The Faculty (1998) or, Teacher Encounters of the Third Kind

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Sci-fi-Horror of the Year

 

An attractive young cast, a brooding color scheme and hyping quotes make up this poster for Robert Rodriguez's The Faculty

Herrington High School in Ohio seems like a completely average high school with average teachers and students. But now the latter are beginning to suspect that their teachers and the student body's jocks may be ... extra-terrestrials!

A generous 4 ♥'s are awarded to this enjoyable high school life farce/genre film homage, which pulls a fast one on one of the big cliché movie types of the 1990s: the high school-set melodrama-comedy. The Faculty is written by Kevin Williamson (Scream (1996)), based on a script by Bruce Kimmel (The Creature Wasn't Nice (1983)) and David Wechter (Midnight Madness (1980)), and directed by great Texan filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (Machete Kills (2013)).
James Cameron's masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) is among the appreciatively referenced films, and the T-1000 himself, Robert Patrick (Big Love (2011), TV-series) is employed here and bad-ass as usual. He is one in a celebrity mecca in The Faculty that also counts, among others: Usher Raymond (People You May Know (2017)), Famke Janssen (Eulogy (2004)) is great here, Jordana Brewster (The Fast and the Furious (2001)), later talk show icon Jon Stewart (Mixed Nuts (1994)) in a wild superman-like part, Salma Hayek (Wild Wild West (1999)), a cute Elijah Wood (The Romantics (2010)), an annoying Josh Hartnett (I Come with the Rain (2009)), Laura Harris (Just the Ticket (1999)) SPOILER as the awesome mega-monster, Summer Phoenix (The Believer (2001)) in a small role and Christopher McDonald (Fanboys (2009)).
The soundtrack is bolstered by an inferno of 90's rock, which feels appropriate for The Faculty. Rodriguez knows how to stage a very entertaining genre treat, and despite plot holes, this movie is a hoot.

Related posts:

Robert Rodriguez: 1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

From Dusk till Dawn (1996) - Tarantino, Rodriguez and chums' enjoyable Mexico vampire extravaganza
Desperado (1995) - Rodriguez' second Mexico actioner is a sexy, latino fireball

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 40.2 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty - but at least a box office success
[The Faculty premiered 12 November (USA) and runs 104 minutes. Kimmel and Wechter's script was written in 1990 but did not find buyers until the hugely successful release of Scream (1996). Williamson was commissioned to rewrite their script and make it more 'hip'. Williamson was poised to direct but passed in favor of his own creation, the inferior Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999). Shooting took place in Texas, including Austin and Dallas, from April - June 1998. The film opened #5, behind fellow new releases Patch Adams and Stepmom and holdover hits You've Got Mail and The Prince of Egypt, to an 11.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it enjoyed a successful run of 16 weeks. Regrettably, the film's worldwide gross is not reported, but the film was at least a box office success and likely a big hit. Rodriguez returned with Spy Kids (2001). The Faculty is rotten at 53 % with a 5.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Faculty?