Any movie that bears even the slightest of similarities to an earlier and more successful spiritual successor is in danger of being tarred with the dreaded “ripoff” brush, but we can all agree that The Faculty deserves to be put on its own pedestal.
At the time of the cult classic’s original 1998 release, critics were quick to beat Robert Rodriguez’s sorely underrated psychological sci-fi horror to a great deal of John Carpenter’s back catalogue – with The Thing at the top of the list – as well as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Carrie, and Scream. The latter does sort of hold water, though, seeing as both were penned by Kevin Williamson.
A sleeper hit at the time, The Faculty ended up snagging a decent $63 million at the box office on a $15 million budget, but it was on home video where it really took off. Proving that no amount of technological advances can disprove the notion that popularity is cyclical, the gnarly descent into gore-fueled madness has circled back around on-demand.
Per FlixPatrol, The Faculty has assimilated a new host, this time the iTunes global charts. Looking back, the cast is insanely stacked with such luminaries as Josh Hartnett, Clea DuVall, Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Christopher McDonald, Robert Patrick, Usher, Jon Stewart, and Elijah Wood, all of whom give as good as they get in the twisted tale of a sneaky alien invasion unfolding at a high school.
It’s been 25 years and people still love The Faculty, so we’re not expecting things to change at any point in the near future.