Analysis Of The Film Teeth

For the past five weeks we have studied gender and psychoanalysis in horror films. Over the duration of our studies, I have learned much more about the abject and how gender in regards to female genitalia is conveyed in some horror films. The object that I decided to write my object analysis about is the film Teeth directed and written by Mitchell Lichtenstein. The film surrounded most of its attention on the protagonist Dawn and the horrors created by her vagina. In the beginning of the film Dawn remains celibate and refrains from anything that will sexually arouse her, including movies and male friends. As the film persists, Dawn eventually is raped by her crush, Tobey, during their sexual encounter Tobey’s penis is suddenly chopped off from

She is conveyed as innocent and free from sex. At school, she is teased for her innocence and refusal to engage in sexual activities. Sex is one of the vital aspects for this film to be horrific. Throughout the film, Dawn has sex with three people; two of them are victims of the “teeth” inside her vagina and get their penises cut off while in the process of having sex with Dawn. Every time one of these sexual encounters happened, a viewer could acknowledge what was being conveyed as abject because of the unfamiliarity of a penis being cut off during sexual intercourse. Sex and death are two things that aide a slasher film such as Teeth. Clover states “Killing those who seek or engage in unauthorized sex amounts to a generic imperative of the slasher film. It is an imperative that crosses gender lines, affecting males as well as females” (200). The two times that Dawn has unauthorized sex throughout the film is when she is raped by her friend and when she has sex with her step-brother. The horror in the film is intensified during these two sexual encounters, establishing sex as one of the key aspects of horror in the

Dawn’s vagina is introduced in the film as monstrous. During the first twenty minutes of the film, there is a scene of Dawn and her step-brother as children in a small pool, during a two minute stare down with Dawn and her step-brother (Brad) puts his finger under the water, and once he raises his hand his finger is flowing with blood from a cut. From here on out her vagina is assumed as the monster in the film. Dawn’s vagina is responsible for two penises being cut off, one finger being cut, and another finger being completely cut off. Even when Dawn isn’t having sex her vagina is still monstrous. In one scene, Dawn is having a physical exam with her gynecologist and once he sticks his finger into her vagina, his finger is suddenly cut off. Creed states ‘The difference of female sexuality as a difference which is grounded in monstrousness and which invokes castration anxiety in the male spectator” (pg 67). Throughout the film, Dawn begins to even feel as if she is a murder because of the deadly acts that her vagina has done. Even before Dawn’s vagina is touched or penetrated her vagina remains to be some sort of monster. During one scene she is having a wet dream that involves her crush (Toby) and suddenly her wet dream is turned to a nightmare and a dragon with huge teeth is conveyed on the screen and