14 movies to remind you of all the reasons high school was mortifying and awful

Back-to-school: that well-worn term that means fresh school supplies, new classes, old friends and falling leaves. Students stock their lockers again in August and September after a refreshing summer (remember summer break? Do you?).

But for those who have graduated high school… well, high school was a trial by fire. If you “Can't Hardly Wait” to head to “Animal House,” you've gotta take a load of “Brick.” You can't go “Old School” until you've learned “The Perks of Being a Wall Flower.” You haven't achieved “Higher Learning” without having started out “Clueless.” To get to “22 Jump Street,” you have to have attended “21 Jump Street,” you know?

HitFix staffers traveled back in time to explain how flicks like “Mean Girls,” “Easy A,” “Carrie,” “Three O'Clock High,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” and “The Faculty” are secretly the most traumatizing and mortifying films, because of those high school life lessons.

Check out the gallery below. And don't throw out your retainer on the school lunch tray like you did the other week, dweeb.

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