The Faculty (1998)

Film: The Faculty (1998)

Stars: Elijah Wood, Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy, Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick, Usher Raymond, Jon Stewart

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-00's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

In the late 1990's, in the wake of Scream, horror movies hit a bit of a pattern.  You'd assemble a group of sexy, young actors (some of whom would grow up to be movie stars, others basically nobodies), maybe throw in a musician that could add in an additional fanbase, and from there you just start killing them off slowly in the picture and see what happens.  This was such a common trend in this era that it's actually going to be what our next three movies for our horror movie month are about.  The first we're going to get to is The Faculty, a 1998 thriller that initially promises to be more than that-a movie that will focus on the adults in addition to the teens in the movie...though the film as it unfolds really only cares about the young people crowding the poster.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie opens with Principal Drake (Neuwirth) telling a group of teachers that budget cuts are hurting all of their programs...except for the lucrative football program, much to their chagrin.  Drake is attacked by football Coach Willis (Patrick), and nearly escapes until Mrs. Olson (Laurie) also attacks her, and infects her.  You see, there's a group of alien pod people who are infecting everyone at the school, and working their way through the faculty.  The only group who can stop them is a crew of unlikely friends, led by Casey Connor (Wood), a nerdy guy who is in love with the resident pretty girl Delilah (Brewster) and Zeke (Hartnett), a drug dealer who is actually quite scientifically savvy.  Zeke has created a drug combination that can actually kill the infected, and they work to try and kill the mother alien, which it turns out is the sweet new girl Marybeth (Harris).  Once she's destroyed, everything returns to normal, with Casey now the hero of the country, and officially dating Delilah.

One of the things that I liked about The Faculty is they play around a bit with some of the tropes that Scream made sacrosanct.  The "final girl" here is not Brewster or DuVall, but instead Elijah Wood, fitting a lot of the tropes of this part (virginal, cute, sweet but over-his-head), except, of course, he's a boy.  This isn't the only time they do this.  Josh Hartnett's casting as the hot guy who is also really smart, and actually creates the way to kill the monster is something you'd never see-he was born to be a character that dies maybe third in the film, but instead lives through the picture & is generally not a jerk.

The problem with The Faculty is that it doesn't lean into the title character.  The teens can only do so much, but with a solid cast of actors for the teachers, I think it would've been more fun if we'd spent time focusing on the faculty themselves.  Piper Laurie is so campy, and has such strong horror movie bonafides from Carrie, you want her to be the big baddie rather than Marybeth.  Jon Stewart & Salma Hayek are at once marvelously cast (they play their tropes of nerdy science teacher & secretly sexy nurse) and silly choices (Stewart is not a good actor, and while Hayek is, she is so gorgeous that her playing someone that other people don't notice is far too attractive to be a normal human being is genuinely funny) that I wanted to hear more from them.  The film also has a really questionable relationship between Famke Janssen's nerdy teacher and Josh Hartnett's student (it's strongly implied they had a sexual relationship at some point, and this is condoned within the context of the film, which even in 1998 probably should've raised an eyebrow or too).  All-in-all, the faculty section is underwritten, even if the overall movie itself is pretty decent and a good spin on Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

1920's: The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera

1930's: The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Mad Love, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London

1940's: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Cat People, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Invisible Woman, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Phantom of the Opera, She-Wolf of London, Son of Dracula, The Uninvited, The Wolf Man

1950's: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, Revenge of the Creature

1960's: The Devil Rides Out, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead,Village of the Damned

1970's: The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Look Now, Flatliners Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen, Phantom of the Paradise, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, The Wicker Man

1980's: Altered States, An American Werewolf in London, The Changeling, Child's Play, The Evil Dead, The Fly, The Fog, Friday the 13th, Gremlins, Hellraiser, The House on Sorority Row, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Pet Sematary, Poltergeist, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, Sleepaway Camp, The Thing

1990's-Present: Arachnophobia, The Blair Witch Project, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Candyman, Flatliners, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Interview with the Vampire, Paranormal Activity, Scary Movie, Scream