would win in a head to head battle?  The Heathers, and Veronica and J.D., or the Plastics and Miss Cady?

I say Heathers.

How about you?  Heathers or Mean Girls?  I’d love to hear from you!