Teeth

Dawn (Jess Weixler) is not like the other girls. For one thing, she's in high school and still a complete virgin. But also, she has a set of vicious teeth inside of her woman parts. And, wouldn't you know it, those boys just can't leave their mitts off of her... bad news for everyone involved.

I have to give plenty of credit to writer/director Mitchell Lichtenstein, who is surprisingly older than you might expect for this sort of material. The only film I can even compare to this one as far as controversial subject matter is "Sick Girl". Lichtenstein, what other goodies do you have in store for us? Jess Weixler, who plays Dawn O'Keefe, was largely unknown but is now taking off... I suspect it has something to do with this role. The film seems to have a strong cult following, as I've heard about it multiple times in the past few years, despite not ever receiving a theatrical release and getting ignored by many mainstream outlets.

The film shows penises -- a handful of them -- but not vaginas (a parallel to the textbook incident); is this "modesty"? It's an interesting reversal where naked women are traditionally most acceptable in films. Even soft-core has no problem showing women mostly nude while shooting men at strange angles to avoid the slip of any genitalia.

Jim Emerson, taking the place of Roger Ebert, ties this in to horror and science fiction history. "The 1950s sci-fi premise would be that Dawn is the unfortunate victim of radioactivity, but there's something else in the air (and maybe the water) here. It's called sexuality, and it permeates her everyday life: from pop culture (parental-advisory lyrics, R and PG-13-rated movies) to anatomical textbook illustrations in health class to the hormones and pheromones that hang heavily in the atmosphere, like the fetid steam in a gymnasium locker room. Everywhere she turns, Dawn the dental damsel-in-distress is surrounded by temptation." Emerson takes this is a bit far at times. The lyrics and movies part is his speculation, not made apparent in the film. And yes, while she does live in a world of temptation, she does not actually seem all that interested in boys. She easily maintains her virginity for a fair portion of the film, despite men's advances. He is correct to show that the sci-fi aspect is played down. While there is clearly heavy pollution in her backyard, we are never given that topic directly. This is never an anti-pollution film, despite that being the implied source of Dawn's mutation.

Emerson also draws the horror parallel: "While 'Carrie' is the obvious influence (with genital transmogrification instead of telekinesis, and the other sex doing the bulk of the bleeding), 'Teeth' could be seen as a 'Reefer Madness' for the New Chastity Generation. The camp sensibility, however, is fully self-aware." Yes, the campiness is self-aware, and "Carrie" is hardly like "Reefer Madness" and the connection is pretty much a teenage girl going through life changes and lashing out on those who oppress her. The men doing the bleeding? That's a stretch... lay off the literary criticism when analyzing films.

Anyway, "Teeth" is a must-see for sure. More and more often it seems that the underground films are the ones worth seeing, and this is no exception. You could go see the latest theater triumph (as I type this, it's "The Last Exorcism"), but I assure you that you'll find Lichtenstein's "Teeth" to be far more satisfying and memorable.

Playing into the male fear of castration is what adds the horror element into the movie. I would argue that the premise alone makes this movie worth seeing. Although the film doesn't take itself too seriously (which is a good thing in my opinion) it still explores the idea of sexual freedom for women as having vangina dentata would make women immune to sexual abuse. As near the end of the movie Dawn realizes that what she thought was a curse can be gift as well. In short; it is a good horror movie with a side of dark humor that explores the themes of chastity, sexual abuse and pubenscence.

A new evolution of horror as arrived with the new film, Teeth. Teeth tells the story of Dawn O'Keefe (Jess Weixler), a young abstinent teenager who comes to find out that her "family jewels" are much more special than everyone else's; her vagina has teeth. When she comes to realize her "differences" she starts to battle with her sexuality and wanting to act on her impulses.

This has definitely revolutionized the horror genre along with some awkward comedy, Teeth holds interest for the viewer throughout. From a woman's perspective I'm not sure how the film would be received, but from a man, to put it plainly simple, it scares the ever living crap out of me. The film holds nothing to the imagination as it shows the most graphic images I've seen on film in quite sometime.

Other than graphic imagery, the storyline isn't as strong as images. There's no flow to the story and pretty random at times as it conquers the steps of gross and unfortunate adolescence. The performances are enough to suffice but its John Hensley who plays Brad, Dawn's perverted step-brother who wants to take his sister's virginity that stands out. Young Dawn takes on some new attitudes throughout the film and Weixler attends to her with grace and ease.

Not sure if this is a must-see for people, but it compares to The Matrix scenario when Morpheus presents the red pill and the blue pill. You can take the blue pill, the dream ends and you can believe whatever you want to believe; you take the red pill, you get to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

**½ /****

This is an independent film that has not one actor or actress I have ever heard of, but, wow, is it original! The characters don't even have last names in their credits. They are just Dawn, Tobey, Bill, etc.

Dawn is a high school girl who has taken a pledge of chastity until marriage. She is a classical beauty, a rather Scandinavian looking girl. She has a wastoid of a stepbrother (her stepdad's son) who spends his time sleeping, having rampant casual sex with a slew of girls, and keeping a "pet" attack dog in a cage in his room.

Well, unfortunately, Dawn's first sexual experience, with a boy who seems so nice and so sweet on her, turns into assault with devastating effects on the boy, that being death. Dawn is at first horrified by what has happened, does some internet research, and realizes she has "teeth" down there. At first she feels like this is some kind of punishment, some kind of chastity belt, but then she realizes that these teeth only attack when she feels violated. As she learns to control these "teeth" she begins to feel empowered. And although the journey is unpredictable, the destination is entirely predictable from about a quarter of the way into the film. That's the reason I don't give it an eight.

There is not an over abundance of gore, just enough so that you see what happened. I will say the film does have men coming off as very opportunistic, either that or Dawn is the unluckiest girl in the history of the world. And the film has one quirky gimmick. Throughout the film you see two towers of a nuclear power plant. The assumption you might make is that Dawn has this physical feature from growing up in the plant's shadow. But not one word is ever spoken about it. That's what makes it great. The film doesn't lecture you about anything that happens here. It just tells a story and leaves the viewer to draw their own conclusions, and it really works as a dark comedy/horror combo. I'd recommend it.

Not everyone will take to Teeth, a comedy slash horror that at times stretches moral and sociopolitical boundaries, as well as people's tolerance to its contents.

It's a movie that I find difficult to explain, mainly because it feels like something that doesn't seem aware of its own identity, much like the characters, naive teenagers, who are finding their independence as well as their place in the world.

Teeth starts out playful, almost dream-like, where everything seems wonderful, reminding me of the flower power days of the 60s and 70s. The main character Dawn O'Keefe, played very well by Jess Weixler, is a virgin who advocates at her school the idea of staying 'pure' until marriage. All appears positive and blissful as she gains a big following at her addresses to the students, but Teeth doesn't remain innocent and neither do its characters.

Quite abruptly, the movie takes a twisted turn and things become increasingly chaotic and violent. It's beginnings and ending are so far apart from each other in every way imagineable and as I said some viewers may find its extremities difficult to digest. Along its jumbled journey it jumps from comedy to horror to moralistic to political to pornography and I found it difficult at times to understand its message, which it obviously is intended to have - a message, but as I said it doesn't come through clearly.

Teeth is, if nothing else, an original movie and at times thought proking and I respect that about it, in a genre where most comedy slash horrors are copies of each other. Just don't expect everyone to like it and don't expect to feel particularly satisfied at its conclusion.