I never reread my posts and they are therefore riddled with grammar and spelling errors. Enjoy!

Friday 19 July 2013

Teeth


I am back, as promised, with my next review. Trying to keep the ball rolling. My most recent review is horror/black comedy called 'Teeth'. 

The story really with a young, pretty blonde girl providing a speech on purity and chastity to a group of young people at a community center, and how sex should be something only engaged in after marriage. There she meets Tobey, a new boy and friend of her other 'pro-purity' pals. After this, we are introduced to Dawn's sick mother, father and older step brother, Brad, who is everything she isn't. He like's death metal, tattoos, rottweilers and questionable sex.

After spending some time with Tobey and getting to know him, she discovers his motives aren't entirely pure, and neither is his past. After Tobey's intentions become more sinister, Dawn discovers a secret of her own.

Spoilers from hereon in


So yes, this is a film about a girl with teeth in her vagina. And no, surprisingly, it's not as much of a trainwreck as it sounds. I apologize, by the way, for my second 'anti-male film' review. It's highly coincidental, I assure you. I just happened to be watching 'Teeth' and thought 'Why not review it?' 

The acting  is pretty good from the story's main actress, Jess Weixler. Brilliant in fact. I'd love to see her in some other films, I'm sure she was nominated for the a minor acting award here and there for her role as Dawn. The acting overall is okay actually. If you've seen Nip/Tuck, you'll recognise John Hensley who is pretty much just playing Matt McNamara a'la season 3, with a few added tattoos. All the other youngsters are your usual teen horror fodder, they know how to scream pretty well and can hold their own acting wise, as with the parents, who are very decent. 


Visually, the film is riddled with obvious yonic and religious imagery, as well as sexually dangerous imagery, spanning from Medusa to a sort of fanged crab... thing, from a film I can't place, that's playing on her television at one point. Metaphors pretty much punch you in the face left, right and center. Like the very pointed shots of the beautiful, rural town in which she lives, spoiled by the power plant just behind it, spilling fumes and ruining the town's picturesque purity. It's no grand cinematic experience, but it's well pieced together. The incidental music is nothing to write home about, very typical. I have no real praises or criticisms.

The script is very good, very clever and at times a little surreal. It's also sometimes surprisingly funny, especially a lot of Dawn's dialogue. I particularly enjoyed the moments where her and her friends were deciding what film they could allow themselves to watch when going to the cinema. The storyline itself is somewhat original. I guess she's a new school femme fatale, but most of the castrations happen to those who deserve it.

And by deserve it, I mean 99% percent of the men who suffer Dawn's wrath are either rapists or take serious sexual advantage in positions of trust, and that 1%?... he's warranted, trust me. Dawn's struggle is written very well, and she doesn't suddenly become a man hating, penis chomper overnight, there is genuine moral dilemma, and her pain at her treasured loss of purity is strongly evident. 

Now to the part everyone wants to know about... the castration scenes. This is the second film with a castration theme I've reviewed. Again, boys, I apologise. I'll be honest, whilst the fact it's fake blood and rubber with tubing is clear, it's pretty graphic and is enough to turn your stomach, even if you're a girl. Some are more realistic than others, but they're all pretty grusome. The film isn't riddled with them, but there are a few. A guy also loses a few fingers in both a disturbing and amusing scene. I couldn't decide which it was more, and I'm also unsure how it managed to be both.

Pretty good film that will put men off sex for life. Be prepared to spend the next few days recoiling from your girlfriend's touch. Good rewatch factor too.

Script: 6.5/10:
Cinematography: 5/10
Acting: 7.5/10
Story: 8/10
Direction: 7/10

 Overall: 7/10


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