Directed by Robert Rodriguez, 1998
Pros: good acting, some good jump scares
Cons: some gore
A group of high school students notice odd things happening and discover evidence that aliens are taking over people, starting with the faculty.
I was surprised that this horror movie had some remarkably good acting (and actors). Elijah Wood (Frodo from Lord of the Rings) plays the picked on nerd, Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith from Cheers) is the principal, Robert Patrick (T1000 from Terminator 2) is the football coach, and Jon Stewart (formerly host of the Daily Show) is a science teacher.
There were some really good jump scares and the monster special effects were quite good. There was also some gore, which I’m not a fan of but was kept fairly minimal.
I felt terrible for Casey, the stereotypical nerd who gets very aggressively bullied at school. The film is full of stereotypes (the jock, the head cheerleader, the drug dealer/slacker, the new girl). I will say that seeing the hot chick convert into a nerd was unique, it usually goes the other way.
There’s also a scene with attempted sexual assault (well, one of the characters assumes that’s what’s happening, though the audience knows otherwise) and some sexual harassment between a male student and a female teacher (the resolution of which creeped me out). I would also say that I found Stokley’s character problematic (she told people she was a lesbian so they would leave her alone - gay rights have come a long way, though the abuse she gets is unfortunately probably still realistic).
I figured out who the main bad guy was but on the whole I was impressed with the film.
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