The Faculty (1998)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Martin S

  
  This movie is such a cheeseball. It's funny to watch...and it's a good movie. But it's not gonna win any oscars. But hey.... Not all movies have to.

• Drew S

  
  A disarmingly clever, subversive sci-fi/actioner, The Faculty nonetheless is burdened a bit by being caught in Scream's overwhelming shadow. As some critics have noted, Kevin Williamson's constant dismantling of whatever genre he's operating in offers plenty of… More
  A disarmingly clever, subversive sci-fi/actioner, The Faculty nonetheless is burdened a bit by being caught in Scream's overwhelming shadow. As some critics have noted, Kevin Williamson's constant dismantling of whatever genre he's operating in offers plenty of surprises at the actual textual level, but on the whole it's easy to look at one of his movies and expect lots of metahumor and self-parody. Thus, The Faculty may catch a few viewers unawares (as it did with me, since I didn't know Williamson wrote it at the time), but anyone familiar with his distinctive brand might be a little less impressed. This doesn't do much, however, to discount the absolutely insane premise - is Hollywood legitimizing drug use as a way of seeing "the truth"? - and the fun performances, as well as some kicky scenes of sci-fi brutality. As a sort of Invasion of the Body Snatchers as envisioned amongst high school students, it's extremely perceptive, not at all the "rip off" that some critics seem to write it off as. Definitely worth revisiting.

• Bethany M

  
  Quite scary!

• KJ P

  
  Aliens have come to earth! How? Nobody knows, but they are taking over the faculty of herrington high school and as horrific as it may seem, it is one hell of an awesome ride. Led by an all-star cast, this film is fun, corny, scary, witty, and brutal. I loved it! It is more of a… More
  Aliens have come to earth! How? Nobody knows, but they are taking over the faculty of herrington high school and as horrific as it may seem, it is one hell of an awesome ride. Led by an all-star cast, this film is fun, corny, scary, witty, and brutal. I loved it! It is more of a horror/comedy than a sci-fi flick, but the overall impact had me caring about every character involved. From the corny effects, to the laughable dialogue, to the final act that is actually impressively thrilling, The Faculty brings something that many fun teen films are missing, thrills that are fun and you don't need all your brain cells for. Lets just say that I call this film "FANTASTIC" in a big way, even though it does make me laugh a few times where it is not meant to be funny!

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"I always thought the only alien in this high school was me."</i> A horror tale set in a High School where the students suspect the teaching staff of being aliens, who are intent on making the students their victims. <center><font size=+2… More
  <i>"I always thought the only alien in this high school was me."</i> A horror tale set in a High School where the students suspect the teaching staff of being aliens, who are intent on making the students their victims. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> There is an undercurrent of "The Breakfast Club" meets "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in this edgy horror/sci fi monster thriller that incorporates teenage angst, particularly in the beginning half of the movie. The build is nice. There is even a decent attempt at emotional connectivity during the climax that is rarely accomplished. The movie seems to waiver on the dark humor aspects and isn't sure what direction to take the movie and probably missed an opportunity to incorporate the novelty of teenager comedy to balance off this movie or playing it real straight. Overall, this is horror movie with a good dose of relational insight along with a number of twists and turns that for the most part work. The movie, however, loses a bit of its hard edged freshness and descends somewhat into the traditional horror clichés towards the end without really crashing and instead ends with an acceptable ending.

• Taylor B

  
  Awesome

• Richard C

  
  I love this movie. it's a great teen movie. it reminds me of the thing. A-

• Jeff "

  
  Written by Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson, this is a more than capable teenage horror film that is better in the hands of competent director Robert Rodriguez. In The Faculty, it's a high school version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers as teachers become aliens and take… More
  Written by Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson, this is a more than capable teenage horror film that is better in the hands of competent director Robert Rodriguez. In The Faculty, it's a high school version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers as teachers become aliens and take over a local high school by converting everyone to Aliens. The film is a fun little film and Robert Rodriguez gives this teen horror film an added kick with his directorial abilities, and The Faculty ends up being quite a terrific teen film. The film is obviously an homage to old school Alien invasion films, but this film is still interesting in the idea of the story, Alien teachers taking over a high school, a very interesting take on classic Alien films. The Faculty will not please everyone, but to those who want a harmless, fun Horror film, this film is is, and as considering this was directed by Robert Rodriguez, this makes it a winner.

• Jennifer D

  
  Why did I watch this again? Oh yeah. Elijah Wood. Erm. He did better as a hobbit.

• Tim S

  
  A decent horror flick. Not a great one, but definitely worth a rent.

• Conner R

  
  An interesting take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers from Robert Rodriquez. The Kevin Williamson dialogue wasn't too bizarre and actually fit pretty well. This also has a great cast. Josh Hartnett and Elijah Wood really went above and beyond the average teen performance.… More
  An interesting take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers from Robert Rodriquez. The Kevin Williamson dialogue wasn't too bizarre and actually fit pretty well. This also has a great cast. Josh Hartnett and Elijah Wood really went above and beyond the average teen performance. It's a great concept and Robert Rodriguez always makes extremely fun movies.

• Anthony L

  
  One of the better high-school horror/My-teacher-is-an-Alien films of recent years!

• Jason O

  
  I thought that "The Faculty" was a good movie. At times I thought it was a ripoff of a few movies, but after watching it awhile, it didn't turn out to be anything like them. It's about some aliens that take over most of the faculty and then try to take the students… More
  I thought that "The Faculty" was a good movie. At times I thought it was a ripoff of a few movies, but after watching it awhile, it didn't turn out to be anything like them. It's about some aliens that take over most of the faculty and then try to take the students along with them. Once somebody gets affected by one of the aliens, they don't seem like themselves. They will try anything they can to get another person near them in order to make them an alien. Zeke and the crew must find the queen of the aliens and stab her with some mashed up caffeine tablets in order to destroy her and to make everybody who has become an alien change back to being themselves. I like "The Faculty" better than the "Scream" movies. Some of the critics say that "The Faculty" was predictable, but myself I thought the "Scream" movies were a lot more predictable than this movie. It also has something else the "Scream" series didn't: great special effects. I recommend "The Faculty" to anybody who likes good horror movies. Wait until you find out who the queen of the aliens is. NOTE: That was my Amazon review from the year 2000. I do like this movie better than the Scream films, which I've always found overrated.

• Rachel F

  
  Good movie. Unique storyline and it has Elijah Wood, so that helps a bit.

• xGary X

  
  Elijah Wood and the usual collection of high school stereotypes begin to suspect that the school is being taken over by aliens. Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Buffy in one of Robert Rodriguez's early Hollywood projects. Unfortunately he obviously had not made his mark on… More
  Elijah Wood and the usual collection of high school stereotypes begin to suspect that the school is being taken over by aliens. Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Buffy in one of Robert Rodriguez's early Hollywood projects. Unfortunately he obviously had not made his mark on the establishment yet and lacked the confidence to make this film his own; as a result it comes across as a very generic teen horror movie. It's not quite funny enough to be a comedy, nor scary enough to be horror, so it falls a little between two stools. The young cast are all decent (apart from Josh Hartnett's BIZARRE hairstyle!) and Robert Patrick is very good at the ordinary guy with an underlying sense of menace. Fans of Buffy will enjoy it as it's basically just like a feature length episode of the series; not one of Rodriguez's best but still solid entertainment.

• Sanjaya &

  
  I really didn't expect this movie is an alien invasion theme movie just like 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers', but it's pretty nice... And I really shocked when knowing the cast, they can have Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, and Salma Hayek... The story itself just too… More
  I really didn't expect this movie is an alien invasion theme movie just like 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers', but it's pretty nice... And I really shocked when knowing the cast, they can have Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, and Salma Hayek... The story itself just too close to the teenagers life so I think the adults not really enjoying it, but I enjoyed it... This movie really thrills me, just like what I got when I watched 'The Invasion'... Nice teens alien movie, it's pretty thrills me and the story itself pretty shocked me...

• Chris W

  
  This is pretty much a sci-fi/horror flick crossbred with The Breakfast Club, but despite the cheesiness, it's still a great film by an awesome director. One of the biggest guilty pleasures of mine.

• Tsubaki S

  
  Even cheesy sci/fi camp fests need some functional level of skill to be made. something Rodriguez quite clear doesn't have. Also, John Carpenter should had sued Rodriguez for ripping off not one but two scenes from The Thing. Like his buddy Tarantino, Rodriguez confuses… More
  Even cheesy sci/fi camp fests need some functional level of skill to be made. something Rodriguez quite clear doesn't have. Also, John Carpenter should had sued Rodriguez for ripping off not one but two scenes from The Thing. Like his buddy Tarantino, Rodriguez confuses "hackiness" with "homage".

• Tim S

  
  The last movie Rodriguez did on film.

• Aaron N

  
  Mr. Furlong: Kindly take your seats. This will be over quite quickly. Aliens are taking over the school and its up to Frodo Baggins to stop them. An homage to alien takeover films that has it's characters self aware to situations that they are in. This always helps because it… More
  Mr. Furlong: Kindly take your seats. This will be over quite quickly. Aliens are taking over the school and its up to Frodo Baggins to stop them. An homage to alien takeover films that has it's characters self aware to situations that they are in. This always helps because it makes it more fun when even the characters in the movie can see cliches coming. A large ensemble cast of many recognizable faces on both the faculty and student side and the direction/editing of Rodriguez, makes this movie a lot of fun. Its also fun to see the various adult actors loving to play evil aliens. Familiar ground to someone like Robert Patrick, who is still cool here, but more fun with the very hot Famke Janssen and John Stewart. Because it is a Rodriguez movie (and the closest he'll ever have come to being completely involved in the Hollywood scene) the movies pacing is great and there are plenty of sequences that have a layer of cool put behind them. The effects are also pretty clever for this lower budget flick involving alien parasites. Overall this is a fun little flick made better because of the wit matched with the story, the good cast, and Rodriguez's direction. Stokely: Is this usually the point where someone says let's get the fuck outta here? Stan: Let's get the fuck outta here.

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