10 Movies Which Were Completely Changed After Test Screenings

3. Heathers

It's been a while since we saw Winona Ryder and Christian Slater on the big screen (although Slater's performance in the Amazon hit Mr. Robot is worth checking out), but back in the late 80s they starred in one of the most biting social satires to have come out of Hollywood. Slater plays an iconoclastic school rebel J.D. who runs a pirate radio station, who gets involved with Veronica (Ryder), a new girl at the school who is drawn into a clique of popular girls. Pretty soon things take a turn for the worst, and Heathers' preoccupation with suicide, adolescent factionalism and violence makes it a remarkably prescient film in light of the waves of school shootings in the time since its release. The final cut of Heathers saw Veronica put an end to J.D.'s plans to blow up the school by shooting him and stopping the bomb, but in the original script instead of stopping the bomb after shooting him she puts it on herself. This admittedly very dark ending proved to be too much for test audiences and the version hinting at Veronica's salvation was used instead. That said, it's hard to imagine either version getting made in today's gun-control/suicide bombing climate.