Have you ever watched an '80s teen comedy only to say to yourself: "That's not what high school is like at all"

In the 1980s, writer/director John Hughes had the teen comedy down to a simple, yet profitable, formula. With that formula, he was able to produce some of the decades most iconic teen films such as "Sixteen Candles" and "Pretty in Pink". Although these films were widely successful and critically acclaimed, they seemed to offer a candy sweet vision of high school where the popular girls had a hidden depth and the nerdy kids were actually smooth talking Casanovas. Take Hughes' "The Breakfast Club" for example. In the film, we are given several stereotypes of the high school society and how they interact with one another on a social level. However, we are shown that these characters have a hidden depth to them, thus driving home the idea of these kids being much more complex than society makes them out to be.

Later in the decade, the teen comedy genre became over saturated with the same basic formulaic plot making both film critics and moviegoers bored with it all. Luckily, screenwriter Daniel Waters had an idea for a film that would turn the genre on its head: "Heathers".

"Heathers" was a smart, cynical, and satirical look into the world of high school with a murderous edge. It showed audiences that, like real life, high school is a vapid vacuum of meaningless that prepares its youth for a bleak life. The film focuses on the way we're obsessed with both status and success and how teens are forced into adulthood at such an early age. More importantly, it deals with suicide and how, based on the deceased's privilege, people will try to capitalize off of it and turn it into a pageantry of glamour and decadence.

The film still feels fresh and relevant thirty years later because it chooses to deal with these issues head-on. It didn't dumb it down for the audience, but instead dealt with it in a sophisticated, and humorous, way. When we find ourselves laughing at dark humor, it actually makes us stop for a minute and think about why this is funny: is it because it's an uncomfortable truth? is it because we're all messed up as a species? or maybe it's because we just have a dark sense of humor.

Even in its cynicism, "Heathers" managed to give us a little glimmer of hope at the end of the film. When Veronica takes back Heather Chandler's red power scrunchie from Heather Duke, she declares: "Heather my love, there's a new sheriff in town" and goes off to make friends with Martha "Dumptruck" Dunnstock. With this declaration and act of kindness, Veronica shows the viewer that she intends on breaking down the toxic power structure of her high school, while also making it a more tolerant place for ostracized students.

Many have tried to recreate what "Heathers" accomplished but very few managed to succeed. There have been some worthy successors: "Jawbreaker" and "Mean Girls" to name a few.

But they still can't capture what makes "Heathers" so absolutely very.