Don't understand the love for this film.

Well you also have to remember that they came out over ten years apart.

I like this movie a lot, one of like 3 good movies that Christian Slater was ever in imo. The other 2 being True Romance and The Contender.

It thinks it is much more clever and envelope-pushing than it really is. But if you are a teenager who never saw any real experimental type films, you aren’t going to know any better.

At the time it came out, there was a certain prevailing type of teen movie which was very saccharine, maybe occasionally exploring some of the less pleasant aspects of being a teenager (but certainly not in any kind of substantial depth) and generally painted the highschool experience and teenage life as a "best years" sort of thing, the kind of films adults could watch to feel nostalgic for their teen years and the kind of films teens and kids could watch to say "this is how my life should be". The reason why Heathers has developed a cult following with a very dedicated fanbase is because it was one of the only movies at that time willing to stare the potential awfulness of growing up full in the face and confront serious issues head on instead of dancing round them, as well as calling out the various hypocrisies of society in general. Even now, teen media doesn't really like owning up to the bad sides of being a teenager to the extent Heathers did, and if it does do so you can bet the protagonists won't be as fundamentally morally flawed as Veronica. Heathers is by no means a perfect film, but for what it intended to do and putting it into the context of its time, it's really quite easy to see why it became such a cult classic.

I just watched it for the first time. It still feels so fresh with the exception of the fashion. Compare it to the dialogue on John Hughes movies, and it feels more modern, more edgy.

Heathers is one of the most quotable movies ever (its screenwriter, Daniel Waters thought so highly of his own work on that front that he originally stipulated that only Stanley Kubrick could direct it, i.e., because he'd written the Dr Strangelove of High School Movies!). Jawbreaker not so much.

As a rough comparative measure then we can note that Heathers has 108 entries on its IMDb quotes page (more than Dr Strangelove or The Godfather, about the same number as Casablanca, less than Clueless or Pulp Fiction, which has the most I've seen) whereas Jawbreaker (which had the benefit of being able to imitate Heathers in lots of respects) has 36 entries.

Jawbreaker is Heathers, but dumbed down for the masses.

I do. It's a masterpiece.