Night Teeth is an American supernatural-thriller film, directed by Adam Randall. The screenplay is written by Brent Dillon. The film will be released on Netflix on October 20, 2021.
Night Teeth Movie Cast
- Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Benny
- Raúl Castillo as Jay Perez
- Debby Ryan as Blaire
- Lucy Fry as Zoe
- Alfie Allen as Victor
- Sydney Sweeney as Eva
- Megan Fox as Grace
- Marlene Forte as Abuela
- Alexander Ludwig as Rocko
Night Teeth Movie Plot
Night Teeth is centred around the nighttime adventure, or rather, misadventure of young Benny. When Benny’s brother Jay Perez sets out to settle some things with one of the supernatural predators in his city, he lets Benny take over his chauffeuring job for the night.
What starts out as just another night soon turns into a messy web of horrific and bloody events- and Benny finds himself in the middle of it all when he realizes he is the chauffeur for two beautiful, deadly vampires. Now Benny must do what he can to make it through the night in one piece, while his feelings for a certain vampire and his concern for his brother further complicate things.
Night Teeth Movie Review
The opening scene, with Debbie Ryan’s voice-over, spares not even a minute in leaving us with eyebrows raised in skepticism as we question the storytelling capacity, or lack thereof, of the movie. The thing about voice-overs describing the settings and circumstances that the movie takes place in, is that they often feel like the preface to a book.
Not that there’s generally anything wrong with that, but the one common criticism that both prefaces and over-explaining voice-overs usually receive is that it often feels like infodumping, which is usually the reflection of lazy writing and an inability to integrate the details as part of the main story.
Speaking of the main story, the overall plot is basic and for the most part, predictable. There are no plot turns you don’t see coming from a mile away. What doesn’t help the case, is that the world-building and the lore in the movie mostly seems, to put it a little nicely, borrowed or inspired. The most obvious inspiration is naturally Twilight.
While the vampires in Night Teeth don’t turn into human disco balls under the sun, and thank goodness for that, Twilight definitely seems to be the inspiration behind the gorgeous-looking, perfectly polished, rich vampires. Of course, this trope has been done to death in other works of fiction as well, but Twilight is often seen as the godfather of the bunch. Aspects like truces and pacts also seem to have the Twilight touch.
Additionally, several other concepts and ideas in the movie are a little too similar to other works of fiction to be written off as a mere coincidence. Some of these works include the Night World series, Vampire Academy series and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Anyone even slightly familiar with these works would spot these similarities almost instantly.
Of course, these similarities wouldn’t be nearly as disappointing and could be shrugged off if the movie had some original concepts thrown into the mix. However, the absence of this desired originality makes the film look like a hotchpotch of every vampire-based fiction to ever exist.
Additionally, the movie also seems to confuse ghouls and vampires, in one scene where a vampire is shown to be consuming human flesh. No effort is made to help make sense of this, so it appears as more of an error than as creative liberty. It’s like looking at unicorns and pegasi and going- ‘Same thing, right?’
The protagonist, Benny, is flat and forgettable. My problem with Benny is synonymous to my problem with the movie- both give you a strong sense of déjà vu. He is introduced as a poor, relatively smart and romantically lonely kid. He dreams to make music for a living and strives to make money in whatever way he can.
All of this characterization, which we’ve only seen a hundred times before, is given to us in the first fifteen minutes or so, and the rest of the movie we spend with Benny the cardboard. His character motivations are confusing, to say the least. He ranges from having no autonomy to being adamant and strong-willed. Jorge Lendeborg Jr. does try to be convincing, but the written material really appears like it hasn’t given him much to work with.
Debbie Ryan’s character Blaire seems out of place in the movie. It’s unclear whether it’s Debbie’s acting or the written material she’s working according to, but the end result just doesn’t work. The performance is more reminiscent of her Disney days. Her character, no matter how cool or badass the outward appearance might be, is eventually the damsel in distress caught in a situation where she didn’t even realise she was captive, until she was rescued.
Blaire’s actions and supposed moral compass are constantly contradictory, and she doesn’t seem the least bothered by that. It could be hinting at Stockholm Syndrome, or it could just be a lack of personality.
Lucy Fry as Zoe and Alfie Allen as Victor did a pretty good job at being charmingly intimidating. They had some pretty great moments in the movie that would genuinely frighten you, even if for a second. Megan Fox’s role seemed like a homage to some of her previous works. While her appearance allowed for some nostalgic cheering, it eventually left me wishing they’d given her some more screen time.
The dialogue definitely does a disservice to the movie. It is bland and tacky, and sometimes made me feel like I was taking a lesson on question tags. The back and forth on occasion is almost laughable. It is also a major contributor in making the romantic build-up look forced. Of course, that and the fact that the two characters involved in said romance had negligible chemistry.
The ending of the movie stays true to the entirety of it, meaning that it is just as predictable as the rest of the movie. However, it is not perfectly tied up in a pretty bow and does leave some loose ends, which is appreciable. The neon lighting throughout the movie lends the movie a more young-adult feel, and the soundtrack attempts something similar.
The Movie Culture Synopsis
While the movie markets itself as a horror-thriller, all its elements are perfect ingredients for a casual, no-brainer, supernatural, young-adult film.
Despite its flaws, it still makes for a fun, casual pick for movie night. Maybe even something one could add to their Halloween movie marathon list. The film will be available to stream on Netflix from 20th of October 2021.
