Just finished watching the unclassifiably weird and freakishly mythological horror film,
Teeth (2007).
Quote:The horror genre thrives on metaphor, and in exploiting the myth of "vagina dentata," Mitchell Lichtenstein's grisly B-movie Teeth has found a doozy. From the Latin meaning "toothed vagina," the myth generally expresses a fear of castration, and was originally meant as a warning to men about having sex with strange women, but Lichtenstein has cleverly reversed perspectives. In Teeth, this shocking anomaly evolves into a David Cronenberg-like expression of psychic distress, as a prim teenage girl undergoes a coming of age that's frightening at first, then oddly emboldening, once she realizes her sexual leverage. It's a brilliant concept for a horror movie, not least because the genre is usually so dedicated to male gratification, but the material requires a consistent tone, and first-time director Lichtenstein can't quite get a handle on it.
For the rest of the review:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/teeth,3126/
As for the cinematics and storytelling? I give the first time director,
Mitchell Lichtenstein, more credit. The director inherited his artistic eye from his really famous Pop artist,
Roy Lichtenstein.
What makes it so potent is it manages to keep its mystery a mystery and no attempt to actually touch upon an explanation (outside of loose implications and a few not so deeply thought out speculations on the theory of this case of
vagina dentata. I believe it should become an ageless classic of the horror genre.
It truly is a female empowering horror film if it could actually be labeled as such.
