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HORROR 101: THE A-LIST OF HORROR FILMS AND MONSTER MOVIES  VOL 1

(2007)
Directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein
Starring Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, Hale Appleman, Lenny von Dohlen,
Vivienne Benesch, Ashley Springer, Julio Garro, Adam Wagner

When you make a film about a young girl developing teeth in her…lower region, you have a very difficult task at hand.  It would be so easy to go overboard, and go the pure grindhouse/exploitation route.  But writer/director Mitchell Lichtenstein created something that was still outrageous and dark, but still manages to keep it from going over the top.

Jess Weixler plays Dawn, a high school student who is very passionate about keeping her virtue, her purity, her virginity.  She gives motivational pep talks to fellow students and younger audiences at these “Promise” meetings, which wants them to promise to keep their sexual urges on hold until they get married.  But unbeknownst to Dawn, she has a set of choppers between her legs, otherwise known as the fabled vagina dentata.

She lives at home with her mother, step-father, and her step brother.  Her brother is the complete opposite of her, mean, offensive, and with a deep dark desire to screw his half-sister.  He seems to have a girl always in his room for sex and to get high with.  And for some reason, has a preference for anal sex.  Could it be due to something that happened to him in his childhood with his half-sister?

Dawn becomes friends with a new kid in school, who seems to have the same beliefs about the ‘promise’.  But when her new friend gets a little too heated up, and he forces himself on her, they both discover that her self defense mode kicks in, chomps down, and bites off.  Frantic, Dawn starts to discover more about her body, her urges, and what she needs to do.

Lichtenstein does an incredible job here keeping everything in balance.  There’s humor, gore, and very dark emotions, but he is able to keep all of that in the film without going over the top on any level.  Even when dealing with the subject of date rape, you can’t really get to a darker place.  But he still holds the borders firm, and can still make an impact.  Though, with each...attack, the mood is a little different.  We go from horror, to humor, to revenge, with an even more twisted humorous end.

There’s plenty of messages here, depending on what you what to take from it.  In just about every scene of the town, we see two huge nuclear towers on the horizon, feeling the air with smoke.  Is this the cause of her mutation?  As Dawn becomes aware of her sexuality, and the dangers of it (not only for her, but for her partners), she has to understand the results of her actions, and come to terms with it.

Of course, there's not a man alive that could watch this film and not have these thoughts going through his head at some point later on.  Like when he's with a woman.  Freud had always said that no matter what man is scared of, it all comes down to the fear of castration.  And for once, there's a movie where you don't have to reach to fit that into the subject matter.  Because it is the subject matter!

As good as the writing and direction are, if not for Jess Weixler in the lead, who’s to say how this film would have turned out.  Weixler portrays Dawn with such innocents that we really believe her.  We believe that she has no idea of the pleasures that are waiting for her when she breaks her ‘promise’.  When she does, we see her transformation from a young innocent, to someone who starts to understand her power, and what she needs to do with it.  And because of Weixler, she makes that all seem real.

The rest of the cast does as outstanding job as well.  John Hensley plays the sick and twisted brother.  But even though he is easy to despise, Hensley does give a glimmer of reasoning for his actions and feelings.

Dimension has released under their Extreme label, which comes with audio commentary by Lichtenstein.  It also has some deleted scenes, with optional commentary, trailer and TV spots.  There is also a good featurette about the making of the film, interviewing plenty of cast and crew about not only the film, but the basic subject matter.

Though the film is a little slow to start off with, we would still highly recommend everyone have patience.  Once it gets a hold of you, you won’t be able to get away.