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Teeth (2007)

Director: Mitchell Lichtenstein

Time Out rating

Average user rating

26 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

I only hope this was conceived as a different beast to how it turned out: a risible B-horror about a vulnerable young suburban girl, Dawn (Jess Weixler), who is member of a chastity group with overtones of ‘True Love Waits’ and who is plagued with a man-eating vagina. Yes, Dawn has genitals with teeth. Some ancient myths might talk about vagina dentata, as writer-director Mitchell Lichtenstein clumsily quotes, but he may as well be basing ‘Jackass’ on Plato.

Dawn’s fangs come to life whenever sex is forced or unpleasurable: her first victim is a boyfriend who lures her to a cave; another is a gynaecologist who likes his job too much. I think Lichtenstein thinks he’s throwing a gift to womanhood – all the men who Dawn bites are sleazeballs or rapists, and there’s a gory focus on dismembered, er, members – but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen rape, incest or abuse dealt with so vapidly.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 1974, June 18-25, 2008

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User reviews of this film

Adam said...

Posted on Dec 01 2011 01:44 Its become too often that movies, TV and other media go out of their way to present men in general as over the top evil, sadistic rapists abusers and pedophiles even though the majority of men are not. However with a movie like teeth, the paradigm is that by portraying every man as a sexually predatory jerk, his mutilation can be seen as well deserved. Oh course the film is awash in feminist man hating philosophy by portraying men as one dimensional parodies of the gender, while of course imposing that females are the only gender with complexity and depth. Horror films for the most part are badly written and most don't care because they depend on a fairly mindless audience easily seduced by sensationalism devoid of actual plot, a sense of consequence and overused plot formulas, which is merely the lazy writer's expression of contempt for the audience. Teeth is no exception here, and while I'm certain there are plenty of feminist that will interpret a woman who willfully castrates or mutilates men as empowering or probably pay back for past films which victimized women, (they seem to forget men often died in horror movies of the past too) all that may happen is that as more men become tires of the demonized images of boys and men in media, the possible baacklash will being them no closer to achieving the very empathy they will need from men to achieve the equality they imagine they don't have. Teeth is directed and written by a man, which is really too bad. And the plot device once established pretty much tells you where the film is headed so you don't have to watch the reast of it, because as anyone knows, only male characters suffer consequences of brutal horrific violence while female characters rarely do. One assertion the film makes, which is in line with feminist concepts of the world is that we're suppose to believe EVERY man the film's monster encounters, MUST be a rapist or a sexual predator. And NO female character is without moral or ethical flaws. This is a badly written film with its blind hatred of men in full throttle. Too bad there will be obvious defenders who believe its comedic to have a movie about male genital mutilation. I wonder if they think the horrors of female genital mutilation can be just as funny.

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Tyson said...

Posted on Apr 22 2009 06:51 I wonder if some chicks have that LOL jk great movie....

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holly louise said...

Posted on Nov 04 2008 16:24 oh my god i have just found out who loves me
#

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lacey said...

Posted on Nov 04 2008 16:22 i think the film was great and i think jhon is will cute

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holly said...

Posted on Nov 04 2008 16:21 funny and i love matthew arter lol but anyway lol it was good

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holly said...

Posted on Nov 04 2008 16:18 the film was funny but the doctor bit was funny and the willy being lose but it was horribal and i wound hate to have that

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paul said...

Posted on Aug 06 2008 19:14 might appeal to 13 yr old girls and men hating feminists/ but its rubbish

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Peter said...

Posted on Jul 02 2008 02:56 I got dragged in to see this one by the girlfriend. Well, I could say that I can't wait until they make a film where a guy's bits suddenly turn into a multi-bladed jagged knife (like those the Klingons use) the moment he gets inside a girl and then proceeds to rip her bits to pieces. Then I could write a review of how we all squealed with laughter at the 'awesome' gory parts, and then recommend that every 15 year old boy should go and see it - -
- - Or I could seriously question the sick minds, personalities and motives of the women that go to see a film like Teeth and exclaim with glee that they find male genital mutilation 'Hilarious'!
Seriously depraved topic for seriously depraved audience.

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Barbara said...

Posted on Jul 01 2008 14:47 Ha! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!
teeth. Lol. This was a great film. I like Willies.

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Joy said...

Posted on Jun 27 2008 16:18 For the most part I agree with Julie L although to my mind it was very true to life (except of course that vagina dentata do not exist, but the scenarios (sadistic gynaecologists and exploitative boyfriends and other assorted males were very familiar). Don't get me wrong, of course there are decent men (even in the film her stepfather was such a man) but the film was about insensitive and sexually predatory males and, in that sense, it was highly accurate.
Sarah - at first I *did* think it should be a 12A or certainly a 15 but when I woke up the next morning and had a flashback to a couple of scenes I thought well maybe it *did* warrant the 18 rating after all. If they just removed two or three short clips, however, certainly the majority of the film was suitable for 12A. I thought the actress very good, she was very convincing.

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Jun 27 2008 09:15 i really could not find much not to like about this dark comedy and the audience were enjoying it immensely for the tiny budget it is made on ,but it is definitely tongue in cheek humor with it's vagina dentata and it certainly makes for a dark comedy with a moralist urban edge to it,i think the movie is very entertaining and has a wicked sense of humor which the british will definitely appreciate ,it was definitely not dull though slack in pace at times but it definitely delivered the message though why are some people finding the graphics offensive is beyond me as it is meant to be disgusting and it would be a failure if it did not get tasteless at times ,but it is a clever mockery of the sex culture of today and it works in a basic way ,i can understand why women love it certainly because it makes them feel stronger in the battle of sexes where they are meant to be the weaker sex ,this is a new way of looking at the angle of DATE RAPE and it works too .

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chris4749 said...

Posted on Jun 26 2008 21:10 I saw this film today and the cinema had alot of young girls in it.This film will become a cult Tarantino will like this one. I wish I had theeth.!!!!

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kay said...

Posted on Jun 26 2008 16:00 i am going to see this film 2night i read the reviews an it sounds pretty good.

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Sofie said...

Posted on Jun 26 2008 13:22 This film looks goos, and quite hilarious. I think its a bit random.. how did someone come up with that kind of plot???
Meh- i just want to know what happens in the end XD

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Sarah said...

Posted on Jun 24 2008 21:58 omg - am not old enuf 2 c this fil - but ii really wana ! sounds absolutely hilarious ! lmfao - wish it wo a 12A doo yoo think it shud b ppl ? - btw am 14 lol
lya xoxox

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