There is always something alluring about the popular, mean-girl group in a high school teen movie, whether it’s Heather Chandler’s crew in Heathers or Regina George’s clique in Mean Girls. These girls are simultaneously admired and hated by their fellow classmates, and to be able to portray that kind of duality in a movie requires a certain je ne sais quoi. Throughout the years we’ve seen some pretty remarkable mean-girl cliques strut through their school halls with panache, but none of them are quite as memorable as Jawbreaker.
Jawbreaker was not a hit at the box office when it was released in theaters in 1999 — exactly twenty years ago today — but it ended up being a cult favorite amongst movie fans, especially those who appreciate the style and charisma of The Bad Girl. It tells the story of a high school girl clique, Courtney, Marcie, Julie, and Liz, known as the “Flawless Four.” The girls kidnap Liz (Charlotte Ayanna) as a birthday prank, stuff a candy jawbreaker into her mouth as a sort of makeshift ball gag, put her in a car trunk to take her to breakfast, and accidentally kill her when the ball gets lodged in her throat.
Jawbreaker’s writer and director Darren Stein says he wanted to explore the idea of a prank that was taken to a dark extreme. “I’ve always loved horror films and was fascinated by these teenage girls in the Valley that kidnapped each other on their birthdays,” Stein explains. Of the decision to make the murder weapon a jawbreaker, Stein says, “I had a fascination with those huge, baseball-size jawbreakers as a kid because they were so bizarre. I was obsessed with the sheer amount of time it would take to lick one down to its core. After a while, licking it would make [people’s] tongues bleed.”
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