This is part of a new feature, where I pick a film from my collection that I haven’t seen in a while, wipe the dust off the DVD cover, and see if it’s stood the test of time. Today I pick, The Faculty.

The Faculty is a high school ‘creature feature’ directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Famke Jansen, Selma Hyak, Jon Stewart and Robert Patrick.

The basic synopsis is that a group of students suspect the local high school is being gradually taken over by aliens. Nobody believes them until it’s too late, so they have to take action themselves.

Like Scream was a homage to the slasher genre, this film is a homage to the b-movie genre. And like Scream there are whole load of self-references to this genre scattered throughout the film. The most notable comparison being to the similarities it shares with Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

When this was released in 1998, the actors were all fairly well known but could probably be classed as C-list actors. Fast forward a few years later and the majority are all now firmly in the A or B-list and have some really big blockbusters under their belt. The casting is absolutely superb and I think this is one of the main reasons why this movie works.

On its own the story is pretty mediocre, but the characters are so good that it keeps it from becoming what would ordinarily be a straight to DVD film. Robert Rodriguez has taken the horror ‘tribute’ genre of the late nineties – something that was already starting to wear thin – and managed to keep it fresh and watchable.

So without waffling on too much I suggest you search this one out, you won’t be disappointed. This is definitely one of those movies you should add to your collection. You’ll find it really holds up to repeat viewings.