“A powerful critique of America’s purity culture, TEETH is also an incisor sharp comedy on male entitlement, consent, and sexual violence.”
Teeth has gained an “urban legend” status since its release in 2007, but it is a film that has to be seen to be believed. Dawn O’Keefe (Jess Weixler) is a teen evangelist for the purity movement and spokesperson for a Christian abstinence group called “The Promise” in a small Midwest town. When her steadfast values are challenged and she finds herself in a dangerous situation with a new boy from school, Dawn’s entire world is changed when her body’s protective physical response reveals itself.
Mitchell Lichtenstein’s (son of famed American pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein) low-budget comedy-horror is one of the most shocking examples of a disconnect between a film’s content and its marketing. Despite making the film festival rounds in 2007 and receiving acclaim as a nuanced study of teen sexuality, consent, and violence, Teeth‘s distributors packaged it as a pure horror film, against the director’s intentions.
While Teeth has historically been defined by its shocking subject matter and failed marketing, many new fans in the 10+ years since its release have reclaimed it as a forward-thinking and empowering look at growing up as a young woman in conservative environments that thrive on lack of access to information about reproductive health.
Mitchell Lichtenstein | U.S.A. | 2007 | 94 minutes
