5. Ginger Snaps (2000)
I remember once seeing Ginger Snaps introduced by the film’s director and screenwriter, John Fawcett and Karen Walton, respectively, and they spoke about the setting in a way that shifted how I viewed the film. In particular, the suburbia of it all. This is a film about transitions, and this is effectively baked into every aspect of the movie. Of course, the werewolf transformation that overtakes Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) is the most obvious one. But both suburbia and high school are also liminal spaces. Suburbia is a manufactured transitional space between the urban and the rural, and high school is a space between childhood and adulthood. No one’s quite considered grown up yet, but there is an expectation to shoulder more responsibilities. Interpersonal relationships change, people need to navigate hormonal changes, and there’s pressure to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life. Sure, in this case, the transformation involves blossoming into a man-eating monster, but that doesn’t mean this film isn’t pretty damn relatable. (Anna Swanson)
4. Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Hell is a teenage girl. Directly, this applies to Jennifer’s Body, but indirectly, it could just as easily apply to at least half the films on this list. And indeed, Karyn Kusama‘s 2009 horror/comedy captures a distinctly 2000s vision of high school while mastering something quite universal. In the film, best frenemies, Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Needy (Amanda Seyfried), become torn apart when Jennifer becomes more demonic than she already was. And while the cheerleader is busy eating boys, Needy has to figure out how to take her down, all while mourning losing her closest friend. Both Fox and Seyfried absolutely excel at delivering writer Diablo Cody‘s quippy dialogue, and they both convey the exact kind of pop-culture poisoned teenage cynicism that is at once heightened and realistic. This movie is snappy and savvy, with a brilliant spin on mean girl tropes, and it’s rightfully earned its spot as a genuine, twenty-first-century cult classic. (Anna Swanson)
3. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
In 1984, Wes Craven forever changed the world of horror with A Nightmare on Elm Street. This supernatural slasher introduced audiences to Freddy Krueger, the dead child killer that now stalks kids in their sleep. Not only is it a landmark horror film that birthed one of the great horror icons, but it’s a great snapshot of how the slasher subgenre has always belonged to high school kids. It’s easy to understand why too. High school students are typically shitty enough that someone would want to kill them while at the same time being resilient enough to fight back on their own when adults fail to take them seriously. When Tina is brutally murdered in her sleep, the authorities believe she must have been murdered by her dick of a high school boyfriend. It’s up to Nancy, Tina’s best friend, to solve the case. When Nancy gets physical proof that the killer is some dude named Fred Krueger, her parents are like, “Oh yeah, we do know that guy.” So perhaps we should thank the high schoolers. If they were less shitty, Freddy just wouldn’t be plausible. (Chris Coffel)
2. Carrie (1976)
The last time I saw my high school was the night of my graduation. I remember thinking, “See ya never!” as I drove out of the gravel parking lot and into a future I was certain would be better than my four years in that tiny independent school district. That’s not to say high school can’t be rewarding. But I’m sure for many of us, the difficulties Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) experienced – and her instinctual reaction to the mental terrorism of teenagers – is relatable. The essence of this experience that Brian De Palma and Stephen King capture is that teens have no idea who they really are in high school, regardless of the passionate certainty of self we naturally feel at that age. Carrie knew there was something within her struggling to be released, but she couldn’t grasp what that something was until she was compelled to unleash hell. Despite being squarely based on the supernatural, the pain and violence Carrie displays hits dangerously close to home in an age where school shootings have become the norm. Carrie’s mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie), relies on prayer to guide her life, but no amount of prayer will ever be able to solve a problem an entire nation is unwilling to address. (Jacob Trussell)
1. Scream (1996)
With its massive legacy and instantly recognizable iconography, I sometimes find myself forgetting that Scream is a high school slasher — until I watch it again. And then it all comes back. Sure, with the sequels, we’ve been able to watch these characters grow up, but we can’t forget that when we met them all they were just kids. This is where I think Scream really goes from a fun postmodern horror flick into a cornerstone of the genre: the characters. One to single out is, of course, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). She’s an iconic final girl who’ll never say die, but, in particular, in the original Scream, there’s also so much heart in Campbell’s performance. After all, we see Sidney deal with her first love and her first real experience of loss. Formative high school experiences are all baked into the horror here, and while the film has a sly sense of humor about the genre, it never treats the characters we love as a joke. (Anna Swanson)
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