New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

Teeth
Lionsgate

6.9 based on 22 reviews Read critic reviews How did we calculate this? based on 13 votes Read user comments Rate this movie

• Internet Movie Database
• Official Studio Site

MPAA RATING: R for disturbing sequences involving sexuality and violence, language and some drug use

Starring Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, and Hale Appleman

High school student Dawn works hard at suppressing her budding sexuality by being the local chastity group’s most active participant. Her task is made even more difficult by her bad stepbrother Brad’s increasingly provocative behavior at home. A stranger to her own body, innocent Dawn discovers she has a toothed vagina when she becomes the object of violence. As she struggles to comprehend her anatomical uniqueness, Dawn experiences both the pitfalls and the power of being a living example of the vagina dentata myth. (Lionsgate)

GENRE(S):	Comedy  |  Horror
WRITTEN BY:	Mitchell Lichtenstein
DIRECTED BY:	Mitchell Lichtenstein
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 6, 2008  Theatrical: January 18, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	88 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A clever and affecting thriller/comedy about a subject that absolutely cannot be written about in a daily newspaper or website that's for a general audience. The film is a giddy pastiche of styles -- slasher picture, faith film, social satire, teen romp, '50s atom bomb monster movie -- and it makes you laugh and squirm and grin in appreciation.

80

Film Threat Jamie Tipps

Like a deranged version of “Clueless,” the film is light-hearted, yet subversive, displaying a surprisingly wicked bite…literally.

80

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Campy, shameless and sophisticated, Lichtenstein's debut is gutsy and original, and it makes "Juno" look positively tame by comparison.

75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The film should have the edgy wit of "Election" here, but instead is played so straight it's hard to make the shift when things start getting really crazy. But stick with it and you'll be rewarded with a new kind of superhero and a couple of the ghastliest, most outrageous penis jokes ever imagined.

75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Teeth is not only odd but it's genre-defying. The film doesn't limit its field of choice: it's a black comedy, it's a drama about teen angst, it's a romance gone bad, it's a B-grade horror film, it's an allegory about female empowerment.

75

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A smart and creepy fable in which the myth of the vagina dentata - yes, a toothed sex organ - is transplanted to teen suburbia.

75

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Funny, very clever and still packs some cover-your-face bloody thrills that top any "Saw" or "Hostel" movie.

70

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The most alarming cautionary tale for men with wandering libidos since "Fatal Attraction." It may also be the first horror movie that women drag men to see rather than the reverse.

67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Director Mitchell Lichtenstein finds new ground in the over-tilled suburbia of David Lynch and John Waters.

67

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

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 (son of pop artist Roy) can't quite get a handle on it.

63

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An anti-date movie if there ever was one, Teeth is a darkly engaging if uneven horror movie spoof centering on men's fear of castration.

63

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Teeth is the "Incredible Hulk" of sex satires.

63

Chicago Tribune Tasha Robinson

Teeth is about female exploitation and male castration.

60

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

This is going to be a notorious film that young audiences will be daring themselves to see, but it's actually funnier, darker and more troubling before it turns into a carnival of repeated dismemberment.

60

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Most of the movie works because the blonde Weixler has a darling-daffy face (a pinch of Alicia Silverstone, a dollop of Drew Barrymore) and a should-I-or-shouldn’t-I ambivalence about sex that’s part realism, part screwball.

50

Village Voice Jim Ridley

Veteran actor Lichtenstein, the son of Pop artist Roy, rarely finds a workable tone, muffling the splattery mayhem with sluggish pacing and a tendency toward camp. Still, even if the movie's little more than a curio, I love the thought of Lichtenstein at the pitch meeting: "It's Jaws meets The Vagina Monologues!"

50

Variety Todd McCarthy

A game, disarming lead performance from Jess Weixler, who won a jury acting prize at Sundance, goes some way toward making palatable this mish-mash, whose provocative nature could carve out a certain commercial niche.

50

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Teenage horror-movie spoof, John Waters parody, No Nukes protest movie, twisted sex-education film, quasi-feminist fable, outrageous stunt: Mitchell Lichtenstein’s clever, crude comedy, Teeth, is all these and more.

50

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Turnabout is fair play, to be sure, but ultimately virtually everyone in Teeth ends up using sex as a weapon, edged or otherwise, to the detriment of all concerned. Just say "Ow."

50

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The film's mix of cheap gags, macabre coming-of-age story, social satire and Cronenbergian body horror is apparently meant to gel into black comedy, but it never quite does.

40

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

There's no scarier myth for males, and Mr. Lichtenstein turns various images of emasculation into a black comedy that flirts, fairly tediously, with pornography.

38

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Lichtenstein's putative switcheroo on the Vagina Dentata trope is to play it as some kind of token of female empowerment, but it's pretty clear that the writer/director didn't think things through on any counts, contenting himself that the putative outrageousness of the concept could see him through.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

P Alex gave it a6:
When I watched the trailer I really thought this could be a good movie because of its original content. But the humor and drama don't hold up well over the poor pacing and unreasonable direction it takes. The main character is pretty but seriously, no man seems to be able to cross her path without wanting to rape her?

Einar J. gave it an8:
Surprising! The whole affair was satyrical, acted well, and gory. It reminds me fiercely of the Kill Bill series (actress, gore and such). But the real spark in Teeth is the wonderful heroine/villain. Just out there, full of ideas. The directing could have been improved, but I still adore this album.

Chad S. gave it a6:
Concerning Dawn's killer vagina, the filmmaker had two choices. The vagina could either be in tune with Dawn's mind, or a rogue element in the girl's body that tunes her out. The filmmaker decided that a telepathic vagina, rather than an impervious vagina, better served his story. When Dawn(Jess Weixler) senses trouble, her "p****" throws a hissy fit and acts on the girl's behalf. The men get what they deserve. Their advances are either non-consensual(to be frank, it's rape), or duplicitous. But what if Dawn actually fell in love, and wanted to express her love physically? Now that's one vagina monologue I'd love to hear; a plea to her vagina that it grant passage to a benevolent, albeit "angry" penis. Ryan(Ashley Springer) looks like he's in love with Dawn, but inexplicably, the film turns him into a rapist. This awkward tonal shift clumsily introduces the truth about Dawn's vagina. If "Teeth" had a brain, and more importantly, a heart and soul, it actually had the makings of an "Edward Scissorshands" for girls.

Jay H. gave it a6:
The plot is certainly unique in this very unusual film that is darkly funny. It is not for all tastes, but is well paced and it certainly can be entertaining. Well acted.

viiv gave it a6:
One of the achievements of this movie is to present the audience with a question: When does a man deserve to have his genitalia violently removed? The answer is easy to come by since the writer neglects to include any positive male roles in the film. As the hero gets used to her newfound power, the audience is prompted to laugh (in horror, but laughter nonetheless) when she performs a spontaneous penectomy on a high school kid, simply because she regretted having had sex with him. I challenge someone to make a movie like this where the roles are reversed, where a man runs around mutilating women's genitalia for reasons ranging from serious to completely frivolous. I doubt anyone could accept the mutilator as the protagonist, as was the case in this movie. In terms of technique, the movie was well done, but the unabashed man-hating gets a little old.

Jake T. gave it a0:
I don't why reviewers have been singing this film undue praise. This film is like Lorena Bobbitt's wet dream. Movies like this should be banned. The only people who would miss sexual mutilation in movies are sick psychos. Would you promote a movie where the protagonist was a man who went around destroying women's vaginas? I think it's a red flag that our society has become ridiculously misandric when an entire film is dedicated to destroying the body part that defines men as men. I've also never heard of a horror in which all the victims are one gender. I smell a hate crime. I bet all the victims are white too. Of course if all the victims weren't white males, it would be viewed as a hate crime. I hate being a white man, because few sympathize with us for the racist sexist hatred and psychological rape we have to endure. It seems that people actually endorse this. A friend of mine told me that one of the victims in the movie isn't even a rapist, he just tells about his consentual encounter with her, then she punishes him the worst way for that. Anyone who finds this film amusing (especially women) are doing Satan's work. He's the only one who could rejoice at sexual mutilation. Those that support this tripe, will have only themselves to blame when it starts to show women being treated in the same way in movies. After all, people are going to get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. Speaking of which, isn't this film a little redundant? Castration over and over again... *throws up* That's the one thing I never want to see in a movie, and now a whole movie is dedicated to it.

Brian G. gave it a0:
Complete and utter misandrist filth. I'd just love to see the reaction of those who praise TEETH if, instead, someone had introduced a film in which the male protagonist destroyed women's genitalia. Is our societal hatred of men actually reached the level that this is the next logical step?

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums