You can’t help but wonder what was going through the mind of writer and director Mitchell Lichtenstein when he sat down to hammer out the screenplay to 2007’s cult classic horror Teeth, because he would have known that a huge percentage of the population were guaranteed to cross their legs and wince as soon as they heard the concept.
Jess Weixler stars as Dawn, a member of her high school chastity club who finds latent feelings being stirred awake when she meets Hale Appleman’s Tobey. Naturally, things progress to certain bases as they tend to do when you’re that age, before the horrifying discovery is made that the ancient myth of vagina dentata is 100 percent true.
Colloquially known as “the movie where the girl has teeth in her vagina,” that also happens to sum up the story to a tee. However, there’s a rich vein of jet black humor and acerbic wit running through the narrative, as well as the requisite stomach-churning moments that make it one of those films you’ll watch once and then never have any notion of revisiting.
That being said, we’re more than 15 years on from Teeth gnashing its way to a spot at the forefront of the cultural conversation, and it remains as popular as ever. At least, it does on the forums of Reddit. There’s been an outpouring of love and admiration for the whip-smart and deliciously dark fable, not that it’s one to come heartily recommended for anyone who feels even the littlest bit squeamish about certain parts of the human anatomy being burdened with a specific addition that definitely isn’t supposed to be there.