The Faculty Movie Trailer. Like Frankenstein, “The Faculty” plunders the crypts of cinema for its body parts. Here are the paranoia and parasitism of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” There are the slimy, sharp-toothed creatures of “Alien.” And over there are the movie-wise teen-agers of “Scream.”
The list could be extended, but the point is clear: this mediocre sci-fi horror film about an Ohio high school being taken over by thirsty space aliens intent on world domination breaks no new ground. But it has an engaging cast, with half a dozen appealing young actors playing the roles of teen-agers who are all that stand between the Midwestern monsters and the end of the world as certain moviegoers know it.
In one of the film’s wittier passages, the six high school students puzzling out the mysteries of a small new creature found on a football field, a teacher’s corpse in a closet and a sudden outbreak of docility among their normally brutish and dysfunctional schoolmates speculate that paranoid movies of the past may have been part of a plot to soften up the public for the real invasion of the body snatchers.
By contrast, “The Faculty,” directed by Robert Rodriguez, whose credits include “El Mariachi” and “Desperado,” and written by the ubiquitous Kevin Williams of the “Scream” movies and other adolescent adventures, opens with a clunky, bloody, cheap-thrills sequence that colors what happens afterward with triteness.
So the chief pleasures of the film, such as they are, remain the actors: Jordana Brewster as Delilah, the beauteous, tart-tongued cheerleader captain and editor in chief of the school newspaper; Shawn Hatosky as Stan, her soon-to-be former boyfriend, the quarterback and captain of the Herrington High football team, who is undergoing a pre-midlife crisis and hanging up his pads; Clea DuVall, as Stokely.
Others are the unhappy loner and science-fiction aficionado whom Delilah taunts as a lesbian; Laura Harris as Marybeth, the sweet blond Southern belle who is the new girl in school; Josh Hartnett as the cool Zeke, who peddles homemade inhalable substances, condoms and fake ID’s, among other wares, but happens to be a science genius, and Elijah Wood as Casey, the decent little victim of the school bullies, who turns out just fine.
The adults aren’t bad, either: Salma Hayek, all but hidden behind her tissues as the sniffling school nurse; Bebe Neuwirth as Principal Drake; Famke Janssen as a seemingly shy teacher; Piper Laurie as a senior faculty member, and Robert Patrick (the indefatigable villain of “Terminator 2”) as the volatile Coach Willis.
Herrington High is one of those schools that, as Principal Drake explains at the outset, has no money for new computers, a class trip to New York City or a school musical this year, but can come up with cash for all the new football equipment its team needs.
The locals, she explains, are football people. And if “The Faculty” is the only movie they see his year, maybe they can be fooled into believing that it is fresh and frightening.
The Faculty (1998)
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Elijah Wood, Jordana Brewster, Shawn Hatosy, Bebe Neuwirth, Clea DuVall, Josh Hartnett, Famke Janssen, Laura Harris, Piper Laurie, Salma Hayek, Jon Stewart
Screenplay by: Kevin Williamson
Production Design by: Cary White
Cinematography by: Enrique Chediak
Film Editing by: Robert Rodriguez
Costume Design by: Michael T. Boyd
Set Decoration by: Jeanette Scott
Art Direction by: Ed Vega
Music by: Marco Beltrami
MPAA Rating: R for violence/gore, strong language, drug use and some nudity.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: December 25, 1998
Hits: 210
