Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6330 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-05-06
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 104 minutes

From Amazon.com
Okay, you knew everyone in high school was just a little different: everyone looked at you strangely, the teachers were freaky, and you never could find the right groove to fit into. What if it turned out that it was all because your school was inhabited by creepy aliens from outer space? That's the enjoyably cheesy B-premise for this fun and scary flick from the pen of Scream's Kevin Williamson, the master of the post-modern teen horror film. Directed by Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi), it's The Breakfast Club meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as six disparate students from Herrington High School band together when they discover that an alien life form is invading both the student and faculty bodies, with plans to take over the world.

Each of the heroes represents a different high school type: popular babe (Jordana Brewster), picked-on geek (Elijah Wood), goth girl (Clea DuVall), sensitive jock (Shawn Hatosy), new kid in town (Laura Harris), and bad-boy rebel (Josh Hartnett). The plot isn't much--a basic kill-or-be-killed premise spiked with a healthy shot of paranoia--but Willliamson and Rodriguez do a great job of building the tension slowly but surely. The suspense set pieces are genuinely frightening, and the film pokes fun at itself without deflating its scares; Williamson is a master at shifting gears from comedy to horror quickly and adroitly. The young cast doesn't have a weak link among them (with special kudos to Wood, DuVall and heartthrob-in-the-making Hartnett), and Rodriguez gets maximum mileage from the titular faculty, which includes Jon Stewart, Piper Laurie, Salma Hayek, Bebe Neuwirth, and Robert Patrick of Terminator 2. Go to the head of the class, Mr. Williamson. --Mark Englehart

Chronique amazon.fr
Il nous avait déjà conquis avec ses deux films, Desperado et Une nuit en enfer. Le réalisateur Robert Rodriguez s'y révélait un maître de l'angoisse. Sa recette : donner à ses oeuvres des accents de gentille comédie qui vire vite à l'horreur. Mais une horreur soft, plutôt dans le style sueurs froides et suspense efficace. Ici, c'est encore le cas : avec The Faculty, Robert Rodriguez nous en met plein la vue, se libérant sur les effets spéciaux, à la fois magnifiques et effrayants. Au générique : l'égérie du réalisateur, la bombe Salma Hayek, vite détrônée par les héros du film, une bande de lycéens dont la mission est de résister à une invasion d'aliens. Le scénario, truffé de rebondissements, est signé Kevin Williamson, auteur de Scream, Halloween et de Souviens-toi l'été dernier. Les ados adoreront. --Pierre Valéry