Cast: Jordana Brewster, Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Laura Harris, Clea DuVall, Shawn Hatosy, Robert Patrick, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Salma Hayek, Jon Stewart, Famke Janssen, Christopher McDonald, Usher Raymond
Director: Robert Rodriguez
U.S. Distribution: Dimension / Miramax
U.S. Release Date: 12/25/98
Running Time: 1:44
MPAA Rating: R
The Faculty is the latest in a long line of films to revisit the 1956 horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This time around, the setting is a small-town high school where the students do battle with aliens who have taken over the bodies of their teachers and friends.
With a good balance of talented young actors and likeable veteran players, a Kevin Williamson screeenplay and direction by Robert Rodriguez, this really should have been a better movie. There are plot twists much like those in Williamson's mega-hit Scream and frantic pacing similar to Rodriguez's cult favorite From Dusk Till Dawn.
It isn't all bad. A lot of it is fun to watch. It's just that I have seen so much of it before in the aforementioned films and others like John Carpenter's The Thing and John Hughes' The Breakfast Club.
© 1999, Delton Perrodin