Reel DVD
R4 DVD
One
of the strangest myths is that of the Vagina dentate. The term is Latin for
toothed vagina. There has been much discussion in psychological literature
about the development of this legend. Many believe it evolved due to man’s
resentment against needing someone beyond himself and hence man develops a
love/hate relationship with women. He needs a woman for both pleasure and
reproduction but wishes he didn’t. Others see it as a cultural myth which
evolved as a defence against rape. In Freudian psychoanalysis the Vagina dentate
is held to relate to the unconscious fears associated with a lack of sexual
potency and even the castration complex.
Teeth
combines the legend of the Vagina dentate with a perverse and bizarre coming of
age tale, mixed along the way with social commentary about sex education and
the abstinence movement.
The
film opens as Dawn and her stepbrother are kids playing in a pool. He shows her
“his” and when she shows him “hers”, he gets a rude shock and his finger is nearly bitten off. Clearly there is
something strange about Dawn. We then fade to her teen years. She inhabits a
suburb in conflict epitomized by her home, a clean urban house with two large
smoke stacks behind it. Her family is also in conflict, her mother is dying and
while she promotes abstinence her brother is a bong smoking, metal head with an
aggro dog.
Dawn
lectures at her local school about the importance of purity and runs the local
chapter of the “Promise” movement where boys and girls wear a red ring to
symbolize their virginity. The school “sex ed” classes has stickered over
images of the woman’s anatomy to protect the natural modesty of the girls of
the school.
Dawn
is unaware of her body and has not really experienced sexual desire, until she
meets Tobey. He looks nice and even seems to understand her desire for purity
and abstinence. But when they get together at an isolated local swimming hole
he gets carried away and before long she bares her teeth and his member is a
thing of the past !
Teeth
explores Dawn’s experience of her growing sexuality, her rejection of abstinence
and her realization that she owns her own body and pleasure is her own to
explore. She develops a relationship with a young man and finds she can allow
herself to enjoy her body without the teeth intervening, but when he admits he
seduced her as part of a dare, he pays a very high price.
Dawn
is now an empowered woman with a unique weapon, she disposes of her step
brother teeth style and hits the road.
This
is a very eccentric horror film combining a coming of age tale, a unique take
on the monster/creature feature and reflections on women’s sexuality, abstinence
and Puritanism. It certainly has its moments of violence and gore (and quite a
few bitten off appendages) but generally is a black horror comedy with a unique
approach to its admittedly unusual subject matter.
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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