Scream's Success Convinced Jordana Brewster The Faculty Would Be Huge
It's difficult to overstate the immediate and overwhelming effect that Wes Craven's 1996 film "Scream" had on pop culture. By the mid-1990s the slasher genre had pretty much come to an end. The most popular monsters of the 1980s were being deliberately killed off, as "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" and "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday" seemingly closed the door on their respective franchises. The slasher series that continued started to die of fatigue, as seen in clunky, underwhelming films like "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" and "Hellraiser: Bloodline."
Then, in December of '96, "Scream" came out and a new trend was immediately born. The Kevin Williamson-scripted "Scream" was a slasher movie, yes, but it was populated by teenage characters who all knew — and spoke openly about — the tropes of slasher movies. Everyone was wry, sarcastic, and understood the metafictional situation they occupied. There was a lot of eye-rolling. A common feature of Gen-X entertainment was an element of self-awareness and on-camera media analysis, making many films into critiques of themselves. Anything from "Slacker" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to "Clerks" to "The Watermelon Woman" fit this mold.
The self-awareness of "Scream" was a huge hit with audiences, and the $15 million flick ended up grossing $100 million at the box office.
Williamson found a new niche to fill and imitators began to flood the market. In the next few years, a tidal wave of winking, teen-friendly horror movies surged into theaters. Among them: "Urban Legend," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," "Bride of Chucky," "Idle Hands," "Halloween H20," "Disturbing Behavior," "Cherry Falls," and "Teaching Mrs. Tingle." There was also Robert Rodirguez's 1998 teen "Body Snatchers" riff "The Faculty," perhaps the filmmaker's best.
Everything was right
While all the above films were certainly of a trend, not all of them were hits. One of the central reasons why slasher films were so popular in the first place was that they were incredibly cheap to produce. Movie stars weren't required, elaborate settings were anathema (many took place in ordinary suburban homes), and creativity was often eschewed. All that was needed was a script, gumption, and a few bucks for gore effects. With the trend revitalized, some filmmakers seemingly assumed that success was virtually guaranteed, provided the tropes be repeated well enough.
Actress Jordana Brewster certainly assumed that was to be the case with "The Faculty," in which he played Delilah Profitt, an overachieving star cheerleader targeted by body-snatching aliens who have taken over the minds of her high school's staff. In a 2021 interview with Collider, Brewster pointed out that all the elements were in place for "The Faculty" to be a runaway success. Williamson wrote the screenplay, indie darling Rodriguez was at the helm, and — perhaps ambitiously — it boasted an impressive cast. Recognizable teen heartthrobs Josh Hartnett and Elijah Wood appeared, as did recognizable actors like Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick, Piper Laurie, and Jon Stewart.
The film boasted a budget of $15 million, just like "Scream." Everything was ripe for success.
The film opened to a paltry $11 million.
Brewster compared the experience to her work on the "Fast & Furious" movies, but 100% inverted. The "Furious" films were low-price, low-expectation movies that exploded into one of the largest film franchises of all time. "The Faculty" was poised to be huge and just petered out.
They even had Tommy Hilfiger!
Brewster pointed out that "The Faculty" even had a high-profile product tie-in advertising campaign. So word was definitely getting out:
"It was sort of the inverse of 'Fast and Furious,' right? So with 'The Fast and the Furious,' I was like, 'This is a small movie about cars. It's a really fun summer project. Everyone's really good looking. This is gonna be fun, but who knows where it's gonna lead?' 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 it was also Dimension, which was doing really well, that studio. And then Tommy Hilfiger was doing our campaign!"
Brewster was eventually okay with the audience that "The Faculty" ultimately found. The film would go on to play on the midnight movie circuit and was successful on home video. But that opening weekend, Brewster recalls, stung. It taught the actress to keep all expectations in check. She said:
"[W]e all thought it was gonna be huge. And then it turned out it wasn't so huge. We thought it was gonna be massive, I think it was a Christmas opening, and then not so big. So it was a good lesson. But it was a cult classic so that's really cool."
One cannot necessarily pinpoint a reason why "The Faculty" tanked the way it did. Perhaps the market was merely oversaturated with teen horror movies. Perhaps there was a hand-wringing concern about teenagers committing violent acts in movies. One might recall a minor controversy with "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" in the wake of the Columbine High shootings in 1999.
Regardless, the film eventually found its audience. It's also, to briefly editorialize, amazingly good.