For our debut column in Revisited, a series devoted to looking back at cult classics, we’re kicking off with Savage Steve Holland’s famous 1985 surreal comedy, Better Off Dead!

Looking back at Better Off Dead, how does it hold up today?

Natalie: This is an underrated ’80s classic! As a dark comedy that honestly flew right over my head at the time (as an ’80s kid), I didn’t pick up on many of the themes or what this movie was really trying to say. The absurdity came across as silliness to me… but I get it now.

I remember the insertion of animation when he would hallucinate, the Korean guy who learned English by listening to Howard Cosell. But mostly — and it’s the line I still quote regularly to this day — I remember the paperboy and his “I want my two dollars!”

Josh: Better Off Dead is a film I saw when I was about 15, and I didn’t really get the appeal then even though I was an obsessive kid who sometimes had suicidal thoughts. When you’re a kid, things seem so much bigger and more important than they are. That first love is the only one you’ll ever have and losing it means losing all meaning to life. I’m sure we all go through this kind of an extreme feels phase when we’re young. Writer/Director Steve Holland certainly did and because of that, we get to see our main character Lane Meyer struggle with his weird obsessiveness, his strange family, school bullies, a fast food job, and a psychotic paper boy.

The movie feels like a kid who grew up watching National Lampoon movies said “I wanna do that” and did “that.” It’s hard for me to get past this thought once it entered my head. I struggle to find any originality to the movie aside from the one thing I really did enjoy, which is Holland’s animation scenes, especially Eddie Van Whopper. I mean, kudos to him for going out and leaning into the surrealism and irreverence, but it just doesn’t hit for me.

I don’t feel anything for John Cusack’s character because the only thing I know about him is his extremely unhealthy obsession with his ex-girlfriend. The next step is a restraining order. I’m picturing Chris Elliot with a broken out face and an arm full of shoes. It is hard to even root for him when he starts entering into another relationship with the foreign exchange student next door, because I am just wondering what he is going to do when she goes back to France. Is he going to call in a bomb threat to the airport?

I do love Curtis Armstrong even though he seems to be one degree of separation from Booger. I even found myself wondering if this is just Booger in high school before going off to Adam’s College. His performance did solicit some chuckles from me despite his hat. It was also treat to see Dottie from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure singing at the school dance.

Drake: Better Off Dead was kind of an underground hit in the mid-80s. It flew under the radar a bit but I think picked up more of an audience when it hit VHS.

Really off-beat flick, it was a good showcase for Cusack, but I think Savage Steve Holland’s off-beat weirdness was what really made the movie. Just all the little stuff: the paper boy, of course, but also the two brothers who street raced while narrating like Howard Cossel, everyone (including the math teacher!) asking Beth out, Lane’s little brother and his weird experiments. It felt like Holland was basically making Mad magazine into a movie.

Justin: In the past year, I both rewatched this solo and then with my kids — and both times came away very pleased. This always feels like one of the most “’80s” ’80s movies out there, with its color scheme (lots and lots of bright pastels), cheery music, comedic absurdity, materialism, and a final sports showdown of some kind. For the record, my kids loved it too, laughing throughout.

What would be the closest movies like it in the ’90s or 2000s, do you think?

Natalie: Oh that’s a tough one. Maybe a dark comedy like Jawbreaker or Drop Dead Gorgeous? Maybe Welcome to the Dollhouse? That’s where my mind goes: dark, absurd ’90s teen comedies.

Justin: What comes to mind, oddly enough, is 2000’s Dude, Where’s My Car? That film also embraced surreal humor, weird side characters, and running jokes, and you either got on board with it, or it wasn’t funny in the least to you.

Drake: I don’t think there are too many that are similar, since Holland had a very singular approach to his humor (and one that John Cusack did not appreciate). Holland created humorous narratives that continued throughout Better Off Dead rather than crafting jokes. “Two dollars” isn’t funny in isolation, but anyone who’s seen the movie will instantly know what you’re talking about.

I think that Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion has some similar ideas, and you could see the characters existing in the same space. The Big Hit weirdly has a strand of that DNA as well, especially with the recurring bits about the late VHS tape. The paper boy could well have grown up to be the video clerk.

The closest one might be Office Space, though. It’s a very similar movie to Better Off Dead, and had a similar arc. Both had directors with a background in animation, both movies did poor box office, and both ended up finding their audiences on video. Sad sack Peter Gibbons also feels very much like an older version of Lane, right down to having girlfriend troubles and an obnoxious rival.

What’s Better Off Dead’s legacy?

Drake: I’m not sure it had much of a legacy. Holland’s later films lacked a lot of the spontaneous weird energy that Better Off Dead had, and with his flicks doing only OK box office, no one at the time was really following his lead. I do think the Eurotrip guys were probably Savage Steve fans, since they also indulged in the same type of recurring humor and the antics of a weird world rotating around the lead character.

Natalie: I don’t feel like this movie gets its proper recognition for the Gen X of it all. And how much of a product of its time that it is. It’s so very ’80s. And if you weren’t there, you likely won’t get it. Poor Gen Z. It gets overshadowed by Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller, etc., but I would easily rank it in the top 10 of ’80s teen comedies. Maybe even top five.

Josh: Even though I don’t think I’ll be watching Better Off Dead for another 25 years, I can appreciate it being whatever the opposite of beer goggles is for those strange high school years where everything sucks.

Justin: The use of suicide as a theme might be seen as, sigh, “problematic” today, but Better Off Dead was about satirizing the teenage life and exaggerating everything — including a person’s will to keep living just because their vapid girlfriend broke up with him. And the suicide angle is never glorified, just laughed at (“It’s a shame when people be throwing away a perfectly good white boy like that.”).

I see this movie quoted and referenced all the time, so I think it’s pretty much cemented itself as a quintessential ’80s cult comedy. Savage Steve Holland’s entire ’80s trilogy is a lot of fun to watch (as I did not too long ago), keeping things really light and fluffy while delivering a lot of laughs.