Someone knowing my interest in religion and horror recommended Teeth. A comedy horror film based on the concept of vagina dentata—an idea I first encountered in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash—it begins with a purity event. Dawn, a teen leader in the abstinence movement, addresses other adolescents about the importance of maintaining, well, purity. They all wear purity rings and vow themselves to chastity until marriage. As might be expected, not all of them are able to uphold their pledges. Being inexperienced, when Dawn finds herself in a compromised position with her boyfriend she learns she has, um, teeth. Other guys, even when warned, can’t resist an opportunity and they too pay the price. The point of the film seems to be female empowerment, but it’s also pretty funny.
After boyfriend number one has disappeared, Dawn again addresses the purity group only to have them quote Genesis 3 at her, clearly intimating that sin is the fault of women. The Bible is there by implication and the sermonizing of the adult leader after Dawn has to leave the stage again takes up the religious outlook. The underlying concept of purity movements is distinctly Christian. While all religions have something to say about sex, generally the most negative about it is Christianity. That’s not because other religions lack for spirituality, but Christianity tends to denigrate the body, and in the process tends to make natural things sinful. This gives plenty of fuel to a movie like this where a woman has to make her own way in a man’s world.
What’s really interesting here is that no punches are pulled when it comes to the origins of patriarchy. The Bible clearly views males as the standard of humanity and females as an adjunct. That idea has had a death-grip on western society, particularly in America, from the beginning. Teeth was written and directed by a man. I suspect that the presumably well-intentioned use of an old mythical idea that makes females into monsters may not appeal to women writers or directors, empowering as it may be. Nevertheless, if taken with the fun obviously intended from the opening playful music to the comically terrified responses of Dawn’s adolescent victims, the movie can still convey a positive message to women who might watch it. Horror is often a repository of social commentary. Not taken seriously by the mainstream, it nevertheless puts good messages out there. And sometimes it bares its teeth.
