The Faculty

Several scenes involving an additional character named Venus, played by Kidada Jones, were shown in TV previews for the film, as well as in Tommy Hilfiger promotional commercials for the movie,[12] but her scenes were cut from the final film. She is visible in a scene in the theatrical version, standing next to Gabe (Usher) in Mr. Furlong's (Jon Stewart) science class when they are looking at the "new species" in the aquarium.

The Faculty was released in several countries on Blu-ray, including Canada on October 6, 2009, by Alliance; in Australia on September 1, 2011, by Reel; in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2011, by Lionsgate, in Germany on October 6, 2011, by Studio Canal; in France on January 10, 2012, by Studio Canal; and in the United States on July 31, 2012, by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment. Lionsgate re-issued the Blu-ray version in the United States on October 7, 2014, after Echo Bridge lost the rights to the Miramax films.[13] Home media for The Faculty do not include traditional extras provided for other Robert Rodriguez films, such as a "10 Minute Film School" feature, audio commentary, and making-of featurettes.

The Faculty was viewed on 2,365 screens on its opening weekend, debuting at No. 5 in the US and making $11,633,495.[14] Its eventual US gross was $40.3 million.[1] Its debut below commercial expectations has been partly credited to the studio's decision to release the movie on Christmas Day, a time when audiences are likelier to watch traditional dramas or feel-good fare.[14] In retrospect, Jordana Brewster said:

It was sort of the inverse of Fast and Furious, right? So with The Fast and Furious, I was like, "This is a small movie about cars. It's a really fun summer project." ... With The Faculty it was like, "You guys, this is gonna be huge. Look at all these successes around us," like She's All That and Scream. ... And then it turned out it wasn't so huge. We thought it was gonna be massive ... But it was a cult classic so that's really cool.[15]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Faculty holds an approval rating of 56% based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 5.70/10. The site's critics consensus called the film a "Rip-off of other sci-fi thrillers."[16] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[18]

Positive reviews at the time praised Kevin Williamson's self-aware script and trademark meta humor that included references to iconic science-fiction films.[19] In a review for Variety, Dennis Harvey wrote, "The Faculty works hard at mixing a canny cocktail of cineastic in-jokes, affectionate teenploitation and high-octane suspense that’s as enjoyable as it is impossible to take seriously."[20] Harvey added that Williamson and Robert Rodriguez combine to "make a complete lack of socially redeeming value seem so much fun that 'The Faculty' might well become a pulp classic".[20] Charles Taylor of Salon called the film "subversive" and said "its honest, good-natured junkiness… feels like a relief".[21] He appreciated the film's homages to genre movies including Carrie (1976), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and Blue Velvet (1986) while also citing the character of Stokely as the standout amongst the teen archetypes.[21]

Michael Sauter of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a grade of B− and expressed a wish that the film had used the faculty characters more.[22] In contrast, Tom Sinclair, also of EW, gave the film a C+ and said Williamson has become "too invested in the earnestness of teen angst to portray it in the scathing parodistic terms a hip horror movie demands".[23] The New York Times gave a mostly negative review but praised the cast.[24] The Austin Chronicle awarded the film 3.5 stars and said, "While it may suffer a bit from excess character clutter (nearly 10 major characters throughout), it's nonetheless a slam-bang, sci-fi actioner, relentlessly paced and edited, with a pounding soundtrack and some ingenious aliens courtesy of Bernie Wrightson and KNB Effects."[25]

In subsequent years, various critics have written about The Faculty's impact.[26][27] Aliya Whiteley wrote, "It's all about examining the tropes of science fiction with a smart, funny angle. Half of the fun in this film is in identifying where you first came across a certain character's name or saw a particular special effect. For instance, there's a brilliant moment with a head on legs that I defy you to watch and not think of a certain John Carpenter film." Whiteley concluded, "The Faculty is very definitely a big mess of a movie. But if you love all things sci-fi, it's a good mess."[28] Keith Phipps described the film as "a Kevin Williamson-scripted high-school variation on Invasion Of The Body Snatchers."[29] Haleigh Foutch considered it one of the most iconic 1990s teen horror films: "Yet another win from 90s teen screenwriter in chief Kevin Williamson, The Faculty fused Williamson's knack for snappy teen drama with Robert Rodriguez's subversive camp to fantastic results. It's smart without ever taking itself too seriously and campy without ever losing its cool, drawing proudly from the tradition of classic alien invasion movies and casting them in the 90s teen tradition."[30]

The film has been praised for its portrayal of teenage alienation, especially within the high school environment and its system of cliques and social roles.[31][32] In particular, the alien invasion through parasitized bodies has been recognized as functioning as a metaphor for those concepts, reflecting the fear of losing one's nascent individuality to a crowd.[32][33] The alien queen encapsulates this by offering the heroes a world without alienation or differences, in which "everything that is both wonderful and awful about being a teenager is done away in favor of blind allegiance".[34]

Experts also noted in The Faculty a reinvention of the fear of female sexuality often found in the horror genre.[35][36] The character of Marybeth, the alien queen, is "a complex imbrication of woman, alien and power" that acts beyond the role of femme fatale.[36] She masquerades as a virginal, unassuming girl clad in floral dresses, but at the final battle she reveals her true sexual threat, becoming nude by her alien transformation and turning confident and flirtatious.[36] Her role as a threatening, castrating agent is underlined by the sharp teeth of her species, which evoke a vagina dentata, and their association to water, the archaic, womb-like female element.[37] As the monstrous mother of her race, she tries to seduce the heroes by offering them a symbolic return to the womb.[38] As Sharon Packer and Jody Pennington put it:

The image on the screen is dual: we see the beautiful, young, naked Marybeth strolling around looking for Casey, and the shadow of the monstrous form in the walls. Marybeth delivers a speech which ties the elements of the movie together. It is about the "world" she came from and its promises of "paradise" for lost and lonely humans, trapped in high-school "hell".[39]

The character of Miss Burke precedes Marybeth in the same line, revealing her hidden sexuality only after being infected and turned into a monster. The scene of her detached, tentacled head in particular echoes the Freudian Medusa head.[40][36] The monstrous feminine is therefore used in the film to reflect the teenage characters entering adult world, where they are forced to "come to terms with female sexuality and overcome their fear of its 'monstrous' aspects in order to become fully functioning adults".[38] Casey, the male character closest to his softer, feminine side, is the final hero of the film.[41]

The film was nominated for a total of eight awards, including an ALMA Award for director Robert Rodriguez, 2 Saturn Awards, 2 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and 3 Teen Choice Awards, but did not win any.