Faculty, The MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +1 Content: -3

In this kind of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS remake, Elijah Wood stars as an unpopular teenager, Casey, who discovers an unknown parasite organism on the football field. He soon realizes this parasite is an alien species that is attempting to takeover the bodies of the faculty and students in his small-town Ohio school. He tries to warn his parents and the police, but they dont believe him and the town falls victim to the parasites. As the towns last hope, Casey and five other students, who have not yet been infected by the alien parasite, devise a plan to kill the queen alien and thus destroy all of them. This highly predictable thriller has produce an equally predictable low box office return. It relies on cheap thrills and cartoonish gore to make up for a lacking script.

Redeeming qualities in THE FACULTY are almost nonexistent. The filmmakers do manage to refrain from sexually offensive material, and depict the supposed nice-guy loser as the eventual hero. But the amount of blood and gore is disturbing, with pens being shoved into eyes, fingers hacked off with a paper-cutter blade, gunshot to the head, a woman being hacked to death with scissors, parasites jumping into peoples ears, and oozing and spurting of blood and alien goo from bodies. The obscenity and profanity are no better, with 52 f-words, 18 s-words, and 14 regular profanities. The film also gives an extremely pessimistic view of teenagers, education, and life in general. The teachers are apathetic, the Kids use drugs and could care less about school, and the school board is more concerned about football than education. THE FACULTYS gratuitous violent content, obscene and profane language, and negative subject content are disturbing and offensive.

Preview Reviewer: Cliff McNeely
Distributor: Miramax Films, 375 Greenwich, NY, NY, 19913