Summertime Chills: Teeth
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 9:34AM Robert G from Sketchy Details here with a look at a bizarre and refreshing horror film for those hot summer days.
I just have to ask: can't we get just one horror film where a trip to a large body of water doesn't spell disaster? Whether it's shark attacks, masked killers, or ancient monsters from the deep, water in a summer horror film is a bad thing. The younger the characters are, the more diastrous the events will be
Teeth is not an exception to this rule. The strange horror/dark comedy hybrid follows the story of Dawn, a high school abstinence advocate opening herself up for the first time to relationships. She meets a nice boy named Tobey who seems different from the rest. He's kind, sweet, and is not pressuring Dawn to do anything she doesn't want to do.
Of course they wind up in a big body of water. How could late summer fun like this turn bad?
Easy. Any man who tries to take advantage of Dawn is met with a sharp and nasty defense mechanism that Dawn can't control. What else is a teenage boy going to try and do when he's all alone with a girl in the woods? Take advantage of the teenage girl.
If Teeth sounds familiar, there's a good chance you've heard of it before. This is one of those strange horror films that got invited to the Sundance Film Festival seemingly just for shock value. Back in 2007, Jess Wiexler won a Special Jury Prize Dramatic for playing Dawn. She was cited for "a juicy and draw-dropping performance." It was yet another film where reports came out suggesting people were getting sick, leaving the theater, or passing out because of the graphic violence onscreen.
Teeth is a lot more than the sharp and twisted conceit of Dawn's natural defenses. It's a smart horror film that is actually willing to tackle a serious issue. This is a young woman who is not ready for sexual activity. However, every man in her life--including her own brother--views her as a sexual object. This is, wisely, one of the rare horror films where the female lead gets to fight back from the very first attack.
In a film where a girl can have teeth down there, the strangest part of the feature is the sudden turn into an almost-slapstick dark comedy in the final 30 minutes. It's a choice that doesn't quite sit well with me. Up until that point, it's a mostly quiet and introspective horror film about a young woman coping with a dark secret that no one knows about. It's brutal in the way a horror character study needs to be. For it to suddenly shift into absurdity at that point is almost a betrayal of trust. The change doesn't ruin the film, but it weakens the clever approach to a very serious subject.
Teeth is an unsettling horror/dark comedy film that dares to take big risks; most of them pay off. The violence, though graphic, is never gratuitous and the performances are stronger than most modern teenage horror films. If a film like this that sends chills down your spine can't cool you off this summer, nothing will.
Reader Comments (7)
This movie is what "Jennifer's Body" should've been. So dark and funny. Just love it!
I interviewed (director) Mitchell Lichtenstein last year for his follow-up film, Happy Tears (which is kinda dark, but all in all an extreme departure from this). He's very, very timid and mild-mannered. It was almost as if I could sense him blushing through the phone when we talked about Teeth. Interesting. It was like, 'this guy made the vagina dentata movie?!'
i love this movie(it's almost my teen years) but i don't know why my boyfriend and every male person who saw it dislike it ;P
Kurtis, you never know how a director is going to react to their older work. Could this have been his horror film to break out into more mainstream pictures? Do they still teach that as a writing/directing strategy?
caro, it's been a tough road to get anyone I know to see this film. Look past your own parts and appreciate it for what it's trying to do.
Jose, I'm still amazed that Jennifer's Body turned out so spectacularly wrong. How do you miss with that cast, that concept, and that screenwriter? Part of me still likes it a little bit just for some of the things it tries to do.
I a movie, everything are really made into real. Like in a horror movie, directors look for a real vampire look of a character. They make the characters wear teeth with fangs. And that's really fantastic idea.
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In "Teeth," a horror-comedy about a girl with teeth in her vagina, the protagonist seeks the help of a dentist Calgary SW after experiencing pain. The film's blend of humor and horror is both unsettling and entertaining, and the reference to a real-life location adds an element of groundedness to the absurdity.