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The Faculty
(dir.: Robert Rodriquez)
This film can be typically defined as Breakfast Club meets Puppet Masters. Unlike Breakfast Club, there is a deeper level of the characters involved in The Faculty than just a silly teen melodrama. It is a cast of characters pitted against a fear of assimilation, not that of defying authority. It is not the subject of vanity or fitting in the crowd like so many other teen movies, or having super powers that make you special (like Lost Boys or The Craft), but that of survival and the preservation of autonomy.
The characters are assembled by the artificial categories often made in films about high school: a criminal, a jock, a misfit, a nerd, the popular girl, and the new girl in school. Each slowly becomes aware of an alien entity that seemingly has taken over the faculty of their high school. Their differences gradually fade, as their ideologies begin to crumble under the assimilation of their fellow student body.
The movie is rather tame for a Rodriguez feature, but it details a depth not seen in any film that he has made. Kevin Williamson (writer of Scream and Dawson’s Creek) scripted the film, breathing new life into a type of horror/sci-fi theme (aliens taking over the planet via our bodies).
