The Faculty's First A-List Disc

Let's follow up one new Scream Factory 4k Ultra HD Collector's Edition with another.  But this time, instead of them revisiting a past Collector's Edition and bumping it up to UHD, this is their first crack at the title.  And specifically, that title is The Faculty, Robert Rodriguez's zany high school space invasion horror movie that's (mostly... we'll come back to this) been relegated to barebones DVD and blu-ray releases that've seen more time in bargain bins than prime shelf space or end caps.  This promises to be the film's first A-list disc, so let's see.

I called The Faculty Robert Rodriguez's movie, but really I associate this much more with its writer, Kevin Williamson.  Fresh off two big Hollywood horror hits - Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, the creative hierarchy of which should've already let us know his material needs a strong director - Williamson gave us what I actually consider to be his greatest work.  Afterwards, he decided to direct himself and helmed the massive stink-bomb Teaching Mrs. Tingle and then slunk off into sequels and television (did you know he created Dawson's Creek?) leaving behind a reputation of a one-hit wunderkind.  Like he had one clever idea to briefly revitalize slashers and that was the extent of what he had to offer.  But I'd argue this at-the-time box office flop proves he has more magic in him and that this deserves a serious re-appraisal.

...Of course, it should also be noted that this was made by his second strongest director.  Williamson is clearly in his element with another high school setting, and the cast is a constant barrage of, "oh wow, they're in this, too?"  Elijah Wood, Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Josh Hartnett, T-1000 Robert Patrick, Usher, Bebe "Lilith" Neuwirth, Clea DuVall, Shooter McGavin himself Christopher McDonald, Piper Laurie and a surprisingly good performance by Jon Stewart.  There's also a now unfortunate cameo by Harry Knowles, as if to remind us we're still in skeevy Weinstein territory.  And sure, big studio teenage horror can be pretty corny, especially in this period, but a big part of what puts this high school Invasion Of the Body Snatchers (a film regularly referred to within this movie, a la Scream's meta-text) is how it mashes together the stereotypes with the stuff Hollywood usually tries to traipse around, from a more realistically depressing depiction of life in the teacher's lounge to the envelope pushing notion that our heroes have to keep snorting a harmful, heroin-like homebrew drug to stave off the evil adults.  The Faculty is clever and keeps reaching more outrageous heights its peers didn't dare for.  Unlike most of its peers, it holds up surprisingly well.

The Faculty was originally released on DVD by Buena Vista all the way back in 1999.  Not only was it barebones, as I mentioned earlier, it was non-anamorphic, so it's completely useless today.  And you know you're in trouble when Echo Bridge is the one to escort this film into HD, via their BD in 2012.  It's a Miramax title; you know how sketchy their home video history has been.  It's been passed around to Lions Gate and Paramount, but their discs have been generic barebones, too.  That's why I imported Paramount's Japanese blu, which actually includes some special features.  But now I can put it behind me (or should I?) because Scream Factory has just restored the film in 4k for their fancy, new Collector's Edition.

1) 1999 BV DVD; 2) 2012 Paramount BD; 3) 2024 SF BD; 4) 2024 SF UHD.

Starting with the aspect ratio, every release is 1.85:1 except the DVD, which is 1.82:1.  Every disc has basically the same framing, except the DVD cuts a little bit off along both sides.  It's also, again, non-anamorphic, though, so it's really just here for some historical perspective.  The initial blu is a general improvement beyond just fixing that.  It clears up a lot of ugly compression and removes what looks like an old master's edge enhancement, though maybe it still shows some much more subtle hints of tinkering.  At least we've move into HD.  But grain is just faintly hinted at and the colors are super pale.  You could make an argument for some of the color timing - the sky in the first set of shots being genuinely blue, for example - but Mr. Hartnett looks downright sickly in the second set of shots.

And the fact that the new, Rodriguez-approved (for what that's worth) color timing brings it back to the DVD's suggests it was always supposed to look like that.  I guess they shot that first scene at golden hour or something.  Anyway, the colors are much more attractive on the new blu, even before looking at the triple-layer UHD, then the faded old blu.  Now all tinkering is definitely 100% gone and the fine grain is here, especially on the UHD (it doesn't pick up so well on the included BD).  This is easily the best The Faculty's ever looked.

The DVD had optional English subtitles, which the BD dropped in favor of Japanese ones.  I checked, though, and the US blu-ray didn't have any subs at all, so they were dropped for every American BD.  Well, until Scream Factory brought them back, that is.  The DVD also gave us a choice between 2.0 and 5.1 mixes, which the initial BDs dropped down to just the 5.1, albeit now in lossless DTS-HD.  The Japanese blu also a lossless Japanese stereo mix.  And Scream Factory has happily given us the choice again, both the English 2.0 and 5.1, both in lossless DTS-HD.  So they've hit us up with everything we could've hope for.

Except, maybe, in the very light extras department.  The DVD had a fullscreen trailer, and that's it.  That's more than the US blus had, though, which is the whole reason I imported.  They have the fullscreen trailer and a crazy widescreen trailer under the title Parasite, but far more importantly, they have over twenty minutes of on-set interviews with the cast and crew.  This is clearly EPK stuff, so it doesn't go that deep, but it isn't padded out with clips from the film, and they include a lot of people, from Rodriguez and Williamson to most of the stars.  Japanese subs are burnt in, but hey, it's good stuff.  I'm glad I went to the trouble of importing - it even comes in Parasite obi strip.

Rodriguez in one of the Japanese-exclusive interviews.

And Scream Factory?  Surprisingly for something billed as a Collector's Edition, it just has two new interviews.  One is a brief chat with the production designer, which is mostly played over clips from the film because they seem to only have low quality webcam footage.  And the second is with effects artist Greg Nicotero, who always does great interviews.  I'm very pleased to receive both, don't get me wrong, but I'm surprised that's all there is.  Maybe Rodriguez's asking price was too high to get him to jump on here, but they didn't even include the old interviews from the Japanese blu.  Heck, they didn't even throw in the trailer.  It does at least come in a slipcover and include reversible artwork, though; and it came with a poster if you pre-ordered it direct from Shout.

So it's a pretty light Collector's Edition, but it is an excellent presentation of a film that was in real need of some additional love on home video.  In short, a good addition to any collection, but it'll leave you wanting more.