What Is the Story About?
Benny, a college student who makes music in his free time, is given a chauffeuring job for the night by his brother. He picks up two young women who plan to party-hop all night across Los Angeles. Things take a turn however, when Benny finds out that they are vampires. What will they do with Benny now that he knows the truth?
Performances?
Night Teeth have a slew of brilliant up & coming and experienced actors, but their performances are hampered by a really bad screenplay. There are five main roles in the film which are played by Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Debby Ryan, Lucy Fry, Raul Castillo and Alfie Allen. Jorge plays the film lead, Benny, and he is not all that memorable. Sure most of it is the scriptwriter’s fault, since Benny doesn’t act how a normal person would act in particular situations shown in this film, but Jorge himself doesn’t stick to a single personality. Benny is shown as an introverted person in college, but he is very outgoing with his family and friends, even changing up his voice in the presence of his brother and grandmother. Then he becomes a cool, mellow person who sometimes gets nervous. It is like the actor couldn’t decide on his character’s personality (which he didn’t).
Alfie Allen has the smallest amount of screen presence among the lot, but he probably does the most work out of all of them. The actor has bare minimum to work with – but he makes it work in his favour. Same with Raul Castillo. Raul doesn’t have a lot to do onscreen, but he shines whenever he does come on screen, similar to Alfie. Lucy Fry is intimidating, as she is supposed to be – but the actress manages to make her character more than a psychotic killer. Debby Ryan is wasted in this film – she has the most amount of screen time after Jorge and basically exists to act as a love interest for Benny. Her character, Blaire, is forgettable, just like Benny.
Analysis
There is a reason why Vampire films are not a big film genre anymore – and it is not because of the mythological creatures themselves. It is because of very bad writing – and Night Teeth is an excellent example of that. And honestly, Night Teeth? Nobody could come up with a better name? But the name aside, Night Teeth had some real potential. Like the review title suggests, the film was supposed to be a ‘Collateral’ (the film which features Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx) remake with Vampires. But, the characters Benny and Blaire make Night Teeth an impossibility of a film.
Benny, our lead character, is shown as a normal kid who comes from a working class family, trying to make it into the big leagues with his music. While he isn’t confident enough with his music, we can see that he still works on it hard. He is supposedly an introvert, who doesn’t like going to parties or out to drink. And also, he doesn’t leave the two blood-sucking, seemingly insane vampires the first proper chance he gets (note the word proper), because he has a crush on one of them. Now, each person would have a different reaction when they see vampires for the first time – some might want to know more about them, some would probably flee as soon as possible, some might even ask to be turned, if possible. But, we will likely not see someone do what Benny did in the film – tries to escape, gets attracted to one of the girls after she kisses him, saves their lives (twice) even when he know that he will get killed by them at the end of the night and falls in love with Blaire, who apparently returns the feelings for some reason. Blaire, who has been with Zoe ever since she became a vampire (back in the 70s), now wants to leave Zoe for a young man, who she only knows for a few hours. Yeah, that makes sense. Both characters are extremely unrealistic and that makes this movie very unwatchable.
Also, the term Vampire never makes it onto the screen. The screenwriter and director might have thought that would have made the whole setting ridiculous (and rightfully so). But it became ridiculous with the very bad world building from the beginning itself. While the concepts of Night Legion and The Truce sounds cool, they are barely used in the film – and wasted when they do make it on to the screen. We do not even know if Blaire and Zoe are vampires (since the name is not mentioned), how they became “the creatures of the night” and why have a turf war when they can just go to another city? Are other cities occupied like LA? Why not New York? So many questions… we will likely never get any answers now.
Overall, Night Teeth is a film worth skipping. None of the characters are worth remembering, the story is non-existent and the final execution AKA the direction is bad. While the music and cinematography is good, they cannot save this shipwreck film.
Other Artists?
Megan Fox and Sydney Sweeney make a five minute cameo. While they have barely anything to do, their roles are the most believable and make those few minutes count. Sadly, their characters get killed offscreen. Alexander Ludwig also makes an unexpected cameo. While he is mainly there to show off his abs, the actor does put up a decent performance for the three-four minutes he appears onscreen.
Music and Other Departments?
A lot of things have problems, as we mentioned earlier. The screenplay is definitely one of them, and so is the final direction. But the music is good and so is the bare-minimum CGI we get to see on screen. The cinematography isn’t half bad either.
Highlights?
Music, CGI & Cinematography
Drawbacks?
The Screenplay No Proper Backstory or World Building Benny’s Very Unrealistic Reactions
Did I Enjoy It?
Not really.
Will You Recommend It?
Watch if you like films without plots and Vampires. Otherwise skip.
Night Teeth Movie Review by Binged Bureau
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