Faculty, The (1998)
Starring: Piper Laurie, Robert Patrick, Famke Janssen, Josh Hartnett
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Synopsis: Scream meets Bodysnatchers meets Breakfast Club
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

 

"affable teen horror/sci-fi flick... if over reliant on big CGI set pieces" Empire

"amounts to less than Scream and From Dawn To Dusk" Total Film

 "plays like an episode of Buffy after too much caffeine" Film Review

 

When director Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado) teamed up with '90s horror wunderkind Kevin Williamson (Scream, Scream 2, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Halloween H20), audiences had every reason to drool in anticipation of The Faculty, the duo's foray into teen horror and science fiction.

The film is populated by Williamson's trademark savvy teenagers who, though emotionally bruised and troubled, are smart, resourceful and very much aware of the horror conventions that their dim-witted '80s counterparts never seemed to grasp. Gone are the days of brainless, scantily clad teenagers wandering into danger without a clue. These kids are sharp and thoroughly "with it".

The Faculty is essentially a cross between the '50s science fiction classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Breakfast Club and John Carpenter's The Thing. The premise taps directly into every teenager's worst nightmare. One by one, the teachers at a typical American high school begin transforming into brain-slurping, seriously dehydrated alien creatures determined to zombify first the adults of the town and then the student body itself. All this unfolds to the unspoken refrain of "Hey, teacher! Leave those kids alone!"

The characters are vintage Williamson creations: angst-ridden teenagers carrying the emotional baggage of fractured childhoods. As with many contemporary horror films, the strongest material arrives right at the beginning. Scream gave us the now legendary opening line, "Do you like scary movies?" and immediately grabbed its audience by the throat.

Likewise, The Faculty opens extremely well but unfortunately never quite capitalises on that promising start. The sense of anticipation gradually fades as the film abandons suspense in favour of becoming yet another computer-generated creature feature. It is occasionally funny and intermittently entertaining but rarely frightening. Horror veterans Piper Laurie—forever immortalised as the fanatical Mrs White in Carrie—and Robert Patrick both try valiantly to inject some genuine menace into proceedings, but there is only so much they can do.

The Faculty remains an enjoyable enough diversion, but somewhere around the halfway mark it loses its way, relying increasingly on special effects rather than atmosphere, tension or genuine suspense. The young cast is likeable throughout and a couple of performers, particularly Josh Hartnett, already show the charisma that would soon propel them to bigger things.