ROBERT RODRIGUEZ
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BB.
USA, 1998. Dimension Films. Story by David Wechter, Bruce Kimmel, Screenplay by Kevin Williamson. Cinematography by Enrique Chediak. Produced by Elizabeth Avellan. Music by Marco Beltrami. Production Design by Cary White. Costume Design by Michael T. Boyd. Film Editing by Robert Rodriguez.
A group of teenagers begin to wise up to the fact that their high school teachers have become taskmasters, not because of an increased work ethic at their financially beleaguered school, but because their bodies have been taken over by aliens. One by one the faculty members are turned into otherworldly beings, retaining their human exteriors, while the students themselves are hunted down in a forgettable, by-the-numbers horror film that tries to inject some comedy and style into otherwise familiar trappings without much success. The young cast pulls off their credible involvement, and the group of terrific adults leading the fray, including Robert Patrick, Bebe Neuwirth and Piper Laurie, do marvelous work, but the visual effects are terrible and the scares never quite match up to the humour.