There Will Never Be Another High School Movie Like Assassination Nation

At one point in Assassination Nation, out September 21, Lily (Odessa Young) realizes she has to fight back — fight with razors and knives, not with words. This is no game. That bathroom scene depicts a baptism by blood, a woman brandishing herself with the inner steel to survive a world far more brutal than it was a week ago. Weapons, she has. Grit, though — that she has to learn. And here she is, learning it.

For the four young women in Assassination Nation, revenge is tied inextricably with survival. After half of the town of Salem's phones are hacked, the citizens descend into a state of lawless mayhem — and, for reasons we won't spoil, these four high school girls become the angry mob's primary targets. Violence is done to these high schoolers, and they do it right back. Assassination Nation provocatively suggests that by embracing their perpetrator's violent tactics, Lily and her friends can vanquish these individuals, and usher in a better world order.

In order to tell its story of persecution, mob mentality, and revenge, Assassination Nation borrows from history — see: the Salem witch trials – and from cinema. While the movie is hardly the first to cast high school girls as ruthless revenge-seekers, it's certainly the first to set that story squarely in the digital age. Here are the other times teenage girls bared their teeth and got revenge in movie history,

It’s Heathers meets The Purge when a town-wide data leak means four teen girls have to rise up against slut-shaming, hate, and toxic masculinity. Get ready for Assassination Nation, the first film in an exclusive partnership from Refinery29 and Neon. Grab your tickets now for the theatrical release on September 21.