The Faculty
USA 1998
Reviewed by Peter Matthews
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Herrington High School, Ohio. After a faculty meeting Principal Drake is attacked by Coach Willis and slashed to death by another faculty member, Mrs Olson. The next morning new student Marybeth tries to befriend Stokely, a moody loner. Class nerd Casey finds a strange organism on the football field, and shows it to the science teacher, Mr Furlong. School-newspaper editor Delilah explores the faculty room with Casey. While hiding in a closet they espy Willis and Mrs Olson implanting an organism in the school nurse, Miss Harper, and find the corpse of another teacher. Casey and Delilah flee, but are stopped in their tracks by a resurrected Drake, to whom they describe what they saw. The police are called, but Miss Harper appears fine while the corpse is gone.
By now, the entire student body is acting strangely - only Casey, Delilah, Stokely, Marybeth, jock Stan and school dope-peddlar Zeke seem themselves. Furlong attacks them but Zeke dispatches him by sticking an ampoule filled with drug powder in his eye. Examining the creature Furlong disgorged in his death throes, Zeke identifies it as an alien parasite that can be killed using his dehydrating caffeine-based compound. Stokely speculates that if the mother alien is killed, everyone will return to normal. Zeke tests the drug on himself and forces the five other kids to take it too: Delilah is exposed as an alien. Soon the other teenagers become aliens, until only Casey and Zeke remain. Marybeth reveals herself to be the mother alien, mutates into a huge gorgon and is finally slain by Casey. Life reverts to normal.
Review
"You're that geeky Stephen King kid. There's one in every school," sneers class bitch Delilah to bullied misfit Casey in director Robert Rodriguez's sci-fi horror-comedy The Faculty. At once you recognise the strange country you're in: it's 90s pastiche-land, where the citizens are all trash archetypes and the most prominent local custom is tireless self-referentiality. The film marks the historic union of Rodriguez (El Mariachi, From Dusk till Dawn) and screenwriter Kevin Williamson (Scream and Scream 2). Perhaps because of the doubling up of such commensurate talents, The Faculty effectively cancels itself out. It isn't the least bit scary or particularly involving, but that seems to be the point.
Back in 1976, when Brian De Palma kicked off the whole metatrash industry with Carrie, the joke was that something synthesised from scraps of old teen exploitation pictures could still be so affecting. The Faculty salutes its great schlock ancestor by casting Carrie's mom Piper Laurie as one of the teacher-aliens (though it's pure synchronicity that the production designer is named Cary White). But the De Palma flick appears the soul of authenticity by comparison. For a radical evolutionary leap has taken place, and the new joke of The Faculty is how easily it can do without the traditional suspension of disbelief.
Inevitably, the script offers ample latitude for Williamson's signature conceit: the characters frequently break off their adventures to engage in learned colloquia on the very genre they inhabit. As in the Scream films, specialist knowledge of movie clichés becomes a survival tactic: here sci-fi nerd Stokely deduces the existence of a queen-bee alien by remembering Alien. Unsurprisingly, the Ur-text is Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and Williamson even pilfers one of its key lines of dialogue: "It is so much better. There is no fear or pain." However, Body Snatchers belonged to a world where cultural anxieties found metaphorical expression in pulp. Rodriguez and Williamson have gone beyond all that. Their version of pop cinema cheerfully dispenses with subtext. There's not the faintest pretence that The Faculty is about anything but its own sly nudging and winking at the viewer. You aren't seriously meant to care whether these kids succeed in resolving their varieties of teen angst; you're mainly supposed to twig their parodic resemblance to the gang in The Breakfast Club. And though the climactic monster puts on quite a bravura show, it doesn't generate a soupçon of primal horror. Instead, you sit there chuckling over the effects and ? when the camera ducks underwater for a brief swimming-pool contretemps - the stylistic cribs from Jaws.
Rodriguez's entire technique feels similarly hand-me-down. His gratuitous point-of-view tracking provides an ironic gloss on just about every thriller made in the past 20 years. But if The Faculty has all the poetic resonance of a round of Trivial Pursuit, at least it manages to be genuinely sportive. One advantage of the movie's elaborate gamesmanship is it demands interactive participation; audience and film-makers enter into a gleeful, knowing complicity. Rodriguez and Williamson assume young viewers these days have racked up considerable expertise in the rules of genre, and The Faculty is among other things a nifty meditation on genre mixing. Loosely yoking together creepy crawlies and teen anomie, the film takes as its emblem the cut-and-paste hero Zeke: part nihilist hipster and part brilliant boy-scientist. The script specifies him as a "contradiction", and indeed the character makes no sense until one realises that his whole purpose is to be a witty bricolage.
The Faculty consistently draws attention to its own ill-joined cracks and seams. There's no telling why alien possession acts as an aphrodisiac on the teachers, yet converts the students into stock zombies (though the latter leads to the film's funniest image: a classroom where every hand is raised). And it's equally useless to fret over the hazy rationale by which some characters get a second chance, while others seem polished off for good. For in a vertiginous postmodern enterprise like The Faculty, cleverness and clunkiness turn out to be the same thing.
Credits
- Producer
- Elizabeth Avellan
- Screenplay
- Kevin Williamson
- Story
- David Wechter
- Bruce Kimmel
- Director of Photography
- Enrique Chediak
- Editor
- Robert Rodriguez
- Production Designer
- Cary White
- Music
- Marco Beltrami
- ©Miramax Film Corp.
- Production Companies
- Dimension Films presents a Los Hooligans production
- Executive Producers
- Bob Weinstein
- Harvey Weinstein
- Line Producer
- Bill Scott
- Associate Producer
- Tamara Smith-Zimmerman
- Production Co-ordinator
- Cynthia Streit
- Unit Production Manager
- Bill Scott
- Location Manager
- Eric A. Williams
- Post-production
- Supervisor:
- Tamara Smith-Zimmerman
- Co-ordinator:
- Elaine K. Thompson
- Assistant Directors
- Doug T. Aarniokoski
- Brian Steward
- Brian O'Kelley
- Howard W. Carey
- Script Supervisor
- Lou Ann Quast
- Casting
- Mary Vernieu
- Anne McCarthy
- Associate:
- Freddy Luis
- Texas:
- Jo Edna Boldin
- Camera Operator
- Robert Rodriguez
- Steadicam Operator
- David McGill
- Visual Effects Supervisor
- Brian M. Jennings
- Visual Effects Co-ordinator
- Matt Hullum
- Digital Visual Effects
- Hybride Technologies
- Digital Effects Supervisor:
- Daniel Leduc
- Digital Effects Producer:
- Pierre Raymond
- Digital Effects Production Manager:
- Louise Bertrand
- Computer Graphics Supervisor:
- Philippe Theroux
- Computer Graphics Animators:
- Jean-Yves Audouard
- Marc Bourbonnais
- Jeff Cappleman
- Joseph Kasparian
- James Stewart
- Yanick Wilisky
- Digital Effects Artists:
- Michel Barrière
- Nicolas Cotta
- François Lambert
- Sébastien Moreau
- Strad
- Computer Graphics
- Threshold Digital Research Labs
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Kim Lavery
- Visual Effects Co-ordinator:
- Jeff Willerth
- Post-production Supervisor:
- George Johnsen
- Visual Effects Artists:
- Jim Carbonetti
- Scott Coulter
- Pam Fernandez
- Matt Morgan
- Greg Nelson
- Digital Visual Effects
- Digiscope
- Executive Producer:
- Mary Stuart Welch
- Digital Effects Producer:
- Laurel Lyn Schulman
- Digital Effects Supervisor:
- Dion Hatch
- Digital Compositing Supervisor:
- Grady Cofer
- Digital Artists:
- Rob Blue
- Todd Mescher
- Naomi Sato
- Lawrence Carroll
- Brennan Prevatt
- Marty Taylor
- Computer Graphics/Digital Compositing
- Centropolis Effects
- Digital Effects Supervisor:
- Steffen M. Wild
- CGI Supervisor:
- Carolin Quis
- Character Animators:
- Michael Ford
- Scott Holmes
- Benedikt Niemann
- Technical Directors:
- Daniel Fazel
- John Hart
- Visual Effects Artists:
- Joe Jackman
- Shelley Butler
- Bret St. Clair
- Frédéric Soumagnas
- Sean Cunningham
- Rocco Passionino
- Compositing Supervisors:
- Cornelia Fausser-Ruemelin
- Nelson Sepulveda
- Compositors:
- Mitch Drain
- Abra Grupp
- Mario Peixoto
- Rotoscope Artists:
- Robert Cribbett
- Nathalie Gonthier
- Shawna June Lee
- Brian Wolf
- Executive Producer:
- Marc L. Kolbe
- Line Producer:
- Craig A. Mumma
- Scanning/Recording Services
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Special Effects
- Co-ordinator:
- John McLeod
- Foremen:
- Mike Edmonson
- Dave Heron
- Miniatures
- Cinema Production Services Inc
- Art Director
- Ed Vega
- Set Decorator
- Jeanette Scott
- Scenic Artists
- Dawn Baker
- Kelly Hankins
- Thomas Karl Jr
- Pat Martine
- Storyboard Artist
- Raymond Prado
- Costume Designer
- Michael T. Boyd
- Costume Supervisor
- Stanley L. Moore
- Key Make-up Artist
- Ermahn Ospina
- Special Make-up/ Creature Effects
- KNB EFX, Inc
- Supervisors:
- Gregory Nicotero
- Robert Kurtzman
- Howard Berger
- Mechanics:
- Tim Ralston
- Wayne Toth
- Jake McKinnon
- David Wogh
- Tim Leach
- James Hirahara
- Conceptual Designer:
- Bernie Wrightson
- Sculptors:
- Garrett Immel
- Bill Hunt
- Evan Campbell
- Scott Tebeau
- Mark Tavares
- Alex Diaz
- Gino Crognale
- Bill Zahn
- Painter:
- Chris Hansen
- Fabricators:
- Ted Haines
- Peter Farrell
- Chris Cera
- James Hall
- Louis Kiss
- Jason Collins
- Tami Lane
- Key Technicians:
- Scott Patton
- Shannon Shea
- Henrik Van Ryzin
- Moldmakers:
- Brian Rae
- Brian Demski
- Mike McCarty
- Steve Hartman
- Johnny Saiko
- Little Al Lorenzana
- Hair Department:
- Ron Pipes II
- Justin Ditter
- Key Hair Stylist
- Bridget McNamara-Cook
- Hair Stylist
- Kelly Nelson
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Musicians
- Principal Percussionist:
- Wade Culbreath
- Glassworks:
- Dennis James
- Orchestrations
- Bill Boston
- Jon Kull
- Kevin Manthei
- Pete Anthony
- Bob Elhai
- Music Supervisor
- Alex Steyermark
- Music Co-ordinator
- Linda Cohen
- Guitar Wrangler
- Buck Sanders
- Music Editors
- Bill Abbott
- Jay Richardson
- Music Conductors/
Orchestrations - Marco Beltrami
- Pete Anthony
- Music Scoring Mixer
- John Kurlander
- Scoring Recordist
- Bob Levy
- Soundtrack
- "The Kids Aren't Alright" by/performed by The Offspring; "Helpless" by Travis Bickle, performed by D. Generation; "Resuscitation" by Sheryl Crow, Jeff Trott, performed by Sheryl Crown; "I'm Eighteen" by Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce, Neal Smith, performed by Creed; "Another Brick in the Wall" by Roger Waters, performed by Class of '99 featuring Layne Staley, Tom Morello, Stephen Perkins, Martin Le Nobl, Matt Serlectic; "Stay Young" by Noel Gallagher, performed by Oasis; "Guys and Dolls" by Frank Loesser; "School Is Out" by Alice Cooper, Michael Bruce, performed by Soul Asylum; "Haunting Me" by Christopher Hall, Walter Flakus, Andy Kubiszewski, James Sellers, Marcus Eliopulos, performed by Stabbing Westward; "Medication" by/performed by Garbage; "It's Over Now" by J. Stephens, performed by Neve; "Changes" by David Bowie, performed by Shawn Mullins; "Crackerjacks" by/performed by Los Feelers
- Sound Design
- Steve Boeddeker
- Co-sound Supervisor
- Bruce Lacey
- Production Sound Mixer
- Steve Nelson
- Re-recording Mixers
- Michael Semanick
- Lora Hirschberg
- Robert Rodriguez
- Re-recordist
- Steve Romanko
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Phil Benson
- Dialogue Editors
- Claire Sanfilippo
- Dianna Stirpe
- Sound Effects Editors
- Kyrsten Comoglio
- Teresa Eckton
- Richard Hymns
- David Hughes
- ADR
- Group:
- Leigh French
- Editors:
- Sue Fox
- Larry Schalit
- ADR Services ? LA:
- Digital Sound & Picture
- Foley
- Artists:
- Dennie Thorpe
- Jana Vance
- Recordist:
- Frank 'Pepe' Merel
- Mixer:
- Tony Eckert
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Bobby Brown
- Cast
- Jordana Brewster
- Delilah
- Clea Duvall
- Stokely
- Laura Harris
- Marybeth
- Josh Hartnett
- Zeke
- Shawn Hatosy
- Stan
- Salma Hayek
- Nurse Harper
- Famke Janssen
- Miss Burke
- Piper Laurie
- Mrs Olson
- Chris McDonald
- Casey's dad
- Bebe Neuwirth
- Principal Drake
- Robert Patrick
- Coach Dick Willis
- Usher Raymond
- Gabe
- Jon Stewart
- Mr Furlong
- Daniel von Bargen
- Mr Tate
- Elijah Wood
- Casey
- Summer Phoenix
- F*%# You girl
- Jon Abrahams
- F*%# You boy
- Susan Willis
- Mrs Brummel
- Pete Janssen
- Meat
- Christina Rodriguez
- tattoo girl
- Danny Masterson
- F*%# Up 1
- Wiley Wiggins
- F*%# Up 2
- Harry Knowles
- Mr Knowles
- Donna Casey
- Tina
- Louis Black
- Mr Lewis
- Eric Jungmann
- freshman 1
- Chris Viteychuk
- freshman 2
- Jim Johnston
- P.E. teacher
- Libby Villari
- Casey's mom
- Duane Martin
- Katherine Willis
- officers
- Mike Lutz
- Hornet mascot
- Doug Aarniokoski
- Brun coach
- Gary Hecker
- creature vocals
- [uncredited]
- Gus Araiza
- Ray Melendez
- Danny Sasser
- students
- Mark Edward Walters
- front row fan, olive vest
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Buena Vista International (UK)
- 9,371 feet
- 104 minutes 7 seconds
- Dolby digital/Digital DTS sound/SDDS
- Colour by
- Technicolor