TEETH Bites With Superhero Vibe
The upcoming horror film Teeth, directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein, is being described as a superhero origin film.
Teeth is an unusual story about a young girl, Dawn, who is the living embodiement of "the vagina dentata myth".
Actress Jess Weixler stars at Dawn and in an interview with SCI FI Wire she looked at the role as a superhero origin. "Yes, I was hesitant to take the part at first, but then when the director (Mitchell Lichtenstein) explained it to me as the beginning of a superhero who is trying to find out what this vagina dentata thing is all about, then it made more sense to me," said Weixler, "She figures out she is part of an evolutionary process, and she goes on to find herself. ... By the end, she think she's sexy and a woman who has this unique thing."
The film premiered last year at Sundance and Weizler won a Special Jury Prize for her performance.
Theeth is directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein. And it was Lichtenstein who truly encouraged the superhero outtlook in convincing Weixler to take the part. "The way I convinced her that this was a cool part was to have her look at this like Peter Parker did when he found out he had some of his special talents that turned him into Spider-Man," Lichtenstein said. "In a lot of ways, this is an origin movie of a female superhero who will take down abusive and predatory men in her own special way."
Lichtenstein wrote the film and knows that the subject is unusual but expects it to appeal to the horror crowd. "This plays to the fear of castration in guys, and it certainly will make people uncomfortable," Lichtenstein said. "It has many different genres in it. I play off of the sci-fi movies of the '50s, with the hint of radiation that may have caused this mutation or evolution, depending on how you look at it. It's also a comedy, and there's enough blood and gross-out moments in it to satisfy an avid horror fan."
Teeth comes to theatres in New York and Los Angeles on Jan. 18 and expands further on Jan. 25