The Faculty is a throwback '90s sci-fi horror gem from director Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror) and writer Kevin Williamson (Scream) that doesn't deserve to be overlooked any longer.
The plot, which is inspired by other alien and science fiction films such as Invasion of The Body Snatchers, is about a group of high school teenagers who come from different social cliques and must all band together to fight off the alien invasion that has infected their teachers and staff. Led by the charismatic Zeke (Josh Hartnett), a bad boy drug dealer, the group works to develop a test to ensure they know, at all times, who is infected and who is safe until they neutralize the greater threat, which may be more lethal than any of them realize.
The Faculty bleeds with smart, witty dialogue from Williamson's script and has many of the same features that audiences enjoyed with Scream, but in a different setting that allows the two to share a space without overlapping each other too much. Grossing about $45 million, The Faculty paled in comparison to Scream's $173 million box office numbers, but is a worthy installment in the '90s teen scream space that deserves more credit.
Looking back on The Faculty, one of its most impressive features is its standout cast of actors who hit their stride not long after this movie hit theaters. Most, if not all, of the major cast have gone on to have incredible careers, so this movie was something of a springboard for them even if it didn't sell particularly well or reach any sort of general acclaim when it first premiered. The core group of teenagers includes Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, Jordana Brewster, Clea Duvall, and gives supporting roles to Salma Hayek, Jon Stewart, Famke Janssen, Usher, and Bebe Neuwirth.
This was a surprisingly common practice of '90s horror films, but this star-studded cast was even more impressive than its competitors, especially since so many are now household names only a couple decades later.
In the height of '90s and early '00s ensemble horror films like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, and The Craft, The Faculty was at the top of the list in regards to quality, and yet didn't get anywhere near the love or recognition it deserves. Rodriguez was hot off From Dusk Till Dawn when he directed this film in 1998, and Kevin Williamson was enjoying the success of Scream, which came out two years earlier. Where other ensemble films had many of the cast in supporting roles, The Faculty threw everyone dead center and shared the amount of screen time remarkably well. Ensemble horror was so popular in the '90s because it allowed for a high body count and added a lot of different actors who were, at the time, popular in their own, individual niche ways, but not enough of a breakout star to sell a film on their own. It may not be the slasher genre that's highlighted here, which seemed to be the norm with ensemble horror of the time, but branching out in a different category and touching on a rather under-served sub-genre with alien invasion worked in tandem with some hilarious examples of early CGI that acted as the backbone of the film's campy exterior. Those who revisit The Faculty will appreciate that it tries to do something new without branching out too far that it forgets what it is. Many similar films suffered from being too stale in comparison to others that eventually oversaturated the horror market or suffered an identity crisis by being too ambitious when easily digestible scares were on the menu during that era.
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