Film

Selah and the Spades

A prep school power drama about competing cliques and the charismatic girls who run them. Selah and the Spades is stylish and cool-blooded, interested in how ambition and friendship corrode each other. It's for anyone who loved the aesthetic and psychology of high school hierarchies without needing their villains redeemed.

TMDb rating2.6

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Heathers1989

The original template for dark, witty high school factionalism. Two outsiders dismantle the social order from within with black comedy and real menace. A masterpiece of tone.

But The satire can feel heavy-handed now, and the body count gets cartoonish. It's also very much a product of the late 80s.

Heathers poster

Mean Girls2004

The smartest teen clique film ever made. It understands the rules of social warfare with precision, finds genuine comedy in cruelty, and treats its characters as three-dimensional.

But It's been quoted to death, and the tonal shift in the final act toward redemption doesn't match what came before.

Mean Girls poster

Bottoms2023

Two queer misfits weaponize high school social dynamics with absurdist energy. It has the same ice-cold view of teenage power games, but with more anarchic humour and real affection underneath.

But The humour is deliberately crude and provocative. It won't land for everyone, and the plot barely matters.

Bottoms poster

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina2018

Both use high school as a setting for exploring how power consolidates, how allegiances demand moral compromise, and how friendship becomes a tool of control rather than comfort.

A high school drama where the social factions are literally divided between those who practice witchcraft and those who don't. Same power dynamics, same clique warfare, but the stakes are genuinely supernatural.

But It gets darker and more serialized as it goes, eventually drowning in mythology. The early episodes are better than the whole.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina poster
More like this (8)

Jawbreaker1999

Peak trashy aesthetic meets genuine darkness about beauty, friendship and the cost of popularity. It leans into camp but never winks at the actual cruelty happening on screen.

But It's dated in ways that work against it, and the tonal juggling act doesn't always stick the landing.

Jawbreaker poster

Squid Game2021

High school social hierarchies scaled up to life-or-death stakes. The same interest in how group dynamics reveal character, how alliances form and fracture under pressure.

But It's a massive time commitment, and the violence is graphic. Some episodes drag in the middle.

Squid Game poster

Never Have I Ever2020

A coming-of-age ensemble that understands how friendship groups calcify, splinter and realign. Smart about class, race and reputation in ways that feel lived-in.

But The tone is deliberately lighter and more forgiving than Selah and the Spades. It's also very long.

Never Have I Ever poster

Cruel Intentions1999

Two wealthy narcissists weaponize seduction and gossip to control their school. It's lush, ridiculous and genuinely fascinated by how attractive people use social architecture as a tool.

But The plot hinges on sexual coercion presented as sophisticated seduction. It hasn't aged well on that front.

Cruel Intentions poster

Eighth Grade2018

A quiet, excruciating study of social anxiety and the desperate need to belong. Bo Burnham's debut finds comedy and terror in the spaces between cliques, not within them.

But It's extremely slow and painterly. Some will find it precious rather than powerful.

Eighth Grade poster

Clueless1995

The template for witty high school ensemble pieces. Cher's social engineering is treated as a genuine skill, and the film respects its own logic even as it subverts expectations.

But It's bubbly and optimistic in ways that feel distant from Selah's colder register. The fashion is very much of its moment.

Clueless poster

Raw2017

Both are about beautiful, ambitious young women at elite institutions learning to hide who they really are. Both treat predatory behavior as seductive rather than cartoon-villainous.

A French-Belgian film about a vegetarian girl at veterinary school who develops cannibalistic urges. It's a coming-of-age film about desire, identity and the animal appetites we're taught to suppress.

But It's visually graphic and genuinely disturbing. The body horror is not metaphorical. Some will find it exploitative.

Raw poster

Assassination Nation2018

Both understand that high school is a war, and that the most dangerous weapon is information. Both refuse to make their female leads victims or heroes—they're complicated, complicit, strategic.

Four high school girls are doxed and hunted after a massive data breach exposes secrets. It's a fury-driven film about how female sexuality is policed, how online violence becomes physical, how innocence is weaponized against you.

But It's visually chaotic, deliberately chaotic. The political anger can feel performative. Some sequences are genuinely difficult to watch.

Assassination Nation poster

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