Unlike their cast, director Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn) and writer Kevin Williamson (Scream), make sure with The Faculty not to wander too far from their beaten - and very successful - path. And, while the film may not be the critics' first choice in Berlin, it will certainly win the approval of its target teen audience and have every chance of becoming a pulp classic for the the older generation.

Described by Dimension Films head Bob Weinstein as "The Breakfast Club meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers", the story features the usual cross-section of characters needed for any high-school scream-fest.

There's the bright one, the teen-princess, the blonde beauty who's new to town, the star jock, the punk loner and everyone's favourite sardonic drug dealer. To them falls the task of solving the problem that everybody else in the school, including the staff, seems to have been taken over by an alien presence.

The Faculty may not be brain food, but Williamson and Rodriguez make sure that the experience is always a fun one. Christopher Pickard