Horror Movie Night!

A bunch of the grads who are still in Tallahassee had a horror movie night a couple nights ago and we rented two movies I had never seen. First: Roman Polanski's 1968 feature Rosemary's Baby (love that poster!) which I had ridiculously never seen. It was shocking and horrible and the ending was creepy and disgusting. I completely loved it.

And then we rented Teeth, the comedy-horror film about a woman who has vagina dentata, or to be blunt: she has teeth inside of her vagina. They are some seriously powerful teeth, too.

Teeth is hilarious in a "2 girls 1 cup" kind of way. It's totally tasteless, vile, relentlessly campy, and
very very funny. The film tries very hard to be a feminist piece, as well. For starters, the heroine's vagina only attacks men who attempt to sexually abuse her in some way, which is cool. The film isn't about hating men; it's about how much men hate women and feel like they can take advantage and abuse them whenever they feel like it. The vagina dentata attacks when the woman is being sexually violated. And she is sexually violated constantly through the film. It got me thinking about how much women have to put up with. How constantly, women have to battle men who think that they have earned the right to exert sexual power over women. Teeth really upset me in a way, because of this.

Of course, I am analyzing the film rather more deeply than it is probably asking to be analyzed. I mean, Teeth is also crass and shocking, totally hammy and utterly shameless. There are some ridiculous shots of pseudo-vaginas: a tree trunk with a wide opening, a dripping scorpion's mouth, etc. And lots of making fun of groups that preach abstinence. But be warned. Men get their penises cut off in this film and the filmmakers are not afraid to show severed penises in their movie. Teeth is not for the faint of heart. I thought it was hilarious fun, but I could see how it could be very troubling to some.