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The Faculty
Dimension Films
Starring Elijah Wood, Jon Stewart, Etc.
Rated:R
106 Minutes
On Video 6/15/99

I never really enjoyed the "teen horror" films that have(or, a better word now might be "did") populate theaters over the past couple of years. I didn't find the "Scream" series enjoyable because there was simply too much gore. I appreciate films where there may be violence, but it's more subtle: we may hear, but not see it, etc. In other words, the kind of technique "The X-Files" sometimes uses, or in this genre, the style that director Jim Gilespie chose to use for the first in the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" series.

In my opinion, the first "Summer" still stands out as the best of this genre, a straight-out, swiftly paced and intense scare that may not have been entirely original, but it was still certainly a good piece of entertainment. "The Faculty" is the same teen formula that has been used in the "slasher" films, transplanted into a "sci-fi" storyline where the kids of a high school suspect that their teachers have been possessed by aliens. A storyline any high school kid can identify with because, who hasn't thought, at one point or another, that their teacher must be from another planet?

With direction by Robert Rodriquez and writing by Kevin Williamson, it seems like a perfect team at the helm, but unfortunately, the film is slow going for the first half, not choosing to slowly build in intensity from the first moments like the first "Summer" did. Worse, it doesn't have the performances that that film did. The actors here give bland performances that do nothing to help the forward movement, or lack of one. All this film is supposed to be is basic entertainment: how can we be entertained if the people on-screen don't look like they're having the least bit of fun?.


Unfortunately as well, the pop-culture references that "Scream" played with are also back. Where that film used them in a clever manner, this picture doesn't seem to know what to do with them and they hit the ground with a rather loud thud each and every time. The dialogue by Williamson, as well as the characters he has created here, are unintelligent and uninteresting stereotypes.

The film finally picks up the pace towards the end with a decent twist and turn and a few remotely effective scares, but by this point, it's too little, too late for a film that is fairly empty and one-dimensional. It's not nearly as bad as the second entry in the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" series(what is?), but it's still a long trip from being a successful picture. I've recently started occasionally watching "Dawson's Creek", the TV series produced by Williamson and I've found it quite good. Hopefully one day he'll decide to put away the horror films for a while and write the kind of stronger characters and dialogue that can be found in "Creek".

* 1/2