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Overall Rating : 4/10
Directed By : Mitchell Lichtenstein
Jess Weixler
John Hensley (Shutter (2008) )
Josh Pais (Confess)
Hale Appleman
Supplied By : Dimension Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : May. 16, 2008
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| PLOT High school student Dawn works hard at suppressing her budding sexuality by being the local chastity group’s most active participant. Her task is made even more difficult by her bad boy stepbrother Brad’s increasingly provocative behavior at home. A stranger to her own body, innocent Dawn discovers she has a toothed vagina when she becomes the object of violence. As she struggles to comprehend her anatomical uniqueness, Dawn experiences both the pitfalls and the power of being a living example of the vagina dentata myth. |
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| THE REVIEW In TEETH, at school Dawn is the leader of her student Abstinence group. Dawn has worked hard to lead a good example for her fellow students, it's been difficult for here, but she has managed. But this is ended when something is awoken inside of her after a male classmate tries to force himself on Dawn - what she would unleash, is something of an urban myth. Confused and alone with herself when it comes to her body, Dawn finds out that she was born with a mutation, a mutation known as "Vagina Dentata", aka "Toothed Vagina". It turns out that the teeth only expose themselves as Dawn becomes angered, so with that in mind, Dawn learns to use what she's been cursed with as a lethal weapon against those who wrong her. You know those types of films, you know, the ones you have high expectation for, then when you see it, and for about the first half you are absolutely in love with it.....then something mid-way through the film happens, and just messes the whole thing up? Well, for me, the ambitious dark comedy, TEETH, just so happens to be one of those films. 'll tell you the truth, this film started out fantastic and I was loving it's dark and quirky feel, and at at about the half hour mark, I honestly was on the cusp of calling this a new Horror classic, with even a rating of 8-8.5 set in mind. But let's go back to that quirkiness I mentioned, sure it worked.....that is, for a while it did, when it was of equal balance with the film's subject matter, but soon I found myself swimming in an ocean of cheese and nearly drowning, and yes, with a frown. on my face. Yes this concept has kind of been done before in Wolfgang Buld's ANGST, but in that film, the female's genitalia swallowed victims. Here in TEETH, our character of Dawn's vagina has been cursed with "Vagina Dentata", and when Dawn is enraged, it sprouts teeth, devouring anything to come in contact with her genitalia. To be honest, I think this is how the previously mentioned ANGST should have been, as TEETH really does take this plot line and makes it intriguingly interesting. And at least at first it was delivering an interesting story as well. In the beginning, TEETH could easily be compared to in feel and style, to films like Lucky Mckee's MAY. I think that MAY is a brilliant film, and liked it because it mixed a sense of comedy with the Horror, had an equal balance of the two, but never one more than the other. It's almost as if the filmmakers knew they were getting away with something, they were making a great film, and then all the sudden tried to "amp it up" so to speak, and by doing so, they ended up getting too ahead of themselves, all while losing focus of the film that they had going for them. I can't tell you enough how much I think that this film blew all of it's potential, and what a better film it could've been had it kept the level of seriousness it had in it's first half. A first what was sort of playfully funny, in the end becomes almost childishly stupid. The cast here are basically unknowns(at least to me they are), but from the top it is clear that the films driving force, is and will be the performance of Jess Weixler. You can't blame her her because in my opinion she was awesome in the role. I mean, she's a beautiful girl whom the audience would love to see her character have a relationship with someone, but knowing that she circumstantially can't, makes a link between Dawn and the audience(in other words, it makes the character work), and she embodied the character. Unfortunately, as I said, any character formation, in my opinion is later overshadowed by it's over the top silliness. With me saying all of this, it doesn't mean that the film is completely terrible, because as mentioned, for a short while I was really into this. People have said that TEETH has a feminist message, and it sort of does, but in the end, it's nothing to believe in, it's rather something more to shake your head at and again wonder how something that was initially great could take such a a horrible turn and end up so drab. Sure, the subject matter from the beginning was comical, but it was making it work for itself.....or so I thought. |
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| GORE
METER 5.5/10 pretty graphic and over the top. a couple of penises are severed, as well as some fingers. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5/10 A nice blend of various rock tunes. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM To be honest, TEETH has to be one of the biggest letdowns I have had in awhile, it at first had an attention grip (no pun intended) on me, but it later turned out to be a bomb that exploded in my face. The previous DIMENSION EXTREME title I reviewed, INSIDE was great, and I only expected it to get better with the newer releases, but unfortunately, with this one i'm left at a stand-still. With TEETH being a co-release between DIMENSION and LIONSGATE, it's no wonder this was a bomb. Truthfully, LIONSGATE has a track record for releasing some pretty disappointing films, and they're probably not finished. |
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