IT’S not often that a horror movie comes along that grabs the attention for the right reasons. But Mitchell Lichtenstein’s Teeth is one of them – it truly has to be seen to be believed!

The teeth in question don’t belong to vampires or werewolfs, but rather a woman’s vagina! The film follows the fortunes of high school student Dawn (played by Jess Weixler), who works hard at suppressing her budding sexuality by being the most active member of the local chastity group.

Her task is made even more difficult by a string of male admirers and her bad-boy stepbrother’s provocative behaviour at home.

However, previously a stranger to her own body, innocent Dawn makes a shocking discovery about herself. At first terrified and upset, she soon realises she has a formidable defence mechanism to ward off unwanted advances – a set of teeth where you’d least expect…

Needless to say, Teeth was one of the talking points of the Sundance Film Festival when it debuted earlier this year because of its provocative take on a long-known sexual myth.

But Lichtenstein, who wrote and directed, remains unapologetic, insisting that the legend of vagina dentata provided limitless possibilities for his own unique assault on the horror genre. In interviews he conducted around the time of the Sundance festival, he told the first showing website that he learned of the myth while in college, and subsequently researched it to find it also existed in different cultures and different religions.

He explained: “I thought, when you create a female monster, I think that comes from a male fear projected onto women. But if you go back to the original metaphor of a toothed vagina, then you’re automatically, I think, showing that it says only something about men, and their attitude toward women.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with the qualities of women. So I think it’s interesting to go back to that and face that original metaphor. I don’t think you could’ve done that in film until now just because of… I don’t think people would show it.”

Certainly, a film that could easily have become exploitative and tacky won widespread praise from American critics, who bought into its concept and depiction.

The Chicago Sun-Times, for instance, wrote: “Whether you view it as a primordial image from the collective unconscious or a practical warning against promiscuity, vagina dentata makes an indubitably memorable impression – and an ideal premise for a tongue-in-cheek teen horror movie.”

While The San Francisco Chronicle stated: “Extremely funny, very clever and still packs some cover-your-face bloody thrills that top any Saw or Hostel movie.”

The New York Times opined: “Teenage horror-movie spoof, John Waters parody, No Nukes protest movie: Mitchell Lichtenstein’s clever, crude comedy, Teeth is all these and more.”

And Entertainment Weekly added: “Writer-director Mitchell Lichtenstein is onto something really fresh in his feature debut, flipping a graphic warning for men into an empowering fable for women.

“The final word, however, goes to the Hollywood Reporter, which concluded: “Teeth is a solid first effort that makes you extremely curious about the filmmaker’s next project.”

Teeth opens in UK cinemas on June 20. Watch the trailer

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