Review: Back in the late 90's there was alot of horror films with hot young stars and even some singers like hip hop artist Busta Rhymes. The Faculty is one of those films, but in my eyes it was one that truly did bring some good scares and even some pretty good acting. The best way to describe a film like The Faculty in the easiest way would be The Breakfast Club meets The Invasion of the Body Snatchers with a very cool alien monster. To some that seems like an odd combination but it works well together. Now let's get into this review and see what The Faulty has to offer.
The Faculty follows a mismatch group of teens that team up to find out who and what is taking over their school.After several bizarre incidents of other teachers being attacked and after finding an odd creature on the football field the group is convinced that something alien has taken over their school. If they don't stop it in time it could take over much more than their school or community, it could take over the world.
Robert Rodriguez truly has hit a home run of fright with this film. He basically took the classic body snatcher or pod people theme and made it more geared towards teens. Even though he did do that he did not cut back on the violence or gore just to get a PG-13 rating like most director's would do nowadays. Now this is during the time when people were still doing alot of practical effects but mixing them with computer effects. To me that works well in this film because the CGI does not look that bad and mixes well. I even like that they didn't cheap out and do the final alien monster in all CGI instead they did some parts in CGI and some also in practical.
The other shining part of this film is the cast. You have Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings Trilogy), Josh Hartnett (30 Days of Night), Salma Hayek (Desperado), Piper Laurie (Carrie), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgement Day), and the list goes on and on. With an all-star cast like that you seriously can't go wrong. It's not like when they put an all star cast together nowadays just to put people in seats (ie New Years Eve). Instead it's because they all truly have talent, even Josh Hartnett who can be hit or miss was great.
Overall this was a great film that I see as appealing to fans of horror films centered around teens and even those who just love a good sci-fi film. It's so well rounded I can see why this film has stood the test of time and continues to get attention from all types of horror fans and film fans. Now I do know thatEcho Bridge has had some failures on their blu releases, but I want to reassure you that this film does look great on blu-ray. The picture is pretty damn clear and doesn't look like it was scrubbed down hard with DNR or torn up with edge enhancement. It still looks the same way I remember seeing it in theaters many years back. There is no special features which sucks, but I don't really care much as long as I have this film in HD. Besides that it's a budget title that you can usually pick up from best buy for $5.99. how can you beat that?!
-Daniel "Damnation" Lee
Director:Robert Rodriguez
Genre: Horror/Sci-fi
Blu-Ray Release Year: 2012
Theatrical Release Year: 1999
Time Length: 105 mins.
Company: Miramax/Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Website:
www.echobridgehe.com
