Jawbreaker

No gratuitously hip soundtrack, no spillage of ripe flesh, not even the screen debut of Marilyn Manson can rescue this Heathers knock-off, which sends the teen-comedy/slasher-flick revival plunging to its nadir.

In a birthday prank gone awry, snarling sexpot Courtney (Scream's Rose McGowan) and her tyrannically popular coterie (Julie Benz and Rebecca Gayheart) accidentally kill their pal (Charlotte Roldan) by choking her with the title sweet. Then, in one of many gleefully macabre, smugly self-conscious swipes at "Irony," the trio cover their stiletto tracks by making the death look like a rape/ murder.

Writer/director Darren Stein, whose first film, Sparkler, also debuts this month, strains to make his parody of popularity many things -- irreverent, stylish, sinisterly comic -- yet recoils from the pathos-laced emotion that gave Heathers its bite. Palpably self-loathing and just plain unfunny, this film's as embarrassing as dropping your tray in the school cafeteria. On second thought, at least in the lunchroom, everybody claps. At the Showcase.

-- Alicia Potter