Review of Teeth (2000) by Greg D — 18 Aug 2010

I'm sure by now most of you have at least heard about this film. Its been talked about for quite some time now and it has also been gaining some notoriety. When I sat down to watch "Teeth" I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. With a plot about a teenage girl that has teeth in her vagina it sounds like something straight out of Tromaville or a trashy exploitation film. Instead what I got was a very serious coming of age film with a horror bent that dealt with body horror much like Eli Roth's Hostel.

It isn't nearly as gory as films like Hostel and in my opinion its a much better film but there are some truly cringe worthy scenes and the gore that is shown on film is truly disturbing epically for the male horror fans out there. What honestly shocked me was the type of feedback the film has received on IMDB and other forums. People have even gone as far as to call the film violent sexism towards towards men. I'm a young male and although I found the film disturbing and I did involuntarily clutch at my other member, I never found the film offensive or hateful towards men. I can't understand why someone that would be easily offended would even watch a film like this in the first place. Its worth mentioning also that the film was written and directed by a man.

The film follows a High School student named Dawn played wonderfully by Jess Weixler (think of her as a homely Hayden Panettiere). Dawn is a parents dream child. She is focused on school, nice to her parents and she is a virgin and plans to stay that way till marriage. Like any teenager though she does find it hard to suppress her budding sexual urges. Her feelings complicate even more when she meets a new boy at school that appears to be almost as straight and pure as she is.

Dawn also has a stepbrother Brad, that is the complete opposite of her. He is about as bad as they come and doesn't seem to do anything besides take advantage of young girls and hit on his own stepsister. Brad also has a bad scar on his finger from when he was a little child. All he can remember is being in a swimming pool with Dawn then his finger bleeding.

This all takes place within the first thirty minutes of the film and its around this time that the film takes a drastic turn from a dark family drama into a cover your eyes visceral horror experience. Dawn innocently puts herself into an unsafe position alone with a man and is raped. Unknowingly and in a split second her "vagina dentada" attacks back like a self defense and bites off the mans' penis. He eventually bleeds to death in front of her and Dawn is torn between going to the authorities and her new sense of strength and power.

Eventually Dawn begins to use her anatomical uniqueness to her advantage and changes, with an almost sexually confident new attitude.

Writer and Director Mitchell Lichtenstein does a great job at realizing his boundaries in what he could put on screen. The film does deal with strong sexual violence and there are some explicit scenes with bitten off body parts but for me it never seemed to cross the line. Lichtenstein also does a great job of staging scenes and the art direction was beautiful and very good for a low budget film. The scenes that dealt with the more graphic subject matter were shot with amazing cleverness in the way that you didn't need to see everything at once to be disturbed.

The Writing was a highlight of the film as well. The film probably could have worked as a straight forward coming of age film because of how interesting the characters' relationships were. Even the male figures in the film that didn't have many redeeming qualities were still interesting and you wanted to know what would happen to them. There is also some very dark humor in the film which usually preceeded one of the more darker scenes which was a brilliant choice by the filmmakers. Not only was the humor dark and funny but it helped add depth to a otherwise pretty bleak film.

Not only was the lead character of Dawn excellently written, it was also acted with incredible talent by Jess Weixler. Before this role she hadn't done much acting besides the odd TV part but since this film she already has three projects in post-production and it clear why. She is an obvious talent and delivered a perfect performance. Some people have complained about her being portrayed as a heroine because she uses her body as a weapon to kill men. Clearly people that make comments like this have never watched a revenge film. Making that argument against this film would be like saying the killings in "I Spit on your grave" weren't justified.

The rest of the cast all gave strong performance and even that men that were portrayed in the film to be evil added depth to their characters and made them truly disturbing human beings.

And finally you have the gore. Its not over the top, nor is there even all that much blood in the film but when there is any its realistic and graphic. There aren't many films that deal with men losing their genitals but this film would probably be the one that shows it the most graphically and it really is disturbing.

This is the type of film that I would recommend but not to everyone. Its a very well made and disturbing film that you'll enjoy if your looking for a fresh and effective experience. On the other hand if your easily offended or grossed out then you're better off skipping this one.