Teeth

Year: 2007
Genre: Horror
Directed: Mitchell Lichtenstein
Stars: Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, Hale Appleman, Lenny von Dohlen, Vivienne Benesch, Ashley Springer, Lalia Liliana Garro, Nicole Swahn, Adam Wagner
Production: Pierpoline Films

Is it easy to assume that Teeth (2007) is the best film of its subject matter? I don’t just mean a story about a young woman with a very biting problem in her nether region but probably the best anti-horror film ever made, or at least in recent memory. The film stars Jess Weixler as the aforesaid young woman Dawn. She's Leader of the local community’s Abstinence club and overall awkward teenager. Dawn takes care of her sick mother (Vivienne Benesch) with the help of her doting stepfather (Lenny von Dohlen) and the non-help of her stepbrother Brad (John Hensley). But all is not well as she slowly discovers her sexuality with temptation in the form of Tobey (Hale Appleman) her hunky Christian “friend”. When she discovers she has a very eunuch-ly troubling affliction, her sexual awakening has a casualty or two.

I say anti-horror movie because horror movies, at least in the classical sense are anti-feminist. Both sexes are tortured and killed in the genres most popular fare to be sure, but women are often times given one of two designations; the slut or the virginal survivor. Essentially the major female characters are defined not by what they can bring to the table but by their sexuality. Any woman not defined by those labels is filler and if you’re unlucky enough to be the slut, you’re punished for the crime of being sexually active on screen.

I think she's going to be okay

In Teeth, the tropes are turned on their head. Much like Simone Simon’s character in Cat People (1942), Dawn is a woman chained by the guilt of her sexual feelings. She positions herself in the abstinence crowd as a form of escape but is only further enticed to act upon her impulses. She’s a female character that is refreshingly complex and goes through a realistic yet drastic character change throughout the course of the movie.

Perhaps if the men in her life didn’t act so foolishly and didn’t take advantage of her vulnerability, things could have gone a little differently. As it stands there are no redeemable male characters other than maybe the stepfather. Even then there was a subtle undertow of unrequited sexual tension. I did feel bad for the gynecologist but he was acting a little unprofessionally.





Is it to much for you to just use this sucker?

Aesthetically speaking the cinematography is too morose for its subject matter. Had the film been in the hands of Bryan Forbes or even John Waters, things might have been purposely funny instead of unintentionally so. It didn’t help that the musical score provided by Robert Miller was way, way, way too on the nose. Lest I be impassive by castration, the music blares in grandiloquent tones as if to say look how shocking this moment is!

I suppose I’m just not clear of the director’s motivations with this film. Is it meant to be a feminist critique of the horror genre told by a teenager with a wicked smile and a sideways Chelsea grin to match? If so, is it meant to be taken seriously? One thing is for sure; while young women are told the chaste cautionary tales of Snow White and Red Riding Hood, young men may one day be told similar horror stories about the dreaded vagina dentata.

Almost there!...

Final Grade: D-