Last Updated on October 12, 2021
Nice to see you again, fans of the cinema! This is the Face-Off, where two movies enter and both movies leave, but one leaves in a slightly better light. Yes, here we take two competitors and compare their key elements and see who comes out the champion. It's a fierce competition that results in blood, tears, and online arguments, but the more brutal the battle, the sweeter the victory.
This week sees the release of the fourth outing in the MEN IN BLACK series — MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL. The movie teases plenty of sci-fi, alien-driven humor and action, which can be all sorts of fun if done right. In the spirit of all things fun and alien, we will be looking back at two very different kinds of movies that also had fun times with alien invasions, but on a much more terrifying level. That's right, it's time for a deadly bout in alien mayhem with THE FACULTY vs. SLITHER.
The first movie hails from writer Kevin Williamson and writer Robert Rodriguez, both of whom had been coming off hits of their own that helped define the 90s style. Together they cranked out a movie brimming with inspirations from horror and alien movies of the past but placing it in the high school setting that audiences were flocking towards. Eight years later James Gunn made his directorial debut with the 2006 movie SLITHER, which also took heavy inspiration from horror movies of the past, with the director delivering a movie that's violent, gross and endlessly entertaining.
Both movies embrace all sorts of scares and violence and make alien invasions seem like a freaky blast, but now it's time to blast off and see which does alien terror the best.
Josh Hartnett as Zeke Tyler
Elijah Wood as Casey Connor
Jordana Brewster as Delilah Profitt
Clea DuVall as Stokely Mitchell
Laura Harris as Marybeth Hutchinson
Shawn Hatosy as Stan Rosado
Robert Patrick as Coach Willis
Famke Janssen as Miss Burke
Jon Stewart as Mr. Furlong
Usher Raymond as Gabe
Bebe Neuwirth as Principal Drake
Salma Hayek as Nurse Harper
Daniel von Bargen as Mr. Tate
Elizabeth Banks as Starla Grant
Nathan Fillion as Bill Pardy
Michael Rooker as Grant Grant
Tania Saulnier as Kylie Strutemyer
Gregg Henry as Jack MacReady
Jenna Fischer as Shelby Cunningham
Don Thompson as Wally
Robert Rodriguez was coming off a string of solid low-budget flicks like EL MARIACHI, FROM DUSK TIL DAWN and DESPERADO – all having cool, slick vibes with strong action and (in DAWN's case) freakiness. Compared to his early work, THE FACULTY is his most tame movie but also shows him stepping out of his comfort zone. He gets that sense of teen alienation (*wink wink*) from Kevin Williamson's script, and proves to be the man for the job when it comes to bringing out the bloody, scary elements, mixing it with genre flavors from the worlds of horror and action flicks. One-liners abound and he has everyone in the cast pushing things to the extreme to give the high school setting a bit of rebelliousness so that it's not simply BREAKFAST CLUB-meets-THE THING (though that's certainly there). If it feels like Rodriguez isn't working to his full potential, it's because, until the end when it gets really wild it doesn't quite feel like his own movie. Rather, it feels like he was brought on so that the Weinstein's could find someone reliable to try and recapture the glory of SCREAM. So, yeah, he does a fine job with the material and gives everything that needed edge just that, but if you were to recall any number of quintessential Rodriguez movies to define his style, this wouldn't exactly be up at the top.
While James Gunn may now be known as the guy behind GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, his early career was bathed in blood, surrealness and genuine shock (yes, those SCOOBY-DOO movies are weird as f**k). If any movie or project of his sums up everything he was about over a decade ago, all fingers should be pointed to SLITHER, which is exactly how a directorial debut should function. His work here is fast-paced, gratuitous, lacking in any sense of subtlety and is just gleefully bonkers. He doesn't hold back in any regard and trusted his actors to do the same – especially Rooker and Banks – who got the heaviest lifting to do. Ultimately Gunn's vision hinges on giving audiences a movie that forces them to become awash in grotesque, bloody imagery across a single movie that has influences from all over the horror world. You got classic alien invasion storylines like THE THING (even sporting some excellent creature makeup like Carpenter's version), NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, zombie flicks, and more. This movie is his ultimate love letter to the genre that also benefits from his blunt, quick wit, and its no wonder why after his debut behind the camera all the doors flung open for him.
Originally from writers David Wechter and Bruce Kimmel, their 1990 script was eventually picked up by the Weinstein's and given over to SCREAM's Kevin Williamson, who kept the same story but changed up characters, dialogue and more. Basically, that story is “What if the gang from a John Hughes movie fought off an alien invasion.” Like SCREAM, he hits the nail on the head with the depiction of 90s teen archetypes, taking the Hughes model from the 80s and giving it a rawer voice. All that certainly comes through as he tries to dig into the themes of not sticking within the box society – or high school – places you in, but unfortunately what makes it not his strongest work is that it feel like it's being tugged between two genres and never quite meshing. So much time is spent on digging into the main band of characters, trying to reveal how they aren't quite who they seem on the surface (jock guy who wants to quit sports and focus on academics; the secretly brave nerdy kid) that it's easy to forget this is also an alien-horror flick. Plot points are scattered here and there to bring that back into focus, like the discovery of the parasite or showing the infected faculty members being strange. Come the final half of the movie it all begins to come together with formed characters, but then the ending itself feels forced and even unearned, as Zeke joins the football team (is that something he wanted to do??) and Casey gets to be with Delilah, which feels more born out of some kind of fantasy rather than genuine character development. Williamson's stylings are there, and the character work is solid, but the plotting is a bit jumbled and doesn't feel like the movie it wants to be until the final act or so.
Lean and straightforward, Gunn wasted no time getting to the meat of the script, which involves an alien parasite infecting one man, who then morphs into a monstrous, horrific creature – one which ultimately unleashes a plague of slugs who will turn everyone into alien-zombie things. It's not the most original story, throwing in a bit of THE FLY when it comes to the tragedy of the Grant and his wife Starla. But in keeping things simple and ever-evolving the movie moves at a vicious pace as Grant becomes more and more hideous and leaving plenty of room for humor from the townspeople. These townspeople aren't quite three-dimensional, but Gunn gives most of them a profane sense of humor that keeps the movie undeniably weird to match the brand of horror. For anyone trying to look into some subtext, you can even mine some theories out of the nature of Grant's obsessive nature over his wife, Grant painted as a man who views his wife almost as his property and who will whisk her away from any conversation she has with another man. As he mutates that behavior does so with it, merging with all the other zombified townspeople as a way of hunting her down and bringing her back to his ultimate form. Perhaps that's looking too far into it. The movie is, at its core, a simple exercise in nasty horror, and from script to screen the movie feels exactly like what Gunn envisioned.
Lines:
Stokely: “Is this usually the point where someone says let's get the fuck outta here?”
Stan: “Let's get the fuck outta here.”
—–
Stan: “I'm not an alien, I'm discontent.”
—–
Stokely: “I always thought the only alien in this high school was me.”
—–
Mr. Connor: “Sorry, son. No more flogging the bishop.”
—–
Casey: [before killing the Queen] “Guaranteed to jack you up.”
—–
Stokely: “I'm not putting that hack drug up my nose – it's so eighties!”
Zeke: “Aliens are taking over the earth. Weigh it!”
—–
Casey: “You're out of your fucking mind!”
Zeke: “I'm about to take my chances. I leave for five minutes, and when I come back everyone's a fucking alien. Now, if I have to Men In Black your ass, you're gonna fucking take it!”
—–
Coach Willis: “You're not much into sports.”
Casey: “I don't think that a person should run unless he's being chased.”
—–
Zeke: “Nothing's wrong with him. He's tweaking you asshole! Let him fucking tweak!”
Casey: “Tweak! Tweak!”
Bits:
Pencil Stab!
The Drama Teacher Attacks!
Meet the Crew
A New Spieces
Melting Lady
Attacking Nurse Hopper
No Glasses Burke
Showdown in Sciene Class
The Test
Deliliah Turns
Stan's Turn
Flight of the Football Team
Burke and Zeke Go Driving
Queen Marybeth
Climax in the Bleechers
Lines:
Bill: “Well, now that is some fucked up shit.”
—–
Tournuer: “He looks likes something that fell off my dick during the war.”
—–
Jack: “Where is the Mr. Pibb? I told your secretary to pack Mr. Pibb. It's the only Coke I like. Goddamn Brenda exploding like a water balloon, worms driving my friends around like they're goddamn skin-cars, people are spitting acid at me, turning you into cottage cheese, and now there's no fucking goddamn Mr. Pibb?”
—–
Grant: “I've been around a million years! You think you can fuck with me?”
Bill: “Yep.”
—–
Jack: “If I weren't about to shit in my pants right now, I'd be fuckin' fascinated.”
—–
Jack: “We need to find this Grant, and I mean yesterday. Town council's lit a Roman Candle, stuck it up my ass.”
Bill: “Jack, your leisure activities ain't my business.”
—–
Bits:
Crash Landing
Miss School Teacher
Finding the Creature
Meat
Chest Slithers
Discovering the Nest
Squid Grant
Sliced in Half
Inflating Woman
Slithers Unleashed
Bathtub Terror
Zombies! Sort of!
Deer Zombie Alien
Starla Worship
Mega Alien Form
Propane Blowup
Before the movie gets to its big climax there are one or two notable examples of some prosthetic work to be seen in THE FACULTY – like when Mrs. Brummel comes into the shower melting from the parasite rejecting her body, and chunks of her are peeled off. Then you get Jon Stewart's eye oozing puss and goo after he's stabbed, a unique highlight in the comedian's career. Other than that, not a ton of great creature effects make it to the big screen, which shouldn't be attributed to the budget, which at $15 million in 1998 was not exactly for an indie movie. Once the climax kicks in you have some visual effects that haven't aged too well, but in there is some impressive creature work with the queen alien, which while being done digitally for some parts is allowed to be seen as a fully constructed, gnarly creature. Granted, much of whatever terror and infection going on is meant to be conveyed through the main cast and their behavior rather than pure visuals, but those are still a factor, and one that doesn't always stand the test of time. Still, leave it to Rodriguez to not shy away from the blood here, which runs when deep red and gushing when it gets to run at all.
In an age of atmospheric horror movies or big horrific blockbusters that rely on CGI, seeing the immaculate makeup work and production design in SLITHER is a wonderfully nightmarish sight for sore eyes. The evolution of Grant's mutation takes him from a guy suffering a serious breakout of hives to becoming a fully realized creature of Hell. It's all disgusting, vicious and enough to curl your stomach, but underneath it all are the face and eyes of Michael Rooker, giving off at least some trickle of humanity. On top of that, there's that big balloon of an infected woman, and the bloody little slithers looking like chunks of brain. The effects work is one of this movie's biggest claims to fame, and upon each rewatch it's easy to remember why.
Taking inspiration from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, STEPFORD WIVES and more and giving it a (then) modern spin can provide for some freaky scenes, mostly wherein infected adults start coming after kids with intent to kill. Rodriguez knows how to bring out those freaky fun vibes and embraces the violence and silliness when he can, with the body-takeover angle leaving room for surprises that could make new viewers jump in their seats. Some of these scenes even blend well with the slasher genre, like the beginning when the principal is trying to escape the coach, or when three of the teachers are standing outside Casey's room at night. I wouldn't say the movie is exactly scary in the sense it will make your insides curl or make you squirm in the way alien-terror like this should, but it's certainly freaky and entertaining, even 20 years later.
If its alien-creature squeamishness you want, SLITHER is a hard movie to top in the modern era. A lot of that is thanks to the masterful design work as mentioned above, which alone is enough to advise future watchers to put the food away and watch on an empty stomach. This movie may not exactly stress you out or make you leave the lights on at night, but it can be very unsettling on a visual level, especially given that Gunn doesn't give any f**ks about who gets taken down here. Kids, pets, the entire town — everyone is fair game, which fills the third act with unrestrained nastiness. You'll certainly writhe in your seat and leave a bit shocked, which seems like Gunn's aim from the get-go.
Awards:
**8 nominations (per IMDb)**
Praise:
Rotten Tomatoes: 53% (55% Audience)
IMDb: 6.5
Metacritic: 61
$40 million domestic
Awards:
**2 Wins & 5 nominations (per IMDb)**
Praise:
Rotten Tomatoes: 86% (63% Audience)
IMDb: 6.5
Metacritic: 69
$7 million domestic ($12 million worldwide)
THE FACULTY, putting aside some of its faults, is a very entertaining sci-fi flick that benefits for a genuinely strong cast, some playful dialogue, and a director trying to get as much mileage as he can out of it all. It's not quite SCREAM-with-aliens as surely some behind the scenes were hoping, but it's a little gem in its own right that makes for some late-night viewing that will make you look at the then-young cast and go “Awww, they were just babies!” As for SLITHER, James Gunn really hit it out of the park with his first directorial effort, bringing to his movie a clear, deranged vision that meant making an ode to the movies he loves but giving it his own voice. The performances are great, the humor is black and absurd, and the effects are arresting and horrific, all combined making for an alien-horror flick that stands on its own.
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