The Faculty --Review--

[Zach]

[B]**THIS USER STEALS REVIEWS. THIS POST ONLY REMAINS INTACT FOR EVIDENCE PURPOSES. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.** - Bojangles

The Faculty

[/B]

Directed By: Robert Rodriguez

Cast

* Elijah Wood as Casey Connor
* Jordana Brewster as Delilah Profitt
* Josh Hartnett as Zeke Tyler
* Clea DuVall as Stokely 'Stokes' Mitchell
* Laura Harris as Marybeth Louise Hutchinson
* Shawn Hatosy as Stan Rosado
* Salma Hayek as Nurse Rosa Harper
* Famke Janssen as Miss Elizabeth Burke
* Piper Laurie as Mrs. Karen Olson
* Bebe Neuwirth as Principal Valerie Drake
* Jon Stewart as Professor Furlong
* Robert Patrick as Coach Joe Willis
* Christopher McDonald as Mr. John Connor
* Usher Raymond as Gabe Santora
* Daniel von Bargen as Mr. John Tate

Plot:

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. Written by Jordan Chamerski.Herrington High, Ohio, a small-town highschool. All of a sudden, the teachers start changing attitude.The aliens who take over the school do so by injecting a parasitic organism into the ear, which takes over the brain and creates what appears to be a different version of the person - one that desires to spread the parasite as much as it can. The faculty sends the entire student body to the nurse one by one for ear inspections, where they are taken over. When Casey and Delilah have to hide in a closet in the teacher's lounge, they witness the strangulation of Nurse Harper by two of them. Shocked, they manage to flee. Only moments later, the nurse seems to be very alive, but also somehow changed, like all the teachers and most of the students. Only Casey, Delilah and four others seem to be suspicious. Proof of an alien infection is finally brought by the chemistry teacher, who also points out a way to kill the infected humans. The plan now is to get the queen, before the aliens can spread out over the whole country.Casey figures this out and soon warns the other five. During a meeting, Mr. Furlong (Jon Stewart), the science teacher, enters the room and attempts to infect them with the alien. Zeke pulls out a pen filled with his drug, and jams it into Furlong's eye, which then dries out the alien inside of him, as the drug is a diuretic and the aliens require excessive amounts of water to cope with life on Earth.Thus, they all leave the school, which has become completely infected (the entire student body stares at them), and go to Zeke's house with a sample of the parasite. Stokely speculates that destroying the queen alien will kill all the parasites, without killing their victims. Soon, the group becomes suspicious of each other, each of them citing such actions as Stan's recent shift from football to academics and Casey's sudden courage as potential evidence that they aren't who they say they are. They each take turns snorting the drug to prove that they have not been infected. When Delilah's turn comes, she refuses, revealing that she has already been infected. She then destroys most of Zeke's supply of the drug, as well as his equipment for producing it, before escaping. The remaining five, with what is left of the drug, go to the school, where the entire town is watching the school football game. They succeed in killing Principal Drake (Bebe Neuwirth), but the other hosts remain unaffected. Stan subsequently becomes infected when he goes onto the field to investigate. Because they ran out of their supply of the drug, Zeke and Casey decide to go to Zeke's car for more. Marybeth and Stokely wait inside the school gym for their return. While Casey serves as a decoy, Zeke goes to his car. There, he encounters Miss Burke (Famke Janssen). He seemingly kills her, but she survies.Marybeth reveals herself to be the queen alien; she had escaped snorting the drug by biological trickery. She came to take over Earth as her own planet is dying. She chases Stokely and Casey. Stokely is badly injured, then infected and Zeke is knocked out in the locker room. Casey runs back to the gym area and tricks the alien into following him behind the now-closing bleachers. The machinery traps what used to be Marybeth, but she manages to infect Casey. Casey manages to remain in control of his body long enough to jam the last of the drugs into Marybeth's eye, killing her. With Marybeth dead, the rest of the parasites die and the students and teachers all return to normal.After this, the group shows big changes, including the faculty. Zeke applies his genius to schoolwork and joins the football team (and seems to be dating Miss Burke). Coach Joe Willis is still coaching the football team. Stan and Stokely become boyfriend and girlfriend, Delilah and Casey do the same.Casey is more accepted at school (with various papers talking about his extraterrestrial encounter, despite the official denial of the FBI), and Delilah is no longer vindictive. In the background of the final scene, students are seen bullying another student in the same way they picked on Casey. During the credits, it is seen that Mr. Furlong has survived, although missing one of his eyes.

Review:

This ship and edgy thriller, sci-fi horror film from the director of From Dusk Till Dawn and the writer of Scream 1 & 2 sizzle with a hot young cast including Elijah Wood Josh Hartnett, and R&B Superstar Usher Raymond ! When some very creepy things start happening around school, the teens at Herrington High make 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 the students' bodies, its ultimately up to the few who are left - an unlikely collection of loners, leaders, nerds, and jocks - to save the world from alien domination. This is pretty much the typical slasher, with just one twist. It's also helped by the fact that there's other things going on than just a bunch of killings; there are conflicts between the characters from the very beginning, before the killing starts. This is pretty unique for a slasher, and it definitely helps the film become more interesting. The plot is interesting, well, more interesting than slasher plots usually are. The acting is pretty much all very good, the actors nearly all give top-notch performances. The special effects are good, and mostly pretty convincing. I've heard a lot of people complain that this movie is a ripoff of the Carpenter classic "The Thing". While that film is the better of the two, this is by no means a simple ripoff. The plot in this is not the same, there are just a few striking similarities. I would rather think of it as a reference, something to honor Carpenter's abilities - Rodriguez was inspired by Carpenter, after all. I would recommend this to pretty much anyone who enjoys slasher movies, sci-fi flicks, or crossovers of the two genres. It's very enjoyable; the only thing I hated was that they had casted Elijah "babyface" Wood in one of the leads... oh well. You can't always enjoy all aspects of a film. Robert Rodriguez's directing and editing is very fantastic but it is Kevin Williamson's sharp script that steals the show. I hate when people say it's biting off of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing among other titles...but that's one reason why I like Kevin Williamson's writing. I like the pop culture references he throws in there because it gives the film the right amount of humor. Bristling with atmosphere, issues, and surprises, "The Faculty" qualifies as a witty, rip-snorting, reptilian chiller that never takes itself seriously. Good paranoid thrillers that keep audiences guessing up to fade out are few and far between. Indeed, the characters get the short shrift, but action rather than characterization propels "The Faculty" to its nail-biting finale. Nevertheless, the filmmakers offset the lack of character development with cinematic and literary references to genre classics. Stokely and Casey engage in an illuminating colloquy about sci-fi literature and point out that Robert Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters" beats Jack Finney's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to the book racks. On the other hand, they reveal that Hollywood has exploited Finney more frequently than Heinlein. Even if you abhor horror movies, you might be able to tolerate this playful, well-paced hellraiser. While The Faculty is no Scream, it is still a very, very entertaining, funny and thrilling film that's worth watching more than once!

Rate: 3.5/10
:khead:

[Friday The 13th]

Nice review, Glad you reviewed this film.
I would give it like a 5/10...
I actually liked it... well I mean its not a bad film.
For some reason I keep coming back for more even though it's not the best flick.

[FreddysFingers]

A lot of people shit on this movie but it's actually pretty good. It's more sci-fi than anything. But that scene when all the football players were standing in the rain with their tentacles hanging out always gave me the creeps.

[Zach]

A lot of people shit on this movie but it's actually pretty good. It's more sci-fi than anything. But that scene when all the football players were standing in the rain with their tentacles hanging out always gave me the creeps.

yes very true... :eg:

[Zach]

Okay I also like to add that I think this is a cheesy film but entertaining ."The Faculty" is a predictable like other horror movies but fun sci-fi/horror movie written by "Scream" writer Kevin Williamson (from a story written by two other guys). "The Faculty" is not in the same league as "Scream", but I had a good time watching this movie. It's about six high students who find out that there's some odd behavior among their teachers. They begin to suspect that they've become aliens and are planning to conquer the world. The six teens team up and try to stop them. The special effects are just so-so, but the thing I liked best about "The Faculty" are the performances by both the young actors and the older actors. Elijah Wood, Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett, and Shawn Hatosy are all very good and they're alot of fun to watch. I'm sure you'll be seeing these six actors in years to come. As for the veteran actors, they steal their scenes whenever they're on screen. You couldn't ask for a better group of actors to play the faculty than Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick, and Jon Stewart. "The Faculty" may not be original, but since the movie is so much fun, I didn't care. It's cheesy, but entertaining.

[FreddysFingers]

I just found out that Rodriguez was basically a gun-for-hire when he made this. The producers told him that if he directed this movie... they would give him the greenlight to make Spy Kids.