Review: Teeth

Directed by: Mitchell Lichtenstein

Written by: Mitchell Lichtenstein

Starring: Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, Hale Appleman, Ashley Springer, Lenny Von Dohlen

Rating: [3/5]

Whether through societal nurturing or inherent in nature, men have proven to be aggressors in the way they interact with women, especially in regard to sex. A form of demeaning control that women begin to experience far too young in age, which Teeth seeks to highlight except the girl we follow in this journey has quite the defense mechanism. Something that frightens her initially but proves quite useful. 

Spokesperson of a Christian abstinence group, Dawn (Jess Weixler) believes strongly against having sex before marriage. When she begins to have sexual feelings for a friend and they begin to become intimate, when she asks him to stop he persists in raping her while something in her vagina cuts his penis off. Horrified at what caused it she begins to look into what she has inside of her. 

Horror films typically have targets who should fear what they see on screen. In some cases all should be scared or only a specific population who get impacted by whatever scary entity exists out there wreaking havoc. The only population of individuals who should be scared of what gets presented in this film are those who do not believe in consent, which a large percentage of them in this movie startles. Therefore, if you’re a person who carries any level of decency this feature provides nothing to fear, allowing for this feature to exist as quite the dark comedy. 

Coming with quite an insane premise, this feature begs the question of what causes the teeth in Dawn’s vagina to activate and whether or not she has any level of control over it. Definitely something scary to even begin to comprehend as a young woman with no real knowledge about her genitalia. Having this occur to someone as entrenched in Christian beliefs where young women completely ignore anything down there because any real conversation about it would hint at the idea of promiscuity. It leaves her very much ill-informed about her body, which makes the trauma response to getting raped the first instance she becomes aware of this. 

Therefore, this raises the question of how active this teeth response will be in the feature as having multiple rape scenes for it appears would make for quite the uncomfortable film to watch, but as displayed through the narrative, it exists more so in her headspace and when it needs to come out. Essentially, do not do anything heinous while having penetrative sex with her and you should be fine, but this feature just lines up guy after guy who are simply the scum of the Earth. The first guy does the horrific act of raping but others act out in such stupid ways that they deserve everything they get. 

When the biting scenes occur, the feature presents them in a weirdly comedic manner as things go along. The first instance certainly brought fear because of the circumstances involved in how it transpired but the other occasions demonstrate a level of agency she has with the teeth in a way where she plays an active role in what it does to the perpetrators. It allows for the humor of this situation to appear in a starkly dark manner. Much of this gets sold by the performance given by Jess Weixler. Despite having to film some uncomfortable scenes because of the nature of the acts being displayed, when it gets to the more fun aspects of her character, she truly revels in displaying what power she suddenly has. She exhibits how this defense mechanism becomes a source of power she can hold over men and the way the feature unfolds shows that in exquisite style. 

Wisely uncomfortable and fun, Teeth presents a truly odd situation and has fun with it. Through the narrative, we get exposed to the different ways in which a girl or young woman could find herself in the position to be sexually assaulted but Dawn has something that protects her when those situations occur. It really highlights the horrible acts men and boys inflict on women and how vulnerable it leaves these women and girls. This feature has fun with this defense mechanism and what it ends up turning into for her allowing for plenty of entertainment mixed in with the general horror of the situation as well.