Cast: Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Clea DuVall, Jordana Brewster, Laura Harris, Shawn Hotosy
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Producer: Elizabeth Avellan
Screenplay: Kevin Williamson based on a story by David Wechter & Bruce Kimmel
Cinematography: Enrique Chediak
Music: Marco Beltrami
U.S. Distributor: Dimension Films
Although The Faculty is intended to be a science fiction thriller, it's really something of a horror show. And, while there's undeniably an element of masochistic fun available to anyone willing to endure this 100-minute excursion into bland acting, static direction, marginal special effects, and amateurish writing, no one would confuse this movie with a quality offering. One could easily argue that, like many Ed Wood-type bad movies, The Faculty might be headed for the cult classic shelf in the video store. Unfortunately, it's not campy enough, and, worse, it seems to think it's being hip when it's just being dumb.
The Faculty teams two of the hottest commodities in Miramax's vault: director Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn) and screenwriter Kevin Williamson (Scream, Scream 2). Based on their effort here, one has to question how much talent either really has. While it's true that Rodriguez has shown flashes of brilliance, he has yet to put together a truly memorable or innovative film. Meanwhile, although Williamson is given the dubious honor of reviving the slasher genre, the wit of the Scream features has not made its way into his other work (Maybe Wes Craven should be given a little more credit). Admittedly, The Faculty may just be an aberration, but there is evidence to suggest that it isn't.
According to Williamson, The Faculty was designed to do to science fiction films what Scream did to the horror genre - that is, craft an original entry while employing techniques of knowledgeable and affectionate satire. However, he and Rodriguez fall short by several orders of magnitude. This movie is really little more than a combined retread of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing, and The Breakfast Club. Put those three into a blender, hit "puree," and this is what dribbles out. The screenplay is derivative without being clever, and Williamson's trademark in-jokes are limited to a lame reference about how Invasion of the Body Snatchers was really just a rip-off of The Puppet Masters.
The characters in The Faculty are all examples of extreme stereotypes - familiar, one-dimensional individuals pulled right off the "stock personalities" shelf. There's Casey (Elijah Wood), "that geeky Steven King kid"; Stokely (Clea DuVall), the proverbial ugly duckling; Zeke (Josh Hartnett), the rebel without a cause; Stan (Shawn Hatosy), the jock who wants to be known for more than his athletic prowess; Delilah (Jordana Brewster), the head cheerleader; and Marybeth (Laura Harris), the innocent newcomer. These six dissimilar students at Herrington High spend most of the movie bonding. However, unlike in The Breakfast Club, they don't do it at a Saturday morning detention, but while trying to defeat a swarm of parasitic aliens.
Those aliens, which, in their natural form, resemble the ear crawlers from Star Trek II, have taken over the bodies of most of the teachers. Coach Willis (Robert Patrick, the second famous Terminator) is the first victim, followed in quick succession by Mrs. Olson (Piper Laurie) and Principal Drake (Bebe Neuwirth). After those three have been taken over, it's only a matter of time before the rest of the staff - Mr. Furlong (Jon Stewart), Mr. Tate (Daniel Von Bargen), Nurse Harper (Salma Hayek), and Miss Burke (Famke Janssen) - falls. Soon, it's students against faculty, with the former group recognizing that if they don't find and destroy the queen alien, the human race will soon be extinct.
Instead of hiring established actors as the protagonists, Rodriguez has decided to go with relative newcomers (although Elijah Wood and Shawn Hatosy are both familiar faces) as the students and better-known performers in smaller roles as the teachers. It's a gamble that might have worked had any of the six teenagers shown more than a sliver of ability. They all photograph nicely (even the supposedly "ugly" Clea DuVall, who is really nothing of the sort), but Mr. Magoo could see the limits of their range. Even Wood (North, The War), who has the most substantial resume, is flat. These performances, in concert with the uninspired writing, make it nearly impossible to care about anyone's fate.
Rodriguez and Williamson prove that they can't even pilfer effectively. The two science fiction movies that they plunder the most frequently, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing, each had their share of chilling moments. None of that tension is replicated in this film. An entire sequence (with each of the protagonists wondering whether the others are infected) is lifted from The Thing, but, because of a poor setup and limp dialogue, there's no suspense whatsoever. Cheesy special effects don't help matters, either. As is common with Dimension releases, critics who preview the film are asked not to reveal the "many shocking twists and turns" to readers. It's an odd request, because, as far as I can tell, there aren't any "twists and turns" that could be considered even remotely "shocking", unless it's that the dream team of Rodriguez and Williamson turned out such a horrible product. And, unfortunately, that's one secret I can't keep to myself.
© 1998 James Berardinelli