Film

Teeth

Josh Bell

Like most teenagers, Dawn (Weixler) is a little uncomfortable with her changing body, and confused about her burgeoning sexual feelings. Unlike most teenagers, though, Dawn has a unique reason to be concerned: She possesses the mythical anatomical feature known as vagina dentata, which means she has a set of sharp teeth down in her special place.

Dawn starts the film out feeling as afraid of her sexuality as everyone else has reason to be; she’s the spokesperson for a teen abstinence group, and disgusted with her degenerate older stepbrother (Hensley), who spends his days listening to death metal and aggressively screwing his girlfriend. But when another seemingly wholesome Christian teen forces himself on Dawn and takes her “precious gift” from her, she discovers that her freakish anatomy has a useful purpose: revenge.

Writer-director Lichtenstein’s horror-comedy is a weird sort of empowerment fable, with the timid Dawn gradually gaining self-confidence via a series of gruesome castrations. The film’s portrayal of men is rather harsh, but it shows that Dawn really does need a weapon of sorts in order to successfully navigate such treacherous terrain. Horror as a metaphor for puberty is nothing new, but like Carrie and the cult werewolf movie Ginger Snaps, Teeth seriously explores the often neglected perils of female sexual awakening and the trauma and shame that can come along with it.

It’s less successful as a satire of the abstinence movement or of suburban double standards, but Lichtenstein throws in plenty of subversive humor, connecting Dawn to the atomic-age monsters of 1950s sci-fi by putting her house in the shadow of a nuclear power plant and having old creature features pop up on background TVs. And the graphic gross-out shots of severed penises are absurdly hilarious, whether your laughter is out of discomfort or wish-fulfillment.

Weixler gives a strong performance reminiscent of a young Winona Ryder, and Josh Pais is funny in a small role as an entirely inappropriate gynecologist. The pacing is a little slack, and the idea of the movie may be more transgressive and shocking than the movie itself. But that the movie manages to successfully transcend shock value is probably its greatest accomplishment.

Teeth

***

Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Hale Appleman

Directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein

Rated R

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