josh hartnett

poster

I watched The Sixth Sense in the theatre when it first came out. I managed to see it before the surprise ending was ruined for me. I remember liking it that first viewing quite a lot. But then some friends of mine wanted to see it and I was visiting them in Arkansas so I felt like I couldn’t say no. Even though I was pretty sure that the film would disappoint since I now knew the surprise. It did disappoint. I was bored during that second viewing.

That whole day was weird. I was good friends with her in high school. But since going away for college I hadn’t talked to her in over a year. Her husband I didn’t know at all. So the day was full of awkward conversations and then this movie I didn’t want to see. I also randomly remember her listening to The Eagle’s greatest hits on cassette and I hate the freaking Eagles.

Anyway, The Sixth Sense was of course an enormous hit and made M. Night Shyamalan an instant celebrity director. He followed it up with the underrated Unbreakable and then the quite fun but rather ridiculous Signs, and then the very creepy but completely dumb after the trick ending is revealed The Village.

By this point, he was starting to feel like a one-trick pony where every movie had a surprise ending. Everybody hated Lady in the Water and The Happening became an instant joke.

Shyamalan was on the outs. But then a funny thing happened on the way to career suicide. People started liking him again. It was as if after all the hype died down, and expectations became low, people realized he was actually a pretty good stylist and while his scripts were often ridiculous, his films were rather fun.

Or maybe that’s just me. I like most of his movies. They are dumb, but he’s a skilled enough director to keep me interested.

Trap is an absolutely stupid movie. There are so many instances in the film where I kept shouting at the screen that whatever was happening wasn’t the way things work. People don’t behave like that. Concerts don’t have multiple random intermissions. Police don’t let serial killers hug their daughters and play with their son’s bicycles.

And yet, I still quite enjoyed myself.

The plot involves a serial killer named Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett), known as “The Butcher,” (and this isn’t a spoiler as it was revealed in all the trailers, reviews, and the first ten minutes of the film). He’s kidnapped at least a dozen people, then killed them, then chopped them up into pieces and displayed their parts in public. But he’s also a decent family guy.

He’s taken his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see pop star Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan – the director’s real-life daughter who is in fact a real singer – you gotta love a dad who basically makes a movie to show off his daughter’s talents). But the cops and the feds have been clued into the fact that The Butcher is gonna be there so the entire concert is one big trap for him.

Cooper must find a way to escape so he can continue killing. And being a family guy. It is a testament to Hartnett’s skill as an actor and Shyamalan as a director that I found myself rooting for a serial killer for most of the film’s runtime.

Truly this is one of the most ridiculous films I’ve seen in a long time. Ridiculous decision after ridiculous decision is made by Cooper, the police, Lady Raven, and everyone really. My eyes rolled into the back of my head and then fell right out.

And yet, again, I quite enjoyed myself. Shyamalan never takes anything too seriously. He’s quite aware his film is dumb. But he’s having fun. And so was I.

the faculty

The Faculty is so of its time, so late 1990s that I spontaneously turned into a 22-year-old college senior again while watching it. It was produced by Miramax, the hippest studio at the time. It was directed by Robert Rodrigues at the very apex of his coolness factor. It was written by Kevin Williamson hot off his hit-making turns with Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. It stars a veritable who’s who of late ’90s hip young actors including Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, Clea Duvall, and Jordana Brewster. The soundtrack features Stabbing Westward, The Offspring, Soul Asylum, Creed, Garbage and Layne Staley with Tom Morello covering Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” If it was any more late 1990s I think it would create a black hole time warp.

It was part of the late-90s horror boom that began with Scream in 1996 and catered to a more younger, cooler, and mainstream crowd that horror was used to. I was very much into that whole scene. I freaking loved Scream and was so excited that horror had become popular.

I hated The Faculty when I saw it in theaters. Hate is probably too strong of a word, but I was very disappointed with it. I dug Rodrigues and Williamson, I loved this new wave of horror, but something about The Faculty just didn’t sit right with me. Looking back on it now, I think it was that it is more of a throwback to older films. It clearly has influences in all those schlocky 1950s sci-fi/horror films, and it outright references Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing (both films I wouldn’t see for several more years). I wasn’t hip to that vibe just yet so it all felt off to my brain.

I didn’t watch it again until tonight. I now am quite familiar with the film’s reference points and I think twenty years of distance has given me perspective on that particular wave of horror (it was mostly not very good) and so I found myself rather enjoying it. Don’t get me wrong, it is still not a great film, but it’s an enjoyable one.

Plotwise it takes a lot from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but sets it mostly inside a high school where initially the teachers are the aliens and the kids are all that’s left to save humanity. And not just any kids, the outcasts, the freaks, and the nerds.

Wood is the book-smart nerd who everyone picks on. Hartnett is the drug-dealing tough kid. Duvall is the put-upon shy kid who wears all black and might be a lesbian (in 1998!) The teachers (including a goatee-wearing Jon Stewart, Piper Laurie, Famke Jannsen, Salma Hayek, Bebe Neuwirth, and Robert Patrick – geez this cast is stacked) get controlled by these little alien worm things and are out to invade the entire world.

Williamson’s script is smart (but not nearly as smart as he thinks it is, not Scream smart) and Rodriguez’s direction is steady. The cast is mostly great. Overall it is a pretty good little horror film with some nice comedic moments

When I started this review I noted that The Faculty was very much a movie of its time. Unfortunately, that time has not aged very well. The CGI effects look bad. There is a scene that directly references a scene from The Thing. Actually, there are a couple of them, but this particular scene apes some very effective practical effects from that John Carpenter film, but here they are all computer generated and they look terrible.

It is a Miramax film, which of course was run by Harvey Weinstein. Danny Masterson has a small role (his character is simply named F’%# Up #1 which is appropriate, I guess) and freaking Harry Knowles has a cameo so call this a sex pest trifecta.

If you can get past all of that, I think it is worth seeking out, especially if you are a fan of late 1990s horror and somehow missed this one.