The Principal of Westerburg High: Not named
Veronica’s parents: Not named
ROLE OF AUTHORITY AND REAGANITE ENTERTAINMENT Heathers takes a page from John Hughes’s films by providing us with roles of authority figures that just don’t quite get it. The faculty, the Principal, Veronica’s parents, and J.D.’s father are all ignorant. This makes sense because much like John Hughes, Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann (director), they wanted to make a film that focused on teenagers and get it from their perspective. The way any authority or position of power is perceived in this film is one of the ways this film is not a form of Reaganite Entertainment. Reagan was very pro family and every relationship in this film is dysfunctional and many times dangerous. The parents and teachers at the high school are completely oblivious to what is going on with the students/teenagers at school/life. This exaggeration of “ignorant suburban parents/faculty” shows that teenagers feel the most understood then ever before and that there is no one to turn to when high school is a living nightmare. Another interesting quality of how this film negates forms of Reaganite Entertainment is the disturbing ways in which all the love interests end. Veronica and J.D. break up, J.D. ploys to then kill Veronica until he realizes her was too late because he sees that she has killed herself (when she really fakes her death). He then decides that no one loves him so he plans on blowing up the school with explosives until Veronica saves the day/school and pulls a gun on him. She forces J.D. to tell her how to turn off the bomb, he tells her, and out of devastation that Veronica doesn’t love him he decides to kill himself and straps the bomb to himself. Veronica ends up with no love interest, no one actually does. We also learn throughout the film that J.D.’s psychotic behavior is hereditary because his father hints that his mother died “on accident” when we learn that he killed her. This alone promotes the opposite of Reaganite Entertainment because it is all a dark comedic message that the love of your life might just literally kill you.