“I killed Liz. I killed the teen dream. “Deal with it.”
Every high school has them: the beautiful ones. Glamorous, popular, happy, and thriving, these teenage dream girls rise to the top of any social environment and effortlessly achieve anything they put their minds to. Serving as both role models and fashion plates, they’re worshiped and revered by the rest of the school who grasp for scraps of their exorbitant power. While there have always been mean girls who also happen to be popular, this cinematic archetype arguably dates back to the weaponized girlie pop perfection of Darren Stein‘s Jawbreaker . Closing out the 20th century, this high camp film originated the now iconic hot girl walk while exploring the hell of teenage girlhood.
The social scene of Reagan High School bows to a foursome of gorgeous queen bees. While Courtney (Rose McGowan) rules the school with a patented brand of kink-tinged high-fashion cruelty, Liz Purr (Charlotte Ayanna) prefers to treat others with kindness and respect. When a prank for ella’s 17th birthday goes disastrously wrong, Courtney and her lackey Marcie (Julie Benz) decide to cover up their part of ella in ella’s death by staging a sexual assault. The sensitive Julie (Rebecca Gayheart) is reluctant to go along with this egregious lie, but she finds herself overruled by the malicious Courtney. When Wallflower Fern (Judy Greer) overhears the girls frankly plotting, Courtney dissuades her from going to the police by promising a makeover and entrance into the popular crowd. But the newly dubbed Violette allows the intoxicating power to spin out of control and Courtney realizes she’s created a monster.
The Lady Killers continue Back to School Horror month by traveling back to 1999. Co-hosts Jenn Adams, Sammie Kuykendall, Rocco Thompson, and Mae Shults will crack open the hard candy to expose feminine toxicity at the heart of this hot pink film. Is Liz Purr truly the cat’s meow? Do they admire Courtney just a little bit? Would they follow Fern’s path to popularity and can they abide Rebecca Gayheart’s straight hair? They’ll answer these questions and more while dying for the iconic adults and glamorous mean girls in Stein’s influential and undeniably feminist film.
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