Editorials
Killing the Teen Dream: Biting Into ‘Jawbreaker’ at 20
Released in 800 theatres with minimal marketing, writer/director Darren Stein’s satirical black comedy Jawbreaker made its debut on Feb 19, 1999. Apparently, Columbia/Tri-Star never intended for the film to become a big theatrical success; the goal was to conquer the home video market. In this capacity, the plan succeeded: the $3.5M film brought in $3.1M, then went on to become a smash hit on the rental circuit. 20 years later, the film is a cult classic (particularly among gays and girls), celebrated as a canonical piece of teen pop culture history and acting as the 90s stepping stone between 1988’s Heathers and 2004’s Mean Girls.
Stein’s film rifts on Heathers’ basic premise by using the accidental murder of the most popular girl in high school as a launchpad to dissect the shark-infested waters of teen popularity. Jawbreaker opens on a birthday prank gone wrong: HS sweetheart Liz Purr (Charlotte Ayanna)’s fake home invasion ends in death when the titular jawbreaker gets lodged in her throat and she asphyxiates in the trunk of her friends’ car.
Immediately sociopathic queen bee Courtney (Rose McGowan), dim-witted follower Marcie (Julie Benz) and bland Julie (Rebecca Gayheart) come to a crossroads about how to proceed. Courtney and Marcie pressure Julie into covering the murder up, and eventually Courtney frames a lecherous stranger (Marilyn Manson) and makes over Fern Mayo (Judy Greer), the only witness to the crime, in order to buy her silence. From this point on, the clique dissolves into all-out warfare, all waged in killer clothes, bitchy one-liners and a shocking exposé of Courtney’s shameful acts that unfurls at – where else? – the prom.
Jawbreaker stars a cacophony of famous actresses coming off well-known hits (post-Scream McGowan, post-Urban Legends Gayheart, and post-Buffy The Vampire Slayer Benz) and features, in one of her earliest roles, what should have been a star-making performance by Greer. While the film falls firmly into teen film / black comedy territory, the gaggle of genre vets in supporting roles, including Carrie’s PJ Soles and William Katt, When A Stranger Calls’ Carol Kane and Foxy Brown herself, Pam Grier, makes this a fun watch for horror fans.
Aside from the litany of famous faces, there are two other reasons why the film has developed such a devoted fan base since its release two decades ago: the iconic costumes and Stein’s gleefully acerbic script.
Vikki Barrett, whose credits include the similarly memorable wardrobe from Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, was responsible for crafting the distinctive outfits for Jawbreaker’s teen dream team. Barrett worked closely with the four lead actresses to craft distinctive looks for each girl and the attention to detail pays off (particularly for Courtney and Fern/Vylette). The costumes are exceedingly stylized and adult, a mix of high fashion and light bondage wear (many of them look like leather or latex, but are actually shiny lycra); Barrett aimed to deliver a distinctive cross between 50s and 80s aesthetics, modelling the outfits in part on the candy colours found in the chalky treat for which the film is named.
Of course, Jawbreaker’s distinctive fashion lewks would only carry it in the public consciousness for so long without a script full of bitchy jabs, sexual come-ons and witty rejoinders. In 1999, teen films were a dime-a-dozen, but few feature the kind of fragmented sentences or bullet-fire staccato rhythm of Stein’s script. In two memorable exchanges, Courtney and Marcie give plasticized doppelganger Vylette the lay of the land, using food and then later nail polish as stand-ins to understand the high school landscape.
Courtney’s one-liners, in particular, are iconic: McGowan’s delivery of bon-mots like “Now get in there and strut your shit like everything is peachy fucking keen” and “It’s not like we kill people…on purpose” elevate the material into something between pure art and high camp. It’s the perfect marriage of actress and material and McGowan has never been better.
The film itself isn’t entirely without fault. Despite employing nearly every visual trick in the book (including zany sound effects and split screens), the film’s energy lags heading into the third act, particularly when do-gooder Julie and her new boyfriend Zack (Chad Christ) take up more screen time. And no, the rape/frame job subplot, involving McGowan’s then-boyfriend Manson, literally doesn’t make any sense. There’s also some antiquated LGBTQ stereotypes, which aren’t unusual from films of this period, but are odd considering Stein is a very publicly gay director who also includes an iconic homoerotic scene featuring hunky Dane (Ethan Erickson) fellating a popsicle.
Still, between the costuming, the cast and the film’s distinctive flair in comparison to say, studio stablemate Can’t Hardly Wait (a lovely, but unassuming entry in the teen film canon), Jawbreaker remains a marvelous time capsule film. Mention the film and fans will reference the opening credits set to Veruca Salt’s “Volcano Girls”, Fern’s Beetlejuice meets Frankenstein make-over montage, Courtney’s Carrie-esque dolly-tracking prom meltdown and, above all else, the girls’ slow-motion walk down the school hallway to Imperial Teen’s “Yoo Hoo” (which this Broadly oral history piece notes Mean Girls blatantly lifts, much to Stein’s chagrin).
Twenty years later, Jawbreaker, the dark little teen film that could, persists because it is unlike anything else from the late 90s teen era (save perhaps Cruel Intentions).
In the immortal words of the cruelest girls in high school: Learn It. Live It. Love It.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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