Teeth (2008)

Girls have a natural modesty. Teeth is based around the myth of vagina dentate, where it was believed that in some ladies a set of teeth were hiding away in their vagina. The lady in question here is Dawn O’Keefe (Jess Wexler), a comely virgin, teenage spokesperson for Christian abstinence, from a very young age it was clear something was not right. A great and interesting premise is never truly fulfilled for maximum potential here, but with slices of dark humour, some cringe inducing prosthetic gore and a bold performance from Wexler, Mitchell Lichtenstein’s film safely keeps its head above mediocrity. The makers are dallying with a number of unsubtle themes, from female empowerment to the fear of sex in general, and of course the perils of letting shallow hormones dictate the teenage mandate. There’s even dashes of obsession, religio slights and a meditation on grief that earths the electricity buzzing about the hormonal place. Thankfully, Lichtenstein keeps away from I Spit On Your Grave territory, finding a nice balance for Dawn, she is a character bombarded with a myriad of emotional conflicts, but hysteria does not dominate her make-up, and she’s never cartoonish either. View it more as a genre splicer than outright horror and better rewards await the interested observer. 6/10