Directed by David Nutter
Starring James Marsden
Katie Holmes
Nick Stahl
Steve Railsback
Desperate MGM Studios, looking for a hit movie, commissioned some amateurish filmmakers to concoct this teen horror dud, which had a story suspiciously similar to Kevin Williamson's "The Faculty," released to theaters only months after this one. The flick does everything it can to imitate Williamson's "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Scream," from constantly playing pop music on the soundtrack to glorifying the lives of nerdy high school rebels that just can't seem to fit in.
A teenage son and daughter move into a new town, and find themselves pitted against an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"-like club at the local high school. The club somehow turns struggling teens into stellar students, who cut their hair, drop their bad music habits and start obsessing about bake sales and grades.
It turns out to be the result of a conspiracy hatched by a group of adults who want ideal teenagers attending their high school. This teeny-bopper attempt to borrow ideas from "The Stepford Wives" falls flat on its face. Unlike that great movie, there is no political meaning to the plot against the young people at this high school—and it makes no sense why anyone would go to the trouble of turning kids into robots. The film didn't make much of a splash at the box office and, thankfully, no sequels have been announced. Star Katie Holmes would go on to to much bigger and better things.
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-- Review by Lucius Gore
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