7) “Guaranteed To Jack You Up” (The Faculty)
Remember that time Robert Rodriguez directed a high school creature feature penned by Scream scribe Kevin Williamson? If you haven’t seen The Faculty, stop reading this entry right now and add it to your “Watch Later” list. Seriously, it’s easily Rodriguez’s most underrated film to date, creating a playful horror flick around alien invaders slowly overtaking a school population Invasion Of The Body Snatchers style. The talent also runs super deep as far as casting goes, including Salma Hayek, Robert Patrick, Jon Stewart, Josh Hartnett, freakin’ Usher, Elijah Wood – even The Blogfather himself, Harry Jay Knowles!
“Guaranteed To Jack You Up” is a line Woods’ character Casey mutters before killing the Queen Parasite (I TOLD YOU TO STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE!), but it’s also the culmination of everything Rodriguez is building throughout the film. Fooling around with stereotypes is fun in the beginning, toying with jock football players and sexy teachers (Famke Janssen, woof), but it’s Casey’s heroism that gave hope to hordes of fantasy nerds who never saw the limelight in high school. Woods’ dynamite acting is only icing on the cake, as the now genre star really showed his love of horror back in 1998 when he took the role of Casey.
The Faculty deserves so much more credit than it gets, and this moment still ranks among one of my favorites that Rodriguez has created.
