Chad

MysterioMan007

This is one of my favorite late-90's horror movies. To start with, Robert Rodriguez is usually on point with any thing he does. Kevin Williamson was at the heght of his career. The cast is great, although I felt Shawn Hatosy was woefully miscast. But, The Breakfast Club and Invasion of the Body Snatchers have always been two of my favorite movies. This movie is basically those two combined and it makes for a very fun movie in my opinion. One of my favorites.

Trevor

Yes!

Toddarino

Noonan

Add me to the list of fans. Haven't seen it in years but I used to watch this one every year in October.

Undeadcow

I am also a fan of The Faculty (who isn't?). Some of the humor is great, like the existential football captain who just wants to D he earned. The soundtrack is nicely ironic and suited for the film, mostly featuring 90s popular rock bands covering older era popular rock songs. The new girl is a great twist that should be predictable but somehow is not. The Faculty was the film that we needed in 1998, when horror was starting to get questionable in the years that immediate followed Scream (1996).

I think The Faculty's biggest problem is that as an analogy it's too thin, the unconforming new blood versus the establishment is about as general as it gets which I suppose makes it a classic formula that nicely taps into teen angst but perhaps pandering too much to it. (Although having the new girl as the lead alien is a nice twist of that trope. that maybe the establishment is changing too much for new people [?]). I love and hate how much it reminds me of those classic 'My Teacher Flunked the Planet,' etc books by Bruce Coville (which were not original either). If they want to remake Body Snatchers / The Thing every year that's ok by me.

The drug twist is an oddity - that Zeke is peddling a vague drug that is the deus ex machina for killing the aliens. Is there a subversive inference that the establish just needs to meth out more else they turn into brain slugs? Probably not, but ‘drugs are the true hero of our scifi high school epic’ is perhaps too provocative of a thread for such a mainstream film – nicely kicking back at the pitfalls of a drug resistance education obsessed school system but with maybe too little subtlety.

The aliens have some great creature effects with them crawling out the pores, gruesome stuff.

Zeke joining the football team at the end seems odd, he suddenly fits in now? He defeated literal conformity aliens so can now fit in better himself? I guess it shows character development.

Gobear

Koby

Loved this movie back in the day and I still like it even now.

numbercrunch

Well, mark me down as liking The Faculty, but not loving it. The story is good, the characters are good, but the 90s CGI is not good.

6.5/10

TheBigDave

I love this movie. It's a lot of fun. Really fast paced. And it's got a great cast.

wishbone

It has been awhile since I have seen this movie but I remembered quite a bit. The CGI has not aged well but a fun movie and a nice rewatch!

I recall The Daily Show showing a clip from The Faculty when Jon turns into a baddie and he was getting some ribbing on his performance.

Hokeyboy

I still think the movie is garbage, but it seems I'm in the minority.

WillieMLF

I'm not really sure how I missed this one, but I was confusing it with that Tom Berenger movie, The Substitute. I put this in my queue a few months back from all of the good word of mouth. It really didn't disappoint and I'm glad we got to watch it.

Undeadcow

The Faculty is not without problems; what makes you feel like it's 'garbage'?

Koby

Definitely my favorite Josh Hartnett film and imo his character really stole the show for me.

PhantomStranger

Fun movie. It doesn't take itself super seriously but delivers the right amount of thrills. Decent cast for a late 90s horror film.

jacob_b

Insane amount of talent in this movie. Shocked it never got into "cult classic" status like Dazed and Confused for horror films. Only bad thing, this audio on this was awful And had no closed captions.

clckworang

I'll always have a soft spot for this movie because I went to a premiere of this when I was living in Austin. I don't think I've seen it since then. I can't believe how long ago that was! It was a really fun experience, but I remember liking but not loving it back then. I actually think I liked it a lot more now, but again, I think a lot of it could have to do with the nostalgia factor.

I couldn't help but think back on that night and remembered so many little things about that I hadn't thought about in so long. I remember Robert Rodriguez being there and a Q&A after the film (what was asked, I can't remember at all) and that there was a drawing that night immediately after the film for Zeke's car. Everyone at the theater that night was eligible. They told us about it before the movie started and that we should scream, yell and cheer whenever the car was on the screen. Of course, everyone obliged. A woman ended up winning the car. I remember her saying that she had a son who was just getting his license and had been debating a car.

I actually was thinking back so much about that premiere experience that I went searching for anything that I might still have from that night. I'm very surprised I wasn't able to find the old ticket stub, but I was able to find the program that was passed out. I just took pictures of it with my phone. There's not really much to it, but I thought some of you might get a kick of looking at it. I can scan it if there's interest. I don't know how to resize these pics, so I just put spoiler tags around them.

clckworang

I forgot to mention anything about the cast. They really got their hands on some great actors, especially on the teacher side. And the students had some good names as well. I just think it's interesting looking back at the cast and expectations of many of them from that time. Then you see the direction they've all gone. Yes, Elijah Wood has starred in some of the biggest movies ever made thanks to Lord of the Rings, yet he's now settled into more TV, and I don't think people would consider him a big box office star. Clea DuVall was in so much during this time. She has always stayed pretty consistent with work, but I always expected her to really break out in something. I don't mean in the lead of a box office behemoth but something more actor (yes, that should be read in a loud pretentious voice). Oddly enough, Josh Hartnett has ended up having one of the more interesting careers of the bunch. Glancing at his IMDB, you can see how he was being groomed to be a big star, but again, he never seemed to fully break out on his own, despite having some big budget moneymakers and working with some really good talent. I'd almost say the same about Robert Rodriguez. Expectations for him at this time were incredibly high. He has had some all right movies, definitely made some money, but I don't think he has lived up to the expectations many had for him after El Mariachi. He keeps getting big-budget chances, though.

Trevor

That’s pretty cool clock! Did you go to that premiere party with those celebs?

PhantomStranger

Hartnett turned down many movies when his career was going good and eventually Hollywood got fed up with it.

jacob_b

Ugh seemed like it was my computer with the issues. I've got 3 computers for work. Just tried the playback on another laptop and volume is fine. Might have to give this another go later on.

Undeadcow

That's a great story, thank you for posting. I use to live in Austin too and there were a lot of great opportunities for stuff like that that I never took advantage of.

clckworang

We did. As I remember it, they introduced the people and then they didn't stay around for too much longer after that. But it was still fun for me and my friend to go.

Yeah, I went to a number of cool screenings, some of them surprise me. As I was going through ticket stubs and little programs from that time, I had a few, "Whoa, I went to that?!" moments. Hell, The Faculty itself was one of those for me. I miss having those opportunities where I live. It's pretty small potatoes here, but there were some amazing moments, like a screening of Easy Rider at the Austin Music Hall being delayed so that the sun would go down and then Anne Richards coming right before the start to sit with Dennis Hopper. William Friedkin premiered the restored print of The French Connection at the Alamo Drafthouse (back when there was only one!) and during the Q&A called someone up from the audience. My friend and I turn back to discover Quentin Tarantino was sitting just a couple of rows behind us. Fun moments. Damn. Now I feel old.