The Faculty **** (1998, Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick, Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris) – Classic Movie Review 650

A hottish young cast spur the cheeky, hip and edgy youth-appeal 1998 sci-fi horror thriller The Faculty from Robert Rodriguez, the director of Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn, and Kevin Williamson, the writer of Scream and Scream 2.

When creepy things happen round Herrington High School in Ohio, the pupils make a chilling discovery: the teachers really are aliens! As mind-controlling parasites rapidly spread from the faculty to the students’ bodies, it’s up to the few left – a collection of slackers, loners and losers – to save the world.

This pretty scary movie blatantly rips off the plot of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, then tells you it’s done that, so that’s okay, and then it puts a Nineties spin on it. It’s done with enough tongue-in-cheek conviction, plenty of it actually, and it has a good sense of fun.

Elijah Wood makes a fine nerdy hero as Casey Connor, Josh Hartnett’s good as the cool loner kid Zeke Tyler, while Bebe Neuwirth and Robert Patrick are effective as the Principal and Coach. And the alien, when it appears, is excellent.

Shawn Hatosy, Laura Harris, Clea DuVall, Piper Laurie, Famke Janssen, Jon Stewart, Jordana Brewster, Salma Hayek, Daniel von Bargen, Christopher McDonald, Usher Raymond, Jon Abrahams and Summer Phoenix are in the classy, way-above-average cast.

Kevin Williamson writes the screenplay from a story by David Wechter and Bruce Kimmel, who wrote their script in 1990 but could not find a buyer. But Miramax bought it and moved it swiftly into production, following the success of the 1996 slasher Scream (written by Kevin Williamson). Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein brought in Kevin Williamson to keep the basic story but rewrite the dialogue and add new characters to make it more ‘hip’, so he is solely credited for the screenplay. The Weinsteins asked Robert Rodriguez to direct the film after Williamson it turned down to make Teaching Mrs Tingle (1999).

It was released on 25 December 1998.

Though it is set in the fictional town of Herrington, Ohio, it was filmed in Austin, San Marcos, Dallas, and Lockhart, Texas.

Clea Duvall recalled: ‘The making of the film was so much fun. It was mostly night shoots, so it was like we were in this alternate universe. Working all night long and making this fun sci-fi horror movie. I loved it.’

The score is by Marco Beltrami, who had scored Scream,

The cast are Jordana Brewster as Delilah Profitt, Clea DuVall as Stokely Mitchell, Laura Harris as Marybeth Hutchinson, Josh Hartnett as Zeke Tyler, Shawn Hatosy as Stan Rosado, Salma Hayek as Nurse Harper, Famke Janssen as Miss Burke, Piper Laurie as Mrs Olson, Christopher McDonald as Casey’s dad, Bebe Neuwirth as Principal Drake, Robert Patrick as Coach Willis, Usher Raymond as Gabe, Jon Stewart as Mr Furlong, Daniel von Bargen as Mr Tate, Elijah Wood as Casey Connor, Summer Phoenix as Fuck You girl, and Jon Abrahams as Fuck You boy.

Scenes involving Kidada Jones as Venus were cut from the final film.

Its budget was $15 million and it ended up taking $63.2 million at the box office (US gross of $40.3 million). This however was a disappointment partly due to Miramax’s bizarre decision to release the movie on Christmas Day.

Jordana Brewster recalled: ‘With The Faculty it was like “You guys, this is gonna be huge. Look at all these successes around us like She’s All That and Scream.” And then it turned out it wasn’t so huge. We thought it was gonna be massive, but it was a cult classic so that’s really cool.’

American writer Jack Finney’s sci-fi novel The Body Snatchers was serialised in Collier’s magazine in November–December 1954 and published in book form in 1955. It has been adapted for the screen four times: Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956; Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1978; Body Snatchers in 1993, and Invasion in 2007. It is also the basis of the The Faculty and the 2019 Assimilate.

Josh Hartnett (born July 21, 1978) made his feature film debut in 1998 in the slasher film Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, followed by The Faculty.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 650
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