The Faculty (1998)

 Football coach, Robert Patrick, is outraged at his quarterback for seeming to be distracted, not anticipating someone with an alien creature ready to take possession of him through his ear. Piper Laurie seems like a harmless, meek teacher startling frustrated principal, Bebe Neuwirth, who must deprive the budgets of her other faculty in order to keep the football program funded, with a pair of scissors after Neuwirth is able to avoid Patrick. Then the school nurse, Salma Hayek, with her runny nose (I thought this was funny; the sick nurse always at school), is attacked by Patrick and Laurie in the faculty lounge while two students (Wood and Brewster) are hidden in a closet. Once the faculty is taken over pod alien-style, the students are gradually "occupied" by these slug-like invaders. Then goes the football team, spreading the alien slug-like creatures to the rival team during a big championship game. Eventually there is a small group of teenagers, who wouldn't typically assemble together in school, who must band together and find a way to stop the aliens and somehow reverse what has besieged their small town.

Continuing to watch films of the 90s with my daughter, The Faculty (1998) was definitely one of them I looked forward to revisiting. I was hoping to catch it on HULU, but it is actually currently on the Showtime Networks. I found it on a double feature with Phantoms (1998), but because these two films are Miramax, it was part of those very inexpensive DVD sets released by Echo Bridge. I didn't do enough research to get a better edition of the film. I actually saw this in theaters with my wife of only a few months. It was just fucking fun. But let's be honest: this just rips off the classics without a concern at all in how much its influences are right there on screen. I mean Famke Jannsen's head walking around on alien octopus tentacles towards her body after Josh Hartnett wrecks his muscle car into a bus, slinging teach out of the back seat and through the windshield...yeah, can you just say, "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me." The teachers "receiving" alien slug-shaped creatures in their ears, burrowing under the skin, causing their human hosts to behave practically without their personalities...sort of similar to pod people, I'd say! And Kevin Williamson's script seems influenced by John Hughes by clearly identifying his stereotypes by introducing them, with Robert Rodriguez actually freezing the screen and dropping each main character's name on screen for extra effect. 

So with Elijah Wood as the bullied nerd (surprise, surprise!) crotched by asshole football players into the flagpole (or smacked in the nose by one of their elbows), Clea DuVall's Emo loner (wearing all black, with black nails, lipstick, and eyeliner) who is considered lesbian (and she just goes with it), Shawn Hatosy as the popular high school quarterback (who would prefer to focus on his studies instead of sports), Hartnett as the booksmart chemistry wiz (who uses his knowledge to perfect a certain kind of drug carried in the tubes of ink pens while selling a variety of goods from the back of his car and acting all too cool for school in order to not fall into Wood's nerd group), and Jordana Brewster as the It girl in her high school with fashion advice for those peers gathered in her circle, a snap remark at anyone she deems uncool, and an opinion for everything even if no one asked for it. Laura Harris is the new girl in the school from Atlanta, complete with the accent and sunny attitude (and smile), warmly offering friendship to the likes of DuVall and Hartnett.

I'm a sucker for the "Breakfast Club Vs. Invasion of the Body Snatchers" mishmash of genres plot. The Faculty doesn't even try to pretend to by anything more than what you see on screen. It is late 90s updating, sort of the "fresh coat of paint" director Rodriguez and writer Williamson provide to the ole familiars that exist in pop culture, applying the 1998 versions of the different caricatures of 80s high school recognizable characters. You can really see similarities between Estevez of "Breakfast Club" and Hatosy of "The Faculty", football players wanting something more in life besides what they are expected to represent. Clea of "The Faculty" and Sheedy of "The Breakfast Club" certainly share specific similarities, in regards to misunderstood outcasts. And Wood of "The Faculty" and Michael Hall of "The Breakfast Club" endure harsh treatment undeservedly just because they might be smarter than their high school jock douchebags. I think you could see some of Judd Nelson in Hartnett, but Hartnett doesn't have the baggage of a drunk father burning cigarettes into his arm, nor does he constantly belittle everyone around him. The inclusion of sexual tension between Janssen and Hartnett is a bit yikes considering teacher-student relationships are generally seen as a big nope unless it is fetishized in porn (or Slutty Confessions on Reddit). Patrick as the intense football coach who goes through an alteration when taken over by alien slug-like creatures even gets to bring back the Terminator fast-walk. Neuwirth goes from cost-cutting conservative to foxy principal with quite the sultry walk. And Piper goes from timid and nervous, kind of hunched over, to straight-backed, confident, and poised. Christopher McDonald is yet another prick adult ordering around Wood (as his son), not happy at all he was called to school to verify one of the teachers isn't dead in the faculty lounge closet.

The couplings that come because of surviving the big bad alien queen monster -- yep, there is a queen that needs to be killed in order for her offspring to die as she does, since the lifeforms are linked to her despite being apart possessing others -- does follow the Hughes formula, too. So if you like all the influences, I feel like this film will appeal to you. And the nostalgia factor certainly, I'm sure, has retained a sizable affection for it. 4/5

***John Stewart as the science teacher was always such a nifty casting choice considering what he would become after it. And his death is probably one of the most epic of the film, including a pen to the eye and fingers cut off with these strands that can attach to a body in order for the creature to gain better access to the host. But, the special effects are very much of their time, so the big bad alien queen doesn't have a very elaborate form future creatures were afforded later on. A highlight to me is a naked Harris in the gym lockers reminding me of Wendy Lyon in "Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II" (1987)***

***What "The Faculty" does that "The Breakfast Club" also did I was never a fan of was having DuVall change her entire look just like Sheedy, leaving behind what made her particularly unique for this bland "normal" dress. Not everyone considers the Emo lifestyle artificial or some costume and disguise. Plenty of them feel their most comfortable dressed in black or darker tones.***