Better Off Dead is one of two 1985 movies that marked John Cusack’s debut as a leading man. After small roles in Sixteen Candles and Class, Cusack, at only eighteen, nabbed the lead in Rob Reiner’s The Sure Thing, and Savage Steve Holland’s Better Off Dead followed immediately afterward. While Cusack has often praised The Sure Thing and Reiner’s direction, his feelings on Better Off Dead have always been controversial. Holland says that while Cusack attended the dailies, when he saw the cut-together version, he felt humiliated and told him that he would never trust him again as a director. This was problematic as they were in the middle of shooting a follow-up, One Crazy Summer, whose shoot would be more fraught than the collegial Better Off Dead.
So what made Cusack so angry? Better Off Dead is an absurdist comedy that, among other things, includes a Korean drag racer who sounds exactly like Howard Cosell, a claymation interlude, and a plot that treats suicide as “wacky.” It’s strange, but it’s also much loved by fans of eighties cinema, and indeed Cusack has mellowed on it in recent years, trying to downplay his attitude to Holland and appreciating its cult status.
In this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie, which is written by Bryan Wolford, edited by Cesar Gabriel and narrated by Mathew Plale, we dig into the makings of this cult classic, which is still considered one of the better eighties teen movies thirty-seven years later. We examine the cast, which includes not only Cusack but future teen programming king Dan Schneider, Diane Franklin, the great Curtis Armstrong, Kim Darby and the late David Ogden Stiers (of MASH).
Do you have a soft spot for Better Off Dead? Let us know in the comments!