I'm surprised nobody's reviewed this one yet. People have had to have heard about it. It's about a girl with teeth someplace other than her mouth. That's gotta be scary for the guys, at least. It's also kind of a silly idea for a horror movie so it took me a while to come around to seeing it. I'm surprised to say I was completely blown away. I'm flabbergasted that I could've seen two horror movies within such a short period of time that impressed me so much (the other was Drag Me To Hell).

First off, the film's about a girl, Dawn, who is something of a spokesperson for purity rings who goes around from school to school talking about abstinence and how rated R movies are bad. Of course, this all stems from her own bodily insecurities, with her having teeth described as "a cross between a shark and an eel" and all. What better way to bury them than to completely and unconditionally deny sex as part of human life. Unfortunately, she's a teenager and hormones start to kick in, not only for her but for guys who are interested in her. So right off the bat, you've got raging teen hormones, delibitating personal insecurities, staunch religious upbringing, and... teeth. Yeah, this ain't gonna end well.

Honestly, I was expecting something Slither-esque. Even the poster looks like Slither. There's definitely a comedic edge to it, don't get me wrong, but it's nothing like Slither. The first two acts are played completely, 100% straight. No comedy and at least, no horror in the horror movie sense. It feels like a serious coming-of-age film, albiet with a grotesque Cronenberg touch. Still, everything feels real so what transpires ends up hitting even harder and packed with mixed emotions.

There's naturally a lot of social commentary going on here as one would expect from the subject matter. At it's most specific, Teeth is an anti-rape film. On a broader scale, it's about how the female influence is demonized in society. At it's most basic though, I think it's about being vulnerable and feeling bad about being different, which kinda crosses the gender barrier and gives everyone an opportunity to relate. Dawn has to go through all of this as the story progresses. But as everyone should probably pick up, there's a shift in power down the line and that's when the humor and splatter stuff kicks in, full force. The third act is probably the least interesting, since it's the most straightforward, but it's still a lot of fun. The commentary is present the whole way through and it does get a little preachy at times but I think the raw subject matter is so bizarre that you can't help but try to think about it on a more psychological perspective.

So, of course, horror fans will dig this but it's really more of an experimental drama, like I said. There's a lot of Carrie influence so if you liked that, you'll probably like this. I suppose there's some Audition and Hard Candy in there as well. I think it's better than the latter but not as good as the former. Anyway, I'm really loving these female empowerment horror movies as they always have cool plots and being a guy, they're always scarier than the other ones.

So sink your teeth into this one ASAP!

This movie was friggin' awful!!

The acting was terrible and the story painfully ridiculous.  Any teen who saw it was probably so offended how purity rings and abstinence were forced down their throats that they probably went straight to the nearest alleyway and fucked out of rebellion.

I got the impression that the director and producer were trying to make an intentionally campy film for instant cult status.  If so, they failed miserably.


Phil

Haha, I thought I had wrote about this before, but maybe I never in the end.

I thought it was great, well in a stupid kinda way, It was a good, original idea that worked well enough and made for some incredibly painful moments watching. Not a film to be taken seriously but enjoyable at the same time.