Plot
When some very creepy things start happening around school, the kids at Harrington High make a chilling discovery that confirms their worst suspicions: their teachers really are from another planet! As mind-controlling parasites rapidly begin spreading from the faculty to student bodies, it's ultimately up to the few who are left – an unlikely collection of loners, leaders, nerds and jocks – to save the world from alien domination!
Analysis
On the face of it, you could be forgiven for narrowing your eye's at this film, thinking that it is nothing more than your average cliched teen's in peril high school slasher movie that offers nothing that hasn't already been seen in countless other watered down hollywood horror movies. It's at this point that you might expect me to say something like "Ahh yes, but this is so much more than just another teen horror film", but you would be wrong, this is a pretty standard horror affair without a doubt but it's the movies atmosphere that nudges it up enough to separate it from the bunch ensuring it's place amongst the few good cocktails of horror and science fiction.
I'm always a little skeptical when a film produces some flashy visuals within the first few minutes in an attempt to ensure your attention for at least a few more scenes, and happily The Faculty's opening moments mange to captivate with tension and gore without cheapening the whole business and keeping the inevitable CGI until much latter. Robert Patrick has always been a master at producing steely cold performances that make viewing a little uneasy and his portrayal of the football coach-turned-roach is one of the movies highlights which is established superbly within this opening 10 minute segment.
When the victims...errr....I mean cast start to gather we see the first sign's of the now stereotypical horror youth. We have the good looking but bitchy cheerleader, the jock, the squeaky clean country gal, the wimpy geek (played by the guardian of 'The One Ring', Elijah Wood), the wise assed tearaway come drug dealer (played by a very fresh looking Josh Hartnett) and finally the weird chick that everyone thinks is a lesbian. All present and correct and without a single grain of charm to any of them, you could be forgiven at first for rooting for the alien within, and praying that they all meet a hideous demise! I'm not saying that the roles are played poorly, it's just a very uninspiring screen play that see's these poor actors having to behave like clones of a thousand movies before.
So from a great opening to a stagnant intro of the principal cast members, we begin the climb up once again to the heady heights of 'pretty good horror film'. The gore, whilst not rampant, is very effective with some great bloody moments including a shower scene that has one crazed teacher slide half her scalp from off her head in a similar way to a pancake slipping of a frying pan (ooh I must be really sick to think up that analogy). The effects in general are pretty good with the obvious use of CGI playing a heavy part in the films closing moments but smaller things such as the aquatic creatures and the very silly but funny 'severed finger attack' all add to the overall quality of a film that, lets face it, could have been complete pants.
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Rating (out of 5)
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Action
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Lots of running away!
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Tension
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Lets play the 'Who's an alien and who's not' guessing game, that's always good for injecting gobings of tension, especially when the real alien finally stands up.
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Violence/
Gore
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As mentioned, the gore is great when it happens, but importantly (for a credible Hollywood production) it never feels labored or unnecessary.
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Bare Flesh
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We have a little T&A at the back end of the film, and to be honest, it made me smile.
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Plot
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An original spin on a well trodden formula which has been used to equal effect in films such as 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers', 'The Thing' and 'The Hidden'.
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Verdict
An externally shallow film that sit's between sub genre's such as the teenage slasher and alien invasion movies that manages to achieve a certain credibility as an above average horror film that's both entertaining and pretty good fun.
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Facts, figures and boobs
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When Casey nurses his wounds in the bathroom at the beginning of the movie, graffiti above his head reads, "Tito and Tarantula." This is the band of Tito Larriva, who composed music and acted in director Robert' Rodriguez's other movies, Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn.
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Near the end, Marybeth refuses to take the alien drug test by saying she's allergic. Jordana Brewster's character Delilah says, "Yeah, and I'm Portuguese." In real life, Brewster can speak fluent Portuguese.
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When the main characters gather around the fish tank in the science room after they discover the creature missing the tank goes from half full to full and so on during the entire scene.
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Nurse Harper puts the lid on her medicine twice before she is attacked.
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Movie Pictures
(Click picture to enlarge)
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