Dimension Films
Screenplay by Kevin Williamson and Robert Rodriguez
Story by David Wechter
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Starring (alphabetically): Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hastosy, Franke Janssen, Piper Lasurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick, Usher Raymond, Jon Stewart, Elijah Wood.
Alien pod people types take over small town; mayhem ensues; teen idols save the day. The End. Ah, but things are not quite so simple in The Faculty, gentle readers, for this has been written by the Scream-meister himself, Keven Williamson, with director Robert Rodriguez, who can milk a scene for every possible surprise and plot twist, and The Faculty is loaded with them.
Dimension Films has specifically requested that reviewers not reveal the plot twists in this movie, and this reviewer will oblige. Unlike most Dimension Films releases, a lot of thought and care went into The Faculty, and it doesn't deserve to be treated with the disrespect with which their gawd-awful Phantoms was greeted. For one thing, the storyline of The Faculty actually makes sense! The good guys do not walk stupidly into an ambush in every scene. The teen heroes are geeks and outsiders, one and all. The only gaping plot hole left uncovered is a possible vehicle for the inevitable sequel. In short, The Faculty is actually a good horror-sci-fi-thriller.
One thing which is not a mystery is why The Faculty does not bear the Disney logo, despite being made by a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Disney. The monsters of "The Faculty," like all movie monsters, have a fatal vulnerability, and that vulnerability is not the microbes which "God in His wisdom" put on Earth to kill the Martians in War of the Worlds. No. The fatal vulnerability of the aliens in The Faculty -- that which saves mankind from ahnhilation and the Earth from conquest is...an illicit chemical sold at the local high school. Disney is not about to put its name on a film in which dope saves the world! Which leads to the one plot hole left open at the end of the film. . . .
Unless I blinked and missed their final scene, two characters remain unaccounted for at the end of The Faculty -- F*%# Up #1, played by teen idol Danny Masterson of "That 70's Show," and his side-kick and fellow head, F*%# Up #2 (I'm not making this up, you know -- that's how they are billed). Something either very good or very bad should have happened to them by the end of the movie, but, as I said, unless it happened when I blinked, they simply disappear after an important scene. Are they the pod seeds of the sequel, or did scheduling conflicts prevent them from filming the scenes which reveal what happened to them? Who knows?
The Faculty delivers far more than one ordinarily expects from a film in this genre, but it is by no means a classic. I rate it W4 -- Worth Four Bucks. See The Faculty as a bargain matinee or as part of a double feature, and you will get your money's worth. If, for any reason, you feel dissatisfied, contact the school nurse, Miss Harper (Salma Hayek).
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