Oral Fixation

I wish the cast and crew of Oral Fixation well, but not the film that they created. It's a bargain-basement psycho-horror flick, that I should have known going in and did to an extent. But I also had some hope that it being an independent movie that it might try a little harder under the radar, and having won a few awards at minor festivals. It's not even so much a horror movie, if one may get that impression from the cover (my first thought was 'ah, The Dentist with a girl, I like that concept).

It's mostly just a stale retread of psycho-stalker flicks like Fatal Attraction, all the way down to a similar abduction of a little kid with a very nasty side-effect. Some of the actors do their best with it, but it's not much to work with to start and so it's mostly one-note; Emily Parker, who may keep some men glued due to some large natural breasts (sorry, I don't mean to sound like a pig, but they stick out in a story that give her nothing to work with an actual actor), is also one-note as a killer. At least she gets some chance to go over the top with bug- eyes and a big goofy psycho-smile. Other actors like Kerry Aissa and Aidan Sullivan eventually turn up with the same exasperated expressions on their faces, scene to scene.

And the plot isn't much of a help, going through a few hackneyed twists surrounding the 'did he or didn't he' form of betrayal between the dentist, his wife and the crazy girl who loves to get her teeth cleaned without anesthesia. Even the one aspect, her loony pain-in-pleasure fetish-motif drilled in by a-hole father, doesn't give Oral Fixation or the character of Rachel Marks any added interest. And even the other aspect of the horror element I had hoped for in a cringe-worthy manner- of the very creepy approach to shoot torture via teeth drilling and knocking out ala The Dentist and The Dentist 2- is lacking. And that final scene of the movie, along with other scenes, had me howling laughing.

Not many of the decisions or things characters do make much sense, the film opens with little good context for us, and the fight scenes are given the kind of touch that would make film school teachers' heads spin ala The Exorcist (seriously, saying EACH LINE as you HIT your TARGET with a CLUB is so TIRED). Oh, and as another Minor pet peeve, useless color tinting in the early scenes of the movie for almost no reason except to establish the POV from Rachel Marks... which is DROPPED after this anyway. Pretty sad.

Rachel (Emily Parker) has an unhealthy fixation with Paul, her dentist, when she's not sneaking in his house to spy on him, she's mutilating her mouth in order to see him and deviously planning to make the happily married dentist her own. Turns out that her father experimented on her messing up her brain real bad or some such nonsense.

The acting is sub-par for the most part and the plot-line is a tad too silly to take seriously. I'm glad that I found this on Instant Netflix so it's not like I went out of my way to view it, or wasted my money on it, if I did it's likely that I'd be harder on the film than I am now. It's not all bad, as Miss Parker has fairly nice breasts but maybe I'm just stretching to think of anything that I liked about the film.

Eye Candy: Emily Parker & Aidan Sullivan both get topless, but Aidan only shows her left breast

My Grade: D-

After hearing about the handful of awards Oral Fixation won at the Long Island International Film Expo I figured I would check this one out. I was pleasantly surprised...well, maybe not pleasantly. To be honest, I was creeped out by it. Emily Parker's character had me uneasy throughout the film. She reminded me that there really are crazy people in the world. Her Best Actress award was well earned. Parker may steal the show, but the plot kept me guessing until the very end.

Additionally, this is no third rate film. The production is very well done and clearly well directed (Cashill won Best Director). It's hard to believe this was done independently and not by a major production company. Oral Fixation is definitely worth a watch, but beware you might be freaked out for a few days.

You know....friends and family of the production team do a movie no favours by unrealistically raising expectations about it in reviews and suchlike. Far better give an honest statement of its strengths and weaknesses. I mean this movie was an OK effort...but then I am very tolerant of formulaic and unimaginative horror movies. Too much time on my hands. But reading the comments so far, I was naive enough to expect something special....which this movie, sadly, wasn't. Still thanks for entertaining me for an hour or so. Kinda. Now to fill up the required ten lines for an IMDb review. To discuss the plot maybe. Pointless really. Nothing too special there. Still. Bourgouis dentist falls prey to unrealistic psychotic woman. She pulls out some teeth. Not very exciting from thereon.

First, a note of caution: there's a very early, unfinished rough cut of the film circulating on the internet, released by someone who has since been dealt with legally and otherwise. Sadly, the rough cut has been downloaded and reviewed a handful of times, and the reviews are justifiably poor, considering what the downloaders were presented with. Such is life in the age of the internet.

As for the final version of ORAL FIXATION, it's a dark, almost fantastical tale which was inspired by a true story that took place on Long Island, NY, in the 1980s. The real story centered on a dentist who felt compelled to uproot, pull his child from school, move towns and switch his home telephone number because a female patient of his had become obsessed with him for reasons I will not reveal here.

What you will see in this film, although bizarre, is not that far from the truth. And in light of recent cases of obsession, such as that of the female astronaut who drove 900 miles non-stop wearing an adult diaper to allegedly murder a romantic rival, the events portrayed in ORAL FIXATION my seem even less out-of-the-ordinary.

Budget constraints limited our ability to fully explore the scope of the story, but what we were able to deliver is, in our opinion, a fast-moving, engaging genre pic that sheds light on a particularly dark side of human nature.