Cry-Baby and The Breakfast Club represent two ends of the spectrum in cinematic portrayals of youth. Waters’ film thrives in camp excess, parodying rebellion as style, while Hughes pursues authenticity through dialogue and emotional revelation.

John Waters’ Cry-Baby (1990) and Tim Burton’s Wednesday (2022) present two very different examples of how subculture is portrayed and received. While Cry-Baby remained a niche cult parody of 1950s delinquent culture, Wednesday became one of Netflix’s biggest hits, mainstreaming gothic and outsider aesthetics for a global audience.